Gaining patients through word of mouth referrals is an invaluable method of growing your allied health practice. Not only do you have the opportunity to treat more people in need of your services, but it’s also an endorsement of your abilities. If patients or medical professionals are willing to recommend your services, then you can be confident you are providing excellent care and communicating effectively.

While patient referrals do happen organically, there are some steps you can take to boost them for your practice.

Tips To Increase Patient Referrals For Your Allied Health Practice

1. Ask Patients To Leave Reviews

If you are providing a valuable service to your patients, they will automatically share your details with their friends or family who need the same. However, you can ask people to endorse your services online as well to give you even more reach from word of mouth. You can do this by prompting them to leave reviews on your website or review profiles.

Positive reviews serve as valuable signals of your competence to people searching the internet for your service. If they don’t have a firsthand referral from someone they know, their next port of call will be to read reviews.

It is as simple as printing a message on each outgoing invoice to say “We would appreciate you leaving a review on our website or Google profile. This will help us reach more patients just like you who need our service.”

2. Connect With Other Health Professionals In Your Area

Often patients set up primary care appointments to get recommendations on who to see for a particular problem. In turn, the consulting provider will recommend a professional they know either personally, or by stellar reputation. If you’re already on the dialling list, then it could be your name they put forward for patient referrals.

So, if you don’t have existing relationships with GP’s and various other allied health providers in your area, then it’s time to reach out and get to know them.

3. Host A Community or Charity Event

Current times call for social distancing, making it impossible to arrange an in-person event for your community. However, you can still host a seminar, casual networking meeting, charity event, or whatever you had in mind online.

Technology has made it very simple to engage virtually. With the right conferencing platform, you can connect people at a fraction of the cost it would be to bring them together in-person.

At a time when the coronavirus is forcing everyone to be apart, drawing people together online for a community event can raise morale and shed a positive light on your practice. It also means that in future, your name will pop up in the community for referrals.

4. Use A System That Supports Billing Reporting and Lodging Of Assessments

When there is a string of healthcare providers involved in a patient’s treatment plan, it is beneficial to utilize systems that allow for seamless file sharing and billing reporting between authorized individuals. It promotes better flow of information and can vastly improve the recommendations and ministration of care with everyone working toward a common goal.

As a result, you will be better placed to earn patient referrals if your system integrates with government schemes, accounting modules, and the case management software rehabilitation providers use.

5. Share Helpful Content On Social Media

Sharing helpful and authoritative content online and on social media can earn you referrals. As people access the content and find it useful to their situation, they will talk about it and share it with their online community. This is ideal as it means your name and content can reach a wider pool of people, and possibly result in enquiries for your practice.

Make Every Impression Count

Being proactive in earning patient referrals can help you build a solid foundation to grow your practice on. If you need the allied health case management software to support your efforts, get in contact with us at iinsight.