As wonderful as it is when a new patient decides to visit your practice, it’s even more important to retain the patients who currently receive their care from you. Whether you’re a clinician or the office manager for a medical practice, it’s important to understand what the factors are that motivate a patient to leave a practice.
Despite what you might assume, the quality of care is only one of a myriad of reasons patients leave a medical practice. Instead, it is the process of accessing care and the environment in which care is accessed that have a large role in motivating patients to stay with a provider or seek out alternatives.
In the realm of the process of accessing care, you’ll find issues like the ease of making appointments, typical wait times, limited office hours, and the face-to-face customer service experience patients have with receptionists and administrative staff.
In terms of the environment in which care is accessed, patients leave practices that are located in areas that are hard for them to get to, both in terms of distance and then accessibility. Then, speaking to the area that is our wheelhouse as a medical offices cleaning service in the South Shore, patients are very particular about the appearance and hygiene of the reception and treatment areas of any doctor they may visit.
Cleanliness is strongly associated with safety, in terms of the medical setting. People worry about infection and the spread of disease, especially as they spend time in waiting rooms or use bathrooms that have been used by other patients. The best medical office cleaning services use the same medical grade cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting products that are used in hospitals to ensure positive outcomes. It’s also important to remember that patients judge your practice based on the areas they’re able to observe, so reception areas, conference rooms, and other similar spaces should be well maintained.