Category: Client Support

Dr. S. Randolph Waldman, a dual board certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon based in Lexington and founder of the Waldman Schantz Plastic Surgery Center, brings over 30 years of unsurpassed expertise and experience to those seeking to refine or restore their natural beauty, with particular emphasis on the eyes, nose and face. In addition to providing exceptional patient care, Dr. Waldman is one of the foremost educators in his field globally, helping doctors and their practices worldwide improve their surgical abilities, patient care and practice management.

First and foremost, Dr. Waldman measures the success of his aesthetic practice by its ability to retain patients long-term, which translates into building relationships of trust with patients, providing not only cosmetic procedures of the highest quality but also an environment where his patients can feel relaxed and completely comfortable with him, his staff and the procedure. In his view, a surgeon can improve the performance of their practice in many ways.

For example, Dr. Waldman ensures he selects staff in his own practice who are not only extremely personable, as Dr. Waldman is, but who also strongly value patient education, since his practice places a keen emphasis on ensuring his patients understand every aspect of the procedures they will be having. This emphasis sets Dr. Waldman’s practice apart from others in the cosmetic medicine field, and it ensures his patients feel confident about their choice in procedures and at ease throughout the process.

Dr. Waldman’s focus on education extends far beyond his practice, however he remains active in the aesthetic medicine community as an author, editor and innovator, frequently publishing on topics of particular interest, including otolaryngology and facial plastic surgery. In addition, the doctor fulfills speaking engagements worldwide on topics on which he has significant expertise such as blepharoplasty, rhinoplasty, liposuction of the neck and injectables. Yet practice management remains a key concern for Dr. Waldman.

Raised in Kentucky, Dr. Waldman has chaired, organized or lead over 45 medical conferences globally, including the Vegas Cosmetic Surgery conference, now in its 14th year. The conference, the first of its kind to include the four core specialties, remains the leading conference of its kind nationally. However, while primarily focused on surgical education one critical and popular conference track focuses on helping practices as a whole provide their patients with exceptional care in every aspect of their visit, an area of cosmetic medicine very important to Dr. Waldman.

Effective practice management can positively affect the entire patient experience, bringing together excellent surgical care and practice support of the highest quality to educate and serve the patient, helping them achieve the look they want and the lifelong confidence that comes when they can reveal their natural beauty, Dr. Waldman believes. Tools which support an efficient practice workflow can significantly enhance the patient experience by allowing surgeons and their staff to spend more time with their patients rather than on administrative tasks.

Dr. Waldman has selected PatientNOW as the workflow management tool to help drive the success of his own practice and achieve an outcome where he, his practice and, most importantly, his patients win, and his experience has been an overwhelmingly positive one. Of PatientNOW, Dr. Waldman says:

“Not only is patientNOW critical to the efficiency and functioning of our practice — it’s also become a winning contributor in driving recurring revenue, increasing patient engagement and growing our loyal fans. We wouldn’t be in the place we are today without it.”

Whether people are on the hunt for a plumber or a plastic surgeon, Yelp is often a tool they use to find a professional in their area. This means that positive reviews about your practice on Yelp can build your patient base, while negative reviews may hurt your growth and revenue. Is Yelp a friend or foe of your practice? The answer to that question may depend on how well you use the website to your advantage.

Benefits of Yelp

There are a number of potential benefits Yelp can offer to your practice:

Traffic

According to Yelp, the website had more than 162 million visitors in the last month of 2016. More than 121 million reviews were posted during that same month. Around six percent of those reviews were related to the health field. That adds up to the potential for significant exposure for your practice and if your reviews are positive, many possible hits for your website.

Ease of Use

Yelp is a very easy platform to use, whether you are searching for reviews or posting one. You can encourage your patients to post positive reviews about you and your practice knowing they will be able to make their entry quickly and stress-free.

Additional Website Hits

As prospective patients read your reviews, Yelp makes it easy for them to contact your practice directly as well. All of your information will be listed, including the address for your website, your physical address and phone number, even your operating hours.

Prospective Patients Ready to Proceed

In most cases, customers and patients head to review sites like Yelp when they have already made their decision about a purchase. The advantage here is that the patients that are finding your practice are ready to move forward with a procedure, giving you the highest quality of prospects for the greatest number of conversions.

