For specialty providers, the odds of needing to actually treat patients with COVID-19 are incredibly low. However, there are still certain actions that specialty providers should be taking to minimize the risk of exposure for staff, patients and themselves.

Patient communication is one of the most important metrics that modern practices can examine to understand patient satisfaction. That’s because the patient experience is deeply tied to how easy and convenient it is to communicate with your practice. 96% of patient complaints are related to poor service, with only 4% actually related to quality care. The number one driver of these poor service complaints is poor communication. That can mean anything from cumbersome phone trees, long wait times on the phone, unanswered emails, or constantly forgotten portal passwords.

When aiming to boost and sustain patient traffic into a plastic surgery practice, the need for a strong marketing strategy is an important trend to embrace. Without a defined approach to promoting a practice, an organization can flounder, offering last-minute sales and discounts that can miss the mark. It can also under-communicate how the practice values patients and wants to partner with them to enhance their health and appearance. Here are three essential elements in an effective marketing effort:

Attracting and retaining patients is a constant priority for physicians, and plastic surgeons are no exception. Without a focused strategy for drawing patients into a practice, organizations can experience slow periods, retention problems and a lack of repeat business that can all impact revenue flow. How does this affect you?

As patients become more active healthcare consumers, they want to have stronger engagement with their providers, including more direct interaction outside of the yearly check-in. Recent research backs up this idea, revealing that survey respondents of all generations are seeking greater connectivity with healthcare practices, including convenient communications via text and online tools. More specifically, 73 percent of patients want to be able to text their doctor’s office, while nearly 80 percent would like to receive text messages from their doctor, especially about appointments.

In today's consumer-driven healthcare marketplace, specialty practices must do more than just treat patients. By promoting practice expertise in the community, setting yourself apart from competitors and clearly articulating how well you meet customer needs, you can create a marketing strategy that allows your practice to reach new heights.

Healthcare organizations want engaged patients but aren’t always clear on what an engaged patient acts or sounds like. For those that have a solid grasp on what patient engagement is, a clear pathway to achieving patient engagement can still prove challenging. They find themselves asking, “is it technology driven, people driven, or process driven?” It’s really all three.

When specialty practices expand their operations, they often run into challenges as they work to capture market share, bring in new physicians and increase revenue. The most successful organizations do some upfront planning as part of their expansion strategies to anticipate and address possible hiccups. Here are three tactics to keep in mind during planning to sidestep common growing pains.