5 Places Revenue Slips Away in Dermatology and Medical Aesthetic Practices
Jan 20, 2020
Revenue can disappear through ordinary, unfinished work.
A prospective patient calls but no one owns the next step. A consultation ends without a follow up plan. A cancellation leaves an opening that no one tries to fill. An established patient leaves without scheduling the next appropriate visit.
Each instance may seem minor. Repeated across several staff members, clinicians and locations, they create a meaningful gap between the demand the practice generates and the revenue it collects.
Here are five places to inspect.
1. Patient Inquiries Have No Clear Owner
A prospective patient may contact the practice by phone, website form, email or text. Someone responds, but the inquiry is not consistently tracked after that first interaction.
Capture the patient’s contact information, reason for reaching out, recommended next step and the staff member responsible for continuing the conversation.
Responsibility should remain with one person until the patient schedules, declines or reaches the end of the practice’s follow up process.
Otherwise, inquiries sit inside shared inboxes, handwritten notes and unfinished tasks while the practice continues paying to generate more of them.
2. Callers Receive Information Without Direction
A staff member may answer every question correctly and still lose the appointment.
The caller learns the price, available dates and length of the consultation. What may be missing is help deciding what to schedule and confidence that the practice is the right place to begin.
Staff need clear guidance on the questions they should ask, the appointment that fits the patient’s concern and how to explain what will happen next. They should also know when a question requires input from a physician or clinician.
The call should end with a defined next step, even when the patient is not ready to schedule that day.
3. Consultations End Without a Follow Up Plan
A patient may leave a consultation interested in treatment but uncertain about timing, cost or which recommendation to pursue first.
Before the patient leaves, confirm that the treatment recommendation, expected sequence, cost and next step have been clearly explained. If the patient needs time to decide, assign the follow up to a specific staff member and document when contact should occur.
The patient should not have to reconstruct the recommendation or contact the practice repeatedly to move forward.
4. Schedule Openings Are Left to Fill Themselves
Cancellations, missed appointments and delayed rescheduling create openings that often remain untouched.
When a patient cancels and says they will call back, create a follow up task instead of leaving the return visit to memory. Maintain an organized list of patients who asked for an earlier appointment and include the services, clinicians and times they would consider.
Review upcoming availability early enough for staff to act. An opening discovered the morning of the appointment gives the practice far fewer options than one identified several days earlier.
5. Established Patients Are Expected to Return on Their Own
An established patient already knows the practice, has received care and may have discussed an appropriate next visit. That relationship still requires attention.
Review whether patients are scheduling the next recommended visit before leaving, receiving the promised follow up and hearing from the practice when it is time to continue a treatment plan.
Recall and reengagement should be organized around the patient’s care and prior conversations. It should not depend on a staff member remembering the patient or waiting until the practice needs to fill the schedule.
Find Where the Work Stops
Before spending more on marketing, trace patient inquiries through the next scheduled visit.
Look at how many inquiries receive a response, how many schedule, how many consultations are completed, how many patients move forward and how many leave with another appointment in place.
When the process stops, determine whether the problem is ownership, staff capacity, incomplete information or the absence of a defined follow up standard.
That is where the practice needs attention.
Ready to Strengthen Your Practice?
If patients are showing interest but appointments and revenue are being lost between steps, I can help you find where the process is breaking and make sure the right work gets completed.
Connie Kurczewski is the founder of Elevated Practice Consulting and Strategic Advisor to Dermatologists and Aesthetic Physicians. She advises physician owners on staffing, leadership, operations, marketing, sales and patient experience.
