How to create, publish, share and grow your patient base with your best patient stories
Patient stories are one of the most underrated marketing tools for health professionals.
It is the ultimate opportunity to create a relatable experience for potential patients. Patient stories are sometimes also called case studies or success stories; however, do not confuse them with testimonials. Testimonials are quotes consisting of a few sentences by consumers about a product or service.
Patient stories are much deeper. It’s more about their journey. They provide background information about the patient’s problem and the solutions that helped them overcome their challenges.
Start with consent
To get started with running a successful patient stories program, you must have a participant consent and release form (or some type of similar waiver) signed by the patient. I would recommend contacting your attorney to obtain one. It’s literally a simple, one-page (sometimes even one-paragraph) document giving you permission to share their story, pictures, etc.
Now that we have the legal stuff out of the way, here is a step-by-step process to create and share patient stories.
Create an online form
Let’s make it easy for your patients to participate and share their information. Create an online form that can be filled out at their convenience. You will want to keep it short and simple.
Here is a sample template to help inspire your own:
Share Your Story to Help Others
Thank you for your willingness to share your story about your wellness journey. Please fill out the following form. The more details the better. Our team will review the information and create a draft patient story. We will share with you for final approval before we share online.
- First Name (Please provide full name for internal use. For external use, only your first name and last initial will be shared. Example: Jay R.)
- Email (for internal use, will not be shared)
- Phone (for internal use, will not be shared)
- Short Bio
- Example: Father of four, husband, business owner. Love the outdoors, hiking and camping.
- Brief Description of Problem Before Treatment
- Example: I strained my back picking up a couch. My lower back was extremely tight and painful. Could barely get out of bed each morning.
- Images
- Headshot of patient or picture of them doing their favorite activities.
- Quote
- This could be a quote about the doctor or practice. Or it could be something inspirational.
- Example: “Dr B. was attentive and caring. I felt like he treated me like family. I am grateful to get back my quality of life after dealing with my issues for so long.”
- Comments (provide any other comments or thoughts that might be useful to the story)
Alternatively, you could create a series of questions that are more conversational and schedule a call with the patient. Whatever works best for you and your practice.
Write the story
Take the information provided by the patient and combine it with knowledge about the patient’s treatment to draft an initial patient story. You can execute this step in a couple of ways depending on your staff.
If you have a member of your team who is capable of writing, let them handle the entire process, allocating a dedicated four hours a week (or whatever is needed). If no one can write, hire a freelance writer (find on Upwork.com or Scripted.com) and have a staff member manage the process. Make sure to provide additional information not provided by the patient that would be useful to the story. Either way, it will pay dividends in the end.
Some details to consider:
- Share specific or specialized treatments that were used. This is an opportunity to showcase expertise and innovative technologies. If you explain these in more detail on your site, you can link back to those pages from the patient story.
- The length and frequency of treatment. Example: Jane had two one-hour sessions per week over the course of eight weeks. She also performed exercises on her own at home.
- Outcomes and results. Did their pain decrease? Are they back to normal activities? Are they doing things they could not do previously?
I would suggest making the “tone” of the patient story more personal/human feeling and less robotic/academic.
The writer should also draft posts for social media. Make sure to customize accordingly based upon the text requirements and limitations for each platform. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram will be your top options.
Review and edit
Share the draft patient story with the patient to make sure there are not any misrepresentations. It is also a good idea for multiple people on the staff to read it as well. All feedback is welcomed and insightful. Edit and tweak accordingly.
Graphic assets
You will want to create template graphics that can be customized for each patient story. For instance, if your patient story page is going to have a header graphic with a picture of the patient that includes their first name and last initial. You also could include their issue (Example: Jay R. — sciatica).
The same would apply to graphics to be used for social media posts. Create templates that fit the size requirements of each platform. Make sure to include your practice logo for branding in case the graphic is shared outside of your social media profile. One of the social media graphics could make use of the patient’s quote as well. Get creative and have fun with it.
Publish and share
- Post the patient story on your practice website or blog.
- I would also recommend adding a patient story block to your home page, maybe showing the most recent one or two. As you continue to add, it will frequently update the home page and send signals to the search engines that you are keeping your content fresh, which helps to increase page rank.
- Share the patient story link and related content (text and graphics) on all your social media.
- Email the story link to your patient so they can share it with their friends and family.
Patient stories: make them relatable
At the end of the day, you want whoever reads the patient’s story to be able to relate to the journey and challenges faced. You want them to imagine themselves in that patient’s shoes. And most importantly, you want them to feel like you are the right health care partner to help them too.
I would aim to create and post 2-4 patient stories per month. Content is king. The more you share, the more opportunities to connect with potential new patients. Give the process some time as well. Don’t just do a couple of patient stories and give up. It will be worth it and provide ongoing value to your practice.
And lastly, remember to always be respectful of the patient and never share any personally identifiable information.
JAY RESIO, a Pittsburgh-based marketing and technology entrepreneur, founded SpineNation (digital health for back, neck and spine) due to his back-pain journey. He had two degenerative discs, which led to herniating the same disc (L4-5) four times over five years, resulting in five surgeries in six years, with two of them artificial disc replacements (L3-4, L4-5). Learn more about the Spine Nation community at spinenation.com.