Patient reactivation is the process of reaching out to former patients who have not visited a healthcare practice in a certain period of time. It is estimated that roughly 25% of all patients in most practice’s databases are inactive or lapsed. For each individual provider at your practice, this may mean 1000-2000 lapsed patients. In this post we’ll cover some of the key benefits of patient reactivation for both patients and practices.
Better Patient Outcomes
At Vital Interaction, we are proud to work with medical practices whose number one priority is driving successful patient outcomes. An effective patient reactivation and retention strategy is a key driver for delivering these outcomes. As the inevitable shift towards value-based care continues, practices who have processes in place to minimize gaps in care and ensure that patients are getting the care they need when they need it, are going to be the most successful.
Increase Revenue
When we execute initial reactivation campaigns with our customers, we typically see a significant uptick in appointment volume. This translates directly into increased revenue for the practice. For a practice with 10 providers, each with 2,000 lapsed patients, and a 20% conversion rate from our reactivation messages, this means an additional 4,000 appointments – multiplied by $100/appointment, that is $400,000 in increased revenue. This is great for our customers (and pays for their investment in our technology many times over), but the initial reactivation is only part of the story. By applying the principles of a reactivation campaign (that is, identify patients who have developed gaps in care), and building a communication strategy to prevent them from lapsing in the first place, you will maximize the value of your patient database. Now, instead of having 25% of your patients inactive at any given time, you might only have 10%, and the positive benefits from that kind of improvement will show up in every aspect of your practice.
Decrease administrative burden
Retaining existing patients is more efficient for your practice than acquiring new ones. First, it costs less to maintain a relationship with an existing patient than to acquire a new one. High effort tasks like intake, billing and insurance, obtaining medical history and more, are much simpler with an existing patient. Second, if you’re able to leverage technology to automate the majority of the outreach required to reactivate and retain patients, you can save your front office staff a lot of time that can be better spent on delivering a great patient experience.
Improve patient experience and satisfaction
Practices who proactively help patients stay on top of their care are providing a better patient experience than those who don’t. For our customers, we typically see this reflected in higher patient satisfaction ratings. Higher patient satisfaction ratings are also highly correlated with a patient’s likelihood to recommend your practice, which is one of the most cost-effective ways to acquire new patients.
If you’re interested in seeing how a technology-enabled reactivation and retention strategy can help your practice, check out our ROI Calculator below!