9 Things Your Patients Wish You Knew About Them

9 Things Your Patients Wish You Knew About Them

As we have mentioned before in previous blogs, and as you may have already experienced yourself, the world of healthcare is changing. As a healthcare practitioner, you may have already seen and been feeling the effects of this.

Whether it impacts your bottom line, the in-office patient experience, patient retention or online reviews, knowing what your patient wants, needs and feels is imperative in the healthcare field today. It has a bigger impact on the success or failure of your office, more now than ever.

Why?

Today’s patient is different than yesteryear’s and this new breed of patient will continue to evolve in coming years. So, what do you need to know about patients today?

Here are 9 things patients wish you knew about them.

We want to know you care. We are people with emotions and families before we are patients.

We want to be involved in our healthcare decisions. We are the ones that feel the symptoms and also have read up on a few things. For those reasons, we want to be our own best advocates.

We want choices and options. Please share all of our options with us, even if we have to seek treatment elsewhere because the best option for us isn’t available from you.

Healthcare costs a lot, so we expect a lot. We may be coming to you scared, nervous or sad, so anything you can do to help enhance our experiences in your office goes a long way.

We have more resources available to us now than ever before. While we may not know what you know, we do know a few things about our condition and how we are suffering.

We are cautious, it’s not “do as I say anymore”. Please take what we do know into account and talk with us, not at us. Please don’t negate what we do know about our conditions. If we feel condescended to, we will go elsewhere.

A wonderful doctor is hard to find. If we find you, we will keep you. We want you to know that if you do most or all of these things, you have our loyalty and referrals.

If we have a good experience, we will tell everyone. Friends and family are always asking for good doctor referrals. If we feel you are one, we will tell everyone.

If we have a bad experience, we will tell everyone too. Online review sites, such as Healthgrades, are everywhere for patients to share their experience, so what happens in the office doesn’t stay in the office.

From a patient’s perspective, experience, respect and understanding will go a long way. Keeping these 9 things patients wish you knew in mind will help your practice grow and flourish for many years to come. For help with monitoring online reviews and the patient experience, contact us for a strategy session today.