If your healthcare practice lost patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, you’re far from alone. Most practices lost patients due to COVID-19. Now that the worst of the pandemic is over and patients are venturing outdoors again, you’re probably searching for ways to bring those patients back. Trying to re-engage those patients after COVID-19 requires using data-driven healthcare marketing strategies.
In this article, we will explore how patient journeys have transformed because of COVID-19. We will take you through the changes that impacted every step of the typical healthcare journey and provide some proven strategic recommendations to help you and your practice move forward toward regaining those patients. We’ll explore the role of healthcare marketing in acquiring and re-engaging patients as they begin returning for care.
From helping patients navigate online services and contactless telehealth care to providing timely information about COVID-19, proactive communications became a matter of life and death. The healthcare industry’s rapid switch to digital-first operations put marketers and patient engagement professionals at the centre of a new patient-provider relationship.
The Challenge Has Shifted Again
Thanks to an increasing number of patients moving locations, changing jobs, and switching health plans, healthcare providers must strengthen their marketing outreach efforts to welcome new prospects and reconnect with current patients. Health practices must find new strategies to communicate effectively and point health consumers to the right services at the right time. That will be your key to a healthy post-pandemic financial recovery.
Your post-pandemic playbook should incorporate and take advantage of four strategic marketing opportunities that will lead those lost patients back to your office:
- Getting your records straight
- Doing personalized patient outreach based on consumer insights
- Reducing re-admission risks with data on social determinants of health
- Rescheduling deferred care by marketing online scheduling platforms
- Let’s take a closer look at each one of these strategies.
Strategic Marketing Opportunity 1
Before you invest in any new healthcare marketing strategies, you must first get your patient records straight. Since so many patients‘ circumstances changed, many found their health records were out of date. Their addresses were incorrect. Their insurance records were incomplete. Some patients accidentally created duplicate accounts when they registered for online services. For many health providers, this only amplified a challenge that existed long before the pandemic – finding ways to ensure accurate patient accounts and identities.
According to a recent survey by Experian Health, patients generally welcome proactive outreach by their providers but claim that many providers fail to do this. Conversely, nearly half of providers say they want this kind of outreach, but they have been thwarted by inaccurate or incomplete patient data.
Unless you can verify that the information you have on record for each patient is reliable, investing in marketing and outreach strategies will be money down the drain. An identity management tool such as Verato can confirm names, addresses and other details about current patients, as well as those who have recently moved into your area – to correctly match their information in every digital and face-to-face touchpoint.
Strategic Marketing Opportunity 2
Build your personalized patient outreach strategies based on actual consumer insights. You can
confirm your patients‘ identities using originally sourced consumer data for an accurate, comprehensive picture of who your patients are. When you can confirm who your patients are, what they need, how they spend their time and money, and how they prefer to communicate, you can build personalized outreach strategies that will improve your patient acquisition and retention.
Given that most health consumers now prefer having access to telehealth services, you have new opportunities to offer remote access for your patients. If you’re trying to reach patients who are new to the area, focus your communications on reflecting their lifestyles, preferred social channels, and personal interests. This will help you establish and maintain their loyalty and provide them with better patient experiences.
The shift to online and digital healthcare tools has been somewhat polarizing, however, with some patients, particularly older patients feeling hesitant to engage with unfamiliar technology or tools. Other patients expect a more sophisticated digital experience that matches their typical interactions in the retail and entertainment sectors. By knowing which group your patients identify with, your patient outreach team can more easily identify which tools and services to offer which patients.
Strategic Marketing Opportunity 3
Reduce patients‘ perceived readmission risks with data on social determinants of health.
You can also tailor your outreach communications by knowing whether your new and existing patients are affected by social determinants of health (SDOH). You can help patients overcome access challenges and reduce their perceived risk of readmission. Patients may be at risk of missing appointments or struggling to follow a care plan because of financial limitations, food insecurity, isolation, lack of transportation or cultural exclusion. Providers can point them to relevant community programs and financial support.
Armed with a better understanding of patient barriers, you’ll be able to communicate more effectively with your patients. A conversation with someone who is experiencing unexpected, short-term financial difficulties due to losing their job during the pandemic would be very different from a conversation with someone who has been unemployed or under-employed and low-income for many years.
Strategic Marketing Opportunity 4
If the COVID-19 pandemic pushed patients to defer their healthcare, you should reschedule that care by marketing your easy, online scheduling platforms. Your website, for example, should prominently promote a “schedule your appointment” here feature that allows patients to schedule themselves quickly and easily.
The fact is seven out of ten patients either deferred or cancelled treatments during the pandemic. As a health provider, you must figure out where those patients are and what their potentially more serious health needs may be. It is critical that you re-engage those patients and rebuild relationships to encourage them to come back for care. Letting them know how much you care is paramount.
Your marketing team will play a major role in increasing the visibility of non-coronavirus health issues and the need to reschedule care and return to a pre-pandemic healthcare routine. This is the time to identify specific patient needs and worries, determine the best contact information for each patient, and re-engage them most effectively. Your online scheduling platform will be especially important to help patients reschedule appointments at their convenience, connect them to your telehealth services, and overcome some of the practical barriers to care.
Accept that your patient community has changed since March 2020. By combining identity management with accurate consumer insights your marketing and outreach team will be armed with everything they need to help you attract and retain new consumers while regaining the patients you may have lost because of the pandemic.
