Ultimately, the success of your orthopaedic clinic depends on the number of patients who walk into your office. Their overall satisfaction level will affect whether they come back, refer you to family and friends, and how they talk about you online.

With this in mind, these are seven of the best practices to improve patient satisfaction at your orthopaedic practice.

1. Be Easy to Find Online

The healthcare industry is increasingly pushing their physician information, advertising, and booking features online. Here’s where (and why) you should build an online presence.

Online Review Platforms

In a recent survey of 990 patients, 71% reported using online reviews as the very first step in finding a new doctor. In the same study, 66% of patients surveyed believe it is “very” or “moderately” important for physicians to respond publicly to reviews.

Additionally, people looking for physical therapists are the most likely to call a provider after conducting an online search. That’s why it’s crucial to list your practice and monitor reviews on:

Not only is it free to list on these review platforms but it can also provide patients peace of mind and an understanding of what to expect. 

Your Own Website

You might be able to get away with not having a website if you have many glowing reviews, or you are listed on a large hospital ecosystem’s specialty pages. But the reality is, you should have a dedicated location where patients can access all the information they need about your practice. After all, your website is often someone’s first impression of you and your practice. 

Consider including positive patient testimonials on your web pages, easy contact information, bios of your team, and what areas you specialize in. 

Social Media

Social media can provide a direct line from you to potential patients. You should consider updating accounts like Facebook and Instagram a few times per week. These could be educational posts about back health, injury prevention tips, the importance of stretching, etc. You may also post pictures of your staff and behind the scenes images to make patients feel more at ease. 

Social media should have its own strategy, with a dedicated person responsible for managing each site. This ensures consistency and increases your chances of reaching the right people.

2. Connect Before The Appointment

There are three things patients usually want before an appointment:

  1. A reminder about the appointment
  2. An idea of what they can expect going into the appointment
  3. How much the appointment will cost

You can set up automated appointment reminders so that patients can be reminded about their appointment and what they should bring via call or text. Or, you can have a staff member make quick reminder calls if they have the bandwidth for it.

Getting your patient’s insurance info ahead of time can help with pre-authorizations and an estimate of what their out of pocket cost will be. This can also help increase collection rates. 

3. Give a Warm, Inviting Welcome

Some people have never been to a specialist practice before. They may be in intense pain, or they may fear the doctor’s office in general. Try to dispel that fear by creating a warm, inviting presence for your patients as soon as they walk through the door. 

You may want to create a check-in checklist for front end staff–to ensure each patient is acknowledged with a smile and a nod, they get details on how their appointment will go, the proper paperwork to fill out, their questions answered, even offer a drink while they’re waiting. 

If the wait is significant, make sure your team is checking in with them, giving them updates, and ensuring them that you know their time is valuable.

4. Uplevel Your Waiting Room

Likely there are days when your waiting room will be full or you’ll be forced to have a patient wait longer than expected. That’s why it’s important to make it as comfortable as possible. Consider getting:

  • Comfortable, accessible chairs
  • Crayons, paper, and toys for any little ones accompanying your patient
  • A coffee cart with cream and sugar
  • Updated magazines and a daily paper
  • A television

5. Reduce Wait Times

There is nothing worse than waiting three hours to be seen by a doctor for fifteen minutes. In fact, 96% of patient complaints are related to customer service citing long wait times. 1 in 5 patients switch doctors due to long wait times and 30% walk out. It’s important to remember that these dissatisfied patients are likely telling others and/or writing poor reviews themselves. 

That’s why it’s important to mitigate this issue. Take proactive steps ahead of the appointment to have paperwork filled out and insurance checked. You may even want to provide them the ability to check in ahead of time. This is great, especially for younger children.

It may be beneficial to review front-desk workflows to ensure the process is streamlined. You could take it a step further by creating patient surveys. 

6. Improve Bedside Manner

According to a recent survey of over 1,000 US adults, three out of four people leave the doctor’s office confused and dissatisfied. Almost one in four feel too uncomfortable to ask their doctor certain questions. This leads to patients doing their own research, finding new physicians, and ultimately abandoning your practice.

Decrease feelings of dissatisfaction by carefully listening to your patients and answering any questions they have without using a lot of jargon. Also stress that they can ask any question with no judgment, irritation, or rushing on your end. Above all, don’t rush them. 

7. Optimize Your Billing Process

Your practice should take proactive steps to billing that help keep the patient informed. This includes: 

  • Communicating to patients about their insurance eligibility before they get in the office
  • Assuring patients that you will attain any prior authorization needed to cover a service or piece of DME
  • Keeping patients in the loop about any claim denial disputes

Lean on DME Billing Experts

DME billing is an additional (and tedious) task that takes staff’s time and can be complex for patients. But, it’s often a crucial component of treatment and can be an additional revenue stream for your practice–only if it’s done right. That’s why leaning on DME billing experts is a great option. 

DME billing experts, like SelectOrtho, can equip you with the knowledge, software, and people to manage your DME program. Our DME compliance, billing, inventory tracking, and DME claim denials management solution can alleviate the stress on your staff and help you to increase your collection rate to over 95%. 

Start improving your patient satisfaction and increase your program’s revenue with the help of SelectOrtho.

IMPROVE PATIENT SATISFACTION