These MDVIP Best Practices Can Help You Boost Your Primary Care Practice

The modern primary care practice isn’t exactly a relaxing space for patients. In fact, most practices are high-volume, treadmill-like offices designed more to herd acute care seekers than to help people prevent illness or work on wellness.

But your practice doesn’t have to be a place where patients abandon all hope when they enter. MDVIP has helped doctors transform the way they practice for 25 years. While creating a model where physicians can see fewer patients is a start, physicians also need to think differently—and engage with patients differently if they want to be successful. Here are eight ways you can transform your office with some help from MDVIP’s best practices.

Build good relationships. When it comes to health, patients don’t just want any provider. They want you. They chose you. Your relationship can’t just be transactional. That means you need to get to know them, beyond the chart. Have patients who are managing diabetes or heart disease? Form a walk team the next time the local diabetes or heart charity holds a fundraiser and invite your patients to join you. Patients appreciate it when their doctor cares about them—as more than a number.

Embrace social media. Consider creating public-facing social media pages on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and invite your patients to friend or follow you. Use those platforms to share the latest in wellness and prevention from journals and blogs you follow — and don’t forget to sprinkle in a behind-the-scenes peek into your own life and interests.

Retrain your office staff. Your front desk staff is probably trained to run interference for you, so you can see as many patients as possible over the course of the day. In fact, it’s front office staff who are often cited in negative patient surveys. Help them shift their focus from more than transactions by incorporating customer service in their approach. They should know your patients’ names, make them feel welcome and help them with their problems. Every member of your staff who interacts with patients should know how to smile and engage with patients. They should be an extension of your bedside manner.

Share your knowledge. Honed from years of education and decades of practice, you’re an expert on health. Use that to educate and help guide your patients to live their healthiest lives. Share healthy tips on social media; host education events; take your patients on walks or show them how to shop healthy at a grocery store. Lean into your interests, too. Love to write? Start a blog focused on wellness and prevention topics and share it via email with patients who want to subscribe. If you don’t like public speaking, partner with a local nutritionist or personal trainer and let them do the talking! By making other experts available, you’re creating a wellness community your patients will appreciate being part of.

Focus on prevention. Prevention is a core tenant of primary care, but in today’s system, internists and family medicine physicians have a hard time focusing on keeping patients healthy because they spend all their time treating the sick. But you can bring lasting value to patients by guiding them to healthier lifestyle choices and screenings that can lead to earlier diagnoses and care.

Create an office space that’s refreshing. How often have you sat in your waiting room when it’s filled with patients? Does it feel healthy? Is it somewhere you want to be? If it feels like a corral for sick people, chances are your patients don’t want to be there either. Update the décor and make your waiting room more restorative. Add healthy snacks, coffee, tea and water. Brighten the room with fresh flowers, natural light and soothing music.

Partner with other wellness professionals. If you’re like many primary care doctors, you may not have the same depth of knowledge around nutrition and exercise as you do around heart disease and type 2 diabetes. That’s okay. Find local experts who you can refer patients to and who will refer patients to you. Great personal trainers and nutritionists, for example, can be helpful for patients who are trying to manage a new chronic condition or avoid some of the most common. Think of it as expanding your team of care providers to augment your prevention mission.

Give patients your cell phone number. Your patients may never use it but giving them a way to reach you when they have urgent issues could help them avoid urgent care trips, emergency room visits and even hospital stays. Your reassurance and knowledge can save lives and money. Get their cell number too – and put it in your phone – you’ll know who’s calling and will easily be able to call them with follow ups and important care information.*

*Although patients may text you about their problems, remind them that texting isn’t always secure.