Drawbacks to Yelp

While there are plenty of advantages to gain, there are also a few drawbacks to be aware of as well:

The Algorithm Dilemma

Probably the biggest drawback to Yelp is the algorithm the website uses to filter reviews. This tool may knock out some of your positive reviews, which in turn could affect your star rating. This requires you to keep a watchful eye on your reviews to ensure any changes to your rating can be addressed promptly. Keep in mind, the reviews are still there, but you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and know where to click to find them.

No Control over Reviews

While you can monitor the reviews you receive on Yelp, you can’t do anything to change them. If a negative review crops up, it is up to you to address the information in a way that shows publically you are committed to making things right for unhappy patients. However, you cannot remove that review or change the fact that the negative review is impacting your star rating.

Making Yelp Work for You

While there are both pros and cons to Yelp, one thing is certain: Yelp is an online force, at least for now. You can use this to your advantage by encouraging your patients to post positive reviews about your practice and monitoring your review history regularly. In addition to managing your online reputation, these reviews can also let you know if there are aspects of your office that can be changed to improve your patient experience.

You can also employ the right software to enhance patient engagement and the patient experience within your practice to increase your number of positive reviews on Yelp and other websites. PatientNOW offers software designed by plastic surgeons for plastic surgeons, so you can rest assured the tools included will fit your practice perfectly. To learn more about our products, contact PatientNOW today at 800-436-3150.

It has likely been quite the process converting your office to the digital age. However, your efforts cannot stop with the automation – you also need to consider how you will best serve your patients with your new system in place. While the way we do any type of business has evolved considerably, the needs and expectations of our patients and our customers are distinctly the same. It is up to you to ensure your patients feel the same level of care and service from your office, even with the automation in place, to make your operation more efficient and convenient.

Improving Your Patient Experience

While an automated office offers considerable benefit to you and your staff, it can be used to improve the experience of your patients as well. The key is knowing how to adapt those tools in a service-oriented fashion. There are a few key benefits you will see as a result of this process:

You Can Be More Responsive

Automation through a variety of channels can allow you to respond to your patients much more efficiently. Customers no longer want to do business over the phone. They want to be able to access your practice through a variety of channels and they expect the response to be much faster. In fact, according to the consulting company Accenture, more than 80 percent of today’s consumers want to work with companies that make doing business easier. With today’s technology, you can accommodate all of your patients with the access to your practice they are seeking.

You Can Really Hear Them

It can be a challenge to get the feedback from customers you need to know what they really want. In fact, only three percent of customers believe that companies really hear their needs and requests. The right software makes it easy to record patient responses to your services and react to your patients’ messages. Those tools can make all the difference in your own patient management and promotion of your practice.

You Can Expand Their Options

Patients want a variety of ways to communicate with your practice today, and the digital age can really help in this regard. Few patients want to restrict their contact to phone calls when there are many more convenient ways to get in touch with you. It is your responsibility to provide those more convenient options to attract new patients and retain current ones. In addition to your standard website options, give your patients a feedback form that is easy to complete or submit. Access to social media channels is another way to make communication easier and more convenient for your patients.

You Can Offer What The Competition Can’t

It may seem like these offerings are fairly standard today, but not every plastic surgery or dermatology practice is offering them at this time. By getting your practice up to par, you may be the name that stands apart to your patients as the practice that is both accessible and up to date. This small effort can make a big difference in the perception of prospective patients, as well as your ability to engage with our patients directly on a different level than your competitors.

When it comes to automating your office with the patient experience in mind, the products offered by PatientNOW cannot be beat. We provide patient engagement at every step of the process, with the tools you need to keep your patients in the loop for all of your new developments. To learn more about our software tools, contact PatientNOW today at 888-644-2987.

I have had the pleasure of interacting and getting to know aesthetic medical practices throughout the country when I’ve trained physicians and staff in the use of EMR, practice management, and patient engagement software. Over the years, I’ve noticed that one of the greatest challenges a plastic surgery practice faces is the retention of great employees. In my travels, I’ve been fortunate to observe employee best practices throughout the U.S. Now I’d like to share my observations with you.

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