Ophthalmology Patient Portal and Online Communication Editorial

Gone, but not forgotten...

Is your practice still using the Yellow pages for advertising and marketing? Although it is not currently a best practice for driving patient adoption and utilizing online patient communication, it definitely fulfilled a great role for many years. The yellow pages of yesterday was a tool that everyone embraced. If you couldn’t find it in the yellow pages, it was listed in the white pages. Habits are hard to change, but…one of the fastest growing groups of internet users is age 70+; (Pew Research) proving that practices do indeed change. If the patient is not using all the conveniences of the internet, we suspect their children are doing it for them.

Moving Beyond Yellow

Many marketers have moved beyond yellow pages to mailers, word of mouth, handouts, email marketing, and some are even engaged in 

 Terri Blattenbauer
 Implementation
 Consultant

Search Engine Marketing and QR (Quick Response) Codes. If you’re not in some way using the internet to drive patients to your website… you are losing big! Not only are your websites becoming a major piece of relevant information for your patients, it is now a “destination” for them. If your website is properly optimized, then your link should show up in the top 3 searches. From there, prospective patients will click your practice’s link that takes them to your site – voila! Now, you will want to have an efficient, non-cluttered, website waiting for them. Ideally, they find the information they are looking for, AND they can schedule an appointment, register or even order contacts while they are there! Having an effective website with all the right funnels and clear messaging is key to attaining and retaining patients.

Back to School - Back to Best Practices

Coming into a new season of back to school, and Fall, it might be time to reevaluate the tools you are using to lead your patients to the 24/7 convenience you provide through your patient portal.

Sophrona’s Best Practices for Patient Adoption are a good place to start. This is a list of proven tactics that work in practices across the country. Although each practice is different, the basics are the same. Here’s a top 10 list of considerations for you to drive patient adoption:

1. Have an effective/efficient website with clear messaging and easy funneling. You will lose patients after 3 clicks. Have a prominent link to the portal. Let us know if you’d like to review with one of our Online Marketing Specialists.
2. Coach your staff team on how to effectively articulate to your patients the online options available to them.
3. Create a social media presence. Videos on YouTube, Facebook and Yelp are most popular for Ophthalmology practices currently. They are search friendly and it’s a great way to interact with your followers.
4. Increase the size of your website address on all printed materials and decrease the size of your phone number. After all, that’s where you want them, right?
5. Place messages on your billing statement informing patients of your online 24/7 convenience.
6. Have your on hold and after hours messaging reflect the opportunity to request an appointment, pay their bill, or re-order contacts online. This will alleviate phone congestion and on hold times.
7. If you don’t currently use email invitations or welcome to the practice emails, you may want to consider, as it is an easy way to get patients to the portal from an email they receive from a trusted source.
8. In an effort to keep patient health information private, use a printed card to invite patients to use secure messaging (if you have this functionality available). This lets them know that you value their privacy just as much as they do.
9. Post signage in your facility. This will create an element of recognition that these options are available next time they visit.
10. Inform referring physicians that patients have online options that are easy, convenient, and secure.

So things have changed since the death of the Yellow pages… With over 77% of adults as internet users (Pew Research) nationwide, the focus should be moving forward with proven methods, not relying on old approaches from the past.

Email us to request a current list of Best Practices for Patient Adoption or schedule a review with one of our Implementation Consultants.