Most of us make personal New Year’s resolutions, but what about for your business? If one of your yearly goals is to find ways to improve your medical practice and boost patient satisfaction and referrals, making these seven “resolutions” could help.
1. Determine Your Lead and Lag Measures
You can read more about lead and lag measures in the book The Four Disciplines of Execution, but here is a quick rundown of what they are. For example, a lag measure would be how much you weigh. A lead measure is how many calories you eat and how much you exercise. Changing the lead measures affects the lag measure. If your lag measure is to make more money, you need to determine what your lead measures are.
An example of using lead and lag measures to increase profitability in your practice is this. If you decide you want to sell more skin care- that is a lag measure. Giving every single patient a printed recommended skin care regimen specific to their skin type is a lead measure. Patients buy products when they are educated and understand what, why to buy and how to use the products. Diagnose their Baumann Skin Type, customize a regimen for their skin type, give them printed step by step instructions and retail the products in your practice makes it easy for them to be compliant and will lead to more skin care sales and better patient outcomes.
2. Hire Better PAs
To do this, use a screening service such as Titan Aesthetics with Mary Beth Hagan (formerly from Allergan) to screen your PA and NP hires before offering them the job. She looks for skill, artistic ability, and social factors that have been shown to directly correlate with productivity.
3. Enhance Your Staff Education
Improving staff education is one of the best investments for your medical practice, but most doctors don’t have the extra time to do this themselves. For that reason, outsourcing staff education is a great idea. For example, Allergan Access gives you information that you can use to train your staff. Talk to your Allergan rep about this. Skin Type Solutions trains your staff about skin care science and how to discuss skin types, skin care products, and regimens with patients.
4. Enhance Patient Compliance Through Engagement, Communication, and Education
Patient compliance plays a crucial role in the success of your medical practice, yet an average of one out of every three prescriptions are never filled, and studies have shown that patients underdose topical medications by 95 percent. Therefore, using communication tools such as the Skin Type Solutions app and others can help to educate, engage, and motivate patients to stick to their regimens and ultimately see improved outcomes.
Through the STS mobile app, your patients can access their Baumann Skin Type® characteristics and regimen, so they don’t have to worry about remembering every single thing that was said at their appointment. Patients can also easily purchase and refill prescribed skin care products directly through the app.
5. Create a Better Informed Consent Process
You can use video in your practice to make sure that you know what your patients are told about their procedure. Show them the video, then have patients sign a corresponding paper consent form. Not only does this streamline the process, but it ensures that each patient receives consistent and accurate consent information, and you know exactly what they were told.
6. Learn to Design the Proper Skin Care Regimens for Your Patients
The proper skin care regimen for each patient should take into account his or her Baumann Skin Type®. Then, each product in the regimen should improve the efficacy of the main treatment product needed for that skin type, as well as reduce any side effects. For this, proper ingredient layering is crucial. For example, if wrinkles are the main skin concern, a retinoid may be the primary treatment product. Therefore, the cleanser and moisturizer should help the retinoids do their job, while combating dryness and flaking that can result until the patient’s skin becomes accustomed to retinoids.
7. Stay Current on Skin Care
Stay up-to-date on the latest skin care news and research so you can provide your patients and staff with the most accurate information. Follow Skin Type Solutions on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the know.
Bottom Line
Making a few important changes or adjustments to your medical practice can have a profound impact on patient compliance, satisfaction, and referrals. Choose some or all of the areas mentioned above as actionable goals for the New Year. If you would like more information about how the Skin Type Solution Franchise System works, please contact us online or send an email to info@stsfranchise.com.
©2018 MetaBeauty, Inc.