Month: March 2019

It’s well known that outsourcing frees up time for organizations to focus on the facets of their business that are essential to continuing operations. In the case of medical practices, the same can be said of outsourcing’s benefits.

With time to focus on the aspects of the day-to-day operation that require sensitivity and decisiveness, there is less stress among your staff and greater levels of satisfaction among your patients.

Here are the areas of your practice that you can focus on with time freed up by outsourcing.

Developing Current Staff

You want to develop your staff so they can grow into their roles, but you don’t want them to be stretched thin. When you factor in the risks of burnout, much can be attributed to extra work that could be outsourced, it’s next to impossible to effectively train employees on new systems or procedures necessary to their job.

Refining Your Customer Service Approach

Going right along with staff development, customer service is an aspect of the job that can constantly be evaluated since you will either hear about your staff’s performance first hand or through online reviews. With more time to focus on development, you can actively work to evolve your customer service approach over time.

Taking time to hear your staff’s side of things and work together to address unique customer situations will result in quicker conflict resolution and better reviews.

Making Meaningful Connections

Your medical practice is built on connections with your community, providers, pharmaceutical and medical equipment vendors. Maintaining a good relationship with these individuals and groups puts you in prime position for information on new products or even better pricing over time. Tasks like social media marketing end up taking time away from getting out there to make connections face-to-face, outsourcing such tasks give you time to work on those relationships.

Focus on What You Do Best

The medical field has changed dramatically with the times, and the roles that medical practitioners take on have followed. At its core, the goal of your practice is to provide the best care possible for the patients that walk through your door. The tedious tasks associated with IT, marketing, and billing can cause your practice to lose track of its original vision.

You can always recover from a bout of bad reviews or increased staff turnover, but it requires seeking help from a partner not only gives you time to improve but can keep your practice compliant with all regulations in the process. Giving your staff the ability to do their jobs better, and in turn, live happier lives, provides a welcoming environment for current and prospective patients.

Social media is a great medium today to boost one’s business, presence, and relevance. Knowing how to use it will certainly put you in the ranks of the most successful people in your field.

How can a physician use social media advantageously? Here, we will tackle tips that can help you in the online world. But first, let’s take a look at the most used social media platforms today.

Facebook – The granddaddy of social media platforms. Facebook was once known as a replacement for MySpace and Friendster. Now, Facebook serves as an all-in-one place to cater to your personal and professional needs. Facebook can help you sell goods via the marketplace, have groups, and even organize your meetings and events.

Twitter – Just a couple years ago, Twitter only had room for 140 characters per tweet. It has doubled but still encourages pithy commentary. Twitter’s popularity stems from the ability to easily scan through hundreds of users, reading their tweets rapidly. In today’s world, this is especially important since our attention span has depleted tremendously in the last decade.

Instagram – Instagram is widely known as a photo-sharing app. Today, creatives use it to showcase their work and act as a mini portfolio. It’s best known for its 9-12 square grid type format and stories, which share a similar function as that of Snapchat’s.

LinkedIn – This platform is geared toward professionals. It’s like Facebook but instead of meeting random people, you meet co-professionals and other physicians who are looking to further their career or network.

Now that we’ve gone over the different social media platforms, let’s look at some tips that will help you in social media as a doctor:

• Use Facebook groups to announce news and other matters for convenience.
• Set appointments using the event function in Facebook.
• Tweet to disseminate information and utilize its thread function.
• Create informative Instagram stories.
• Make infographics for sharing.
• Post relevant articles on LinkedIn.
• Make your availability known.
• Keep contact information up to date.
• Give concise and relevant updates.
• Be present consistently.
• Be able to use images that are connected to your posts.
• Post original fun content.
• Respond to your audience in a timely manner.
• Engage your audience and build relationships.
• Know where your audience is hanging out online.
• Follow other doctors on social media.
• Be aware of trends and current events.
• Include emojis and know when and how to use them.
• Track and analyze your activity on social media platforms.

Takeaways

The key to being successful in social media is to know who your audience is and what niche you will be specializing in. It is also important to feed your audience quality content instead of drowning them in senseless posts. Branding yourself is also important as it will determine who you are in the online world. Also, remember that you do not need to please everyone since not everyone will be interested in your niche. Once you create a stable following, you only need to nurture and provide what your patients or audience need.