Levulan® Kerastick®

(aminolevulinic acid HCl) for Topical Solution, 20%

Home » For Healthcare Professionals » Levulan® Kerastick® » Promoting Your Practice » Practice Promotion Helpful Hints

Practice Promotion Helpful Hints

Promoting your practice from the inside

When patients assess your practice, not only do they consider the quality of care you provide, the treatment they receive and the results they experience, but they also consider the quality of the non-clinical services you provide. Here are some hints to help you improve some of those non-clinical services:

Female Doctor on Phone

Scheduling

Respect your patients' time. Timely scheduling is a key factor in retaining patients and gaining referrals.

Schedule patients in groups according to their office visit needs. For example, scheduling patients by condition or procedure can make it easier to anticipate how much time on average patients in a particular group will need.

Create a "Schedule Check" plan. For example, if the waiting time in your practice tends to be long, offer your patients with special scheduling needs (eg. professionals with limited free time) an option to call the office on the morning of their appointment to get an update on the physician's schedule. You can then adjust their appointment to minimize their waiting time.

Staff training

Phone protocol: A first impression is a lasting impression. Staff should be trained to answer the phone promptly and pleasantly. Script the phone call for your staff to remind them of the emphasis the practice places on the patient's care. The staff should be reminded to always ask how they can help the caller.

Staff and physicians should be reading from the same script. Patients will often ask office staff their opinion on a drug or procedure. It is important that everyone is giving out the same information to the patients.

Patient education

Provide your patients information on their condition. Patients rely on their healthcare provider as their primary source of information for their condition. As a result, it is important to not only provide this information in the office but to also guide patients to other credible informational sources (eg websites). Information can be offered through:

  • Waiting room brochures
  • Tear off sheets
  • In-office evening seminars
  • Practice website

Accessibility

It is important for patients to know that they can reach their physicians when they need to. Make it easy for patients to access you. Develop an "Easy Access Plan":

  • During office hours: Set aside a particular amount of time during the day to return patient phone calls and let patients know the daily "return call schedule".
  • After office hours: Offer patients a tiered approach to reaching you based on medical necessity. For example: 
    • Answering service---provide coverage times and average amount of time it takes to access you
    • Email---provide patients with your email address and let them know the frequency with which you check emails
    • Home phone number----offer patients a home phone number where they can reach you directly during certain hours

Follow-up

Care and concern for the patients you are treating is very important for their general comfort and positive experience with your practice.

  • Assign responsibility to a staff member to call patients at a designated time post-treatment or following a stressful visit to see how they are.
  • Send follow-up postcards to:
    • Inform patients of new therapeutic approaches for their condition
    • Remind patients of their scheduled visits
    • Encourage patients to schedule preventive examinations*
    • Thank new patients
    • Thank existing patients who have referred new patients

Promoting your practice to the outside

Building a leadership image requires letting your patients know that you are on the cutting edge. This means informing them that you are staying up to date on the latest products, procedures and research. What follows are some hints to help you build your image by marketing to your patients and your peers.

Marketing to patients

Patients who think highly of you and your medical expertise will not only be happy to know that you continuously strive to maintain leadership in your field, but they'll also be happy to hear that your peers have recognized your accomplishments. Some of the ways you can reach your patients with this information is through your website and patient communications such as a newsletter or e-newsletter, and if warranted, a specific letter, e-mail, newspaper ad or community information board at appropriate venues. Be sure to update your website with prominent announcements of your recent accomplishments or new services and procedures you will be providing. Patients like to know if you:

  • are first in your area to offer a therapy or procedure*
  • authored a paper that has been received for publication
  • are presenting at a national or regional symposium
  • have been invited to speak at a local conference
  • participated in a pivotal trial for a new indication or new therapy
  • have been quoted in an article, either medical literature or lay press
  • had the honor of being ranked (eg Top 10 Physicians in a field, region, etc)
  • are attending medical meetings
  • received society honors, recognition or awards
  • have been interviewed by the media
  • have been acknowledged for community support
  • reached an important milestone
  • improved existing services or procedures such as:
    • updates to your equipment
    • offering educational in-office programs

Marketing to peers

Developing good relationships with your peers is important because referrals can significantly enhance a practice. There are many different ways to develop relationships with local physicians.

  • Include material on your website that can benefit your peers
  • Provide periodic summaries of interesting cases
  • Offer observations on therapies and procedures
  • Describe successful practice management processes
  • Create a physician to physician web consulting service
  • Set up a chat location for medical dialogue with your peers
  • Attend local educational seminars to support your colleagues
  • Support your local medical society or medical organization

Monitor your marketing efforts

In order to determine how successful your marketing strategies are, it is important to monitor and track the results of your marketing efforts. For the continued growth of your practice, you should try to determine which tactic most successfully attracts new patients. Direct your office staff to ask or include a question on your new patient registration form that specifically asks the new patient what motivated them to come to your practice. Was it:

  • Patient referral
  • Physician referral
  • Media vehicles
    • Ad
    • Website
    • In-office educational seminars
    • Other

Be flexible and embrace change if your marketing efforts aren't working. You must evaluate how successful your efforts are on a continuous basis. If you are not achieving your goals, it is important to recognize this early on and redirect your efforts to more effective, productive strategies.

* Please see examples of postcards available in the Practice Promotion Tools section of our website.

WEB 1454 Rev B