Issue 2 - January 2003

Team Tips by Susan Hoy
Don’t disconnect with patients - Update their information

Disconnected telephone numbers are lost opportunities to stay in touch with your patients. The start of the new year – even if it’s already a few weeks old – is the best time to update records and make sure you are in compliance with HIPAA patient privacy guidelines, including consent and authorization forms. Getting those forms signed now will allow you to continue doing business as usual.

Many of your patients have new jobs, new addresses, new e-mail accounts, new primary-care physicians and – most importantly – new insurance! You’ll put this updated information to use in many different ways.

•Date of birth. Making sure you have the correct date of birth in your computer so that you can begin sending personalized birthday cards to your patients. Be sure that you sign the card yourself and personally address the envelope. That little touch makes a big difference!

•Employment address. While you’re at it, get the patient’s employment address in case you ever need to send something to the workplace. If you use a computerized database, by having a job address you can easily find out how many patients you have in a particular company. Your patients may be able to help you approach the human resource department with regard to presenting health workshops.

•Insurance coverage. Next, you must re-verify insurance coverage. Patients change insurance coverage annually. If you don’t want to get caught up in a collections problem and unpleasant surprises, make sure you have the correct information for every patient.

•Primary-care physician. Ask each patient for an update on their primary-care physician. Once you have that information, write updates and progress reports and send them to the PCP – with the patient’s permission. Consider sending a quarterly primary-physician newsletter. Take the time now to prepare a PCP referral packet.

•E-mail. Make sure you maintain e-mail addresses on file. E-mailing is an inexpensive way to keep your name in front of your patients. Caution: Don’t overdo e-mailing. Patients will ignore your messages if they are sent too often.

Send e-mails to announce upcoming special events, inform patients about related health information, remind maintenance patients about appointments and keep them up-to-date on news about your clinic.

The first rule of marketing is keeping your name in front of the people you are targeting. Becoming systemized in your approach to marketing will help your practice grow and will simplify the process. Begin the year with a plan and stay consistent!

Taking the time now to begin to get organized will help you and your team prepare for all the patients you will be attracting by being an organized group of professionals who are striving to make a difference.

Susan Hoy is a chiropractic team trainer and consultant.