A patient’s journey often starts before they recognize the need for specialized care. A routine checkup or urgent care visit may lead to a referral to a specialist like a nephrologist, who focuses on kidney disorders. Statistics show that “77% of patients… [use] search engines” to find healthcare providers. This means there’s a high probability that potential patients, their families, or caregivers are researching you and your practice online.
Establishing a positive online reputation and providing educational information are crucial for attracting patients during their healthcare journey. Understanding the reasons behind patients’ choices is essential for both the patient’s well-being and the success of your practice. success of your practice.
What are the stages of the patient journey?
- Stage 1: Awareness – The patient is aware of their condition via confirmed symptoms and acknowledges the need for care. The research process begins at this stage with “Dr. Google” and the patient, loved ones, or caregivers looking for more information on the patient’s illness or disease.
- Stage 2: Consideration – Patient’s, loved ones, or caregivers will analyze all options, and choose a healthcare provider that fits their healthcare needs. Your website, the information it provides and reviews will play a large factor into whether or not your practice will be the “right fit.”
- Stage 3: Acquisition – Patient decides that your facility fits their healthcare requirements and schedule a consultation via phone call or an online portal from your website. Acquisition = conversions. How many will look at your website and choose your practice?
- Stage 4: Care delivered – Healthcare services are rendered to your patients in this stage. Evaluation of customer satisfaction in your services will be conducted in this step of the process. You want your healthcare team to excel in this stage, because it leads to a positive reputation online in the form of reviews and feedback on your webpage. .
- Stage 5: Ongoing Care and Patient Loyalty – Patient retention is less resource intensive than pursuing new patients. Healthcare providers should focus on fostering loyal patient relationships by maintaining excellent communication and keeping patients’ satisfaction with services rendered high. Maintaining your online reputation will also prove to add dividends to your overall customer profile success.
What is Patient Journey Mapping, and How Can It Help Grow Your Practice?
Today’s healthcare has switched towards a patient-centric and value-based care approach. Patient journey mapping leverages patient experiences and health outcomes to improve and better understand how patients interact with healthcare systems on their health journey. The patient journey map collects data on the various points in the patient journey, when analyzed, strategic outreach can be developed, which will lead to quality improvement in patient satisfaction and engagement.
Benefits of patient journey mapping include but are not limited to: providing more flexible care options, improve patient-physician communications, and access and evolve your services.
Steps to Map the Patients Journey
- Step 1: Establish Patient Personas – Find out who your patients are by using data collection systems, surveys and in person questioning to optimize patient experiences. Personas can be segmented then targeted appropriately based on their unique needs. A persona could consist of patients with Kidney Disease, another persona could include patients with metabolic disorders and a third persona could consist of advocates for patients such as a loved one or caregiver.
- Step 2: Track and Monitor Patient Activity – Omnichannel listening gives you the opportunity to understand your patient’s perspective and behavior when engaging with your practice. This will assist with the zero moment of truth, which is the moment where patients begin to research their conditions, symptoms and providers before ever booking an appointment. Every time a patient interacts with your online brand, it is an opportunity to provide a positive health experience within these moments of truth. Moments of truth are high-leverage situations for your practice, integrating marketing tools such as reputation optimization, your practice can outshine others as the go to practice. Whether it is from other doctors referring you, review sites such as yelp and google, or simply leading the pecking order of search engine results, how you market your practice will affect all of these areas..
- Step 3: Develop integrated Patient Units – Synchronize all departments to collaborate and create a complete patient map. A healthcare CRM system is imperative in this undertaking unifying data and providing all teams with access to care records for a thorough, coordinated, and integrated system. Patient communications can be leveraged via your website, email, and social media apps, which in turn can nurture a patient’s journey beyond the scope of an “office visit.”
In today’s patient-centric healthcare landscape, customer engagement is paramount for optimizing the patient experience. Mapping your patients’ journeys not only fosters engagement but also transforms their healthcare experience into a personalized and responsive one. Enhance your understanding of patient journeys and marketing strategies for exceptional patient experiences by scheduling a complimentary 30-minute consultation today. Our team of experts is prepared to elevate your online presence and drive patient satisfaction.