With the recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and a push for social distancing, many businesses are closing, leaving some wondering what to do next. As a physician, you’ve probably had to temporarily close your practice to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The physician-patient dynamic has undoubtedly shifted in the face of a global healthcare emergency, so now we must reevaluate what it means to treat patients during this pandemic.
Despite fewer possibilities for face-to-face care, physicians are granted an opportunity to optimize their care strategies and business practices. COVID-19 is giving some physicians a valuable resource they rarely had before: time. What you choose to focus on during these pivotal weeks may provide critical momentum for your practice. Rather than stress about the lack of patients walking through the door, focus on these more essential aspects of your business that you can control.
Optimizing Your Business Practice
Healthcare is a quickly changing business with new technology systems released and assessed quarter after quarter. How long has it been since you reevaluated your patient approach? How long have you been doing things exactly the same way? If you think things can run smoother, now is the time to implement that change.
Planning is an essential part of change. Begin by identifying the problematic process that you want to streamline in your practice. Maybe you want to increase the amount of patients you see in a day or cut down on wasted resources. Analyze and define the purpose and goals of any new processes. Elicit the help of a business partner or marketing team, such as the expert consultants at LEVO Health, to help implement and monitor the change you desire.
Your community won’t be in quarantine forever, and when your practice reopens, you will amaze your patients and staff with perfected processes and optimized systems.
Improving Patient Engagement
More than anything, your patients want to feel safe and secure during a time of global uncertainty. How you transmit information on the COVID-19 outbreak to your patients will make all the difference in their engagement. It is crucial during this time to keep your patients updated regularly on the facts of the pandemic without instilling unnecessary fear.
Your patients want to know how you are handling the outbreak, whether you will remain open, and what services you will be providing to keep your community healthy. Now is not the time to relax and diminish your efforts for continued excellence. Keeping your patients engaged in their health and your practice requires you to have an active online presence and remain openly available.
Implementing Telemedicine
The demand for telemedicine is higher than ever. Telemedicine was already a rapidly growing business, but in the face of COVID-19, patients are looking to it now more than ever. If you ever considered expanding your practice to include telehealth services, now is the time to do so.
Implementing telehealth now ensures two things: 1) you can continue to treat patients from the social distance of your home while securing profits for your practice, and 2) you’re prepared for the future, which is favoring telemedicine regardless.
Starting a telemedicine service for your practice in the face of a global pandemic can seem overwhelming, but the payoff is well worth it. By implementing this service now, you will already be familiar with the necessary processes to streamline this service later. If you need assistance launching a telehealth platform, LEVO Health’s Telemedicine Activation team is here to help.
Allow LEVO Health’s team of specialists to set your practice up for success. Call us today at (855) 234-0232 or email [email protected] for more information.
