LEHI, Utah--The recent economic downturn proves that no industry is immune to instability, and the health-care industry is no exception.
Health-care practices nationwide have experienced a 5% decline or greater in production revenues in 2008. Comprehensive patient communication service Smile Reminder is providing health-care professionals by helping to attract new patients and assisting with reactivating lost patients via its electronic recare feature.
Smile Reminder's patient messaging software system provides a secure and effective way for doctors, dentists and health-care professionals to directly communicate with patients by automatically sending personalized, real-time SMS, and e-mail messages.
Generating more than $100 million per year through its recare feature (reminders to patients that they are due for some type of continuing care appointment) alone, Smile Reminder helps reactivate lost patients, retain existing ones, and track recare results.
Just one of many features on the Smile Reminder platform, the recare program allows practices to routinely notify patients that an appointment is due or overdue.
In addition, Smile Reminder, which integrates with practice management software, automatically sifts through patients who have not had a follow-up appointment in the last six months and begins sending recare messages. The feature then graphs actual revenue generated by recare messages to track immediate return on investment.
"[With Smile Reminder's recare system] we receive an immediate response from patients, either by an appointment request through e-mail or by a phone call to request an appointment, which has led to approximately $5,000 a month in increased production through our hygiene department and at least $10,000 a month with our doctors," remarked Caite Glidewell, scheduling coordinator of Chicago's Watertower Dental Care.
"Smile Reminder allows us to maximize the reminders to patients, while minimizing the amount of time that process takes."
Smile Reminder's customized message settings are based on individual preferences, permitting tailored messages, images and practice-specific branding to be used. This patent-pending communications tool helps to streamline efficiencies while building patient loyalty.
Smile Reminder's notifications generate revenue that could otherwise be lost, while simultaneously providing patients with a service. Patients not currently scheduled for any care can also use the service to request an appointment, and practices are notified of the request.
Since all features are automated, Smile Reminder eliminates follow-up work and provides office staff with more time to focus on important issues like patient care. Regular communication with patients is a key factor in building relationships with patients and protecting the bottom line.
"The average practice makes $51,232 in recare income in their first year using Smile Reminder, although we've had an office make more than that in a single month from turning on the recare feature," said Jim Higgins, CEO and founder of Smile Reminder.
"Recare is actually just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to communicating with your patients. It's about relationships and revenue is just a natural outpouring of those relationships. Doctors frequently come to us with stories of the thousands of dollars they bring in with a single newsletter about a life changing procedure or thrilled about multiple patient referrals from a patient because she was so happy to get her personalized birthday text," Higgins added.
While the stock market may be uncertain, an investment in patients should never have to be. Smile Reminder's recare feature is one more way to help doctors, dentists, and health-care providers increase revenues by driving patients back into the office.
So while national industries may not be immune to market vulnerabilities, health-care practices don't have to suffer setbacks just because the economy has.
For more information, visit Smile Reminder.
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