Aside from providing quality care, healthcare facilities aim to earn profits, too. Running a healthcare business has its costs. According to Business Gateway, any business can drive profitability by increasing efficiency, productivity, turnover, and market size.
Yes, you can offer after-hour services, expand your clinic size, and hire more staff. It’s easy to think about those things when you don’t have to consider the costs. Business Gateway adds that you also have to focus on developing new products and reducing costs to be profitable.
Some healthcare facilities increase their profits just by implementing one or two methods mentioned. For most, however, it takes several adjustments before any major sales are seen. What could apply to yours? Find out below.
Boost Brand Reputation and Credibility
It’s essential for any business today to build a robust brand. In the healthcare industry, brand reputation and credibility are key to standing out from competitors and being recognized by your target market. It will make your patients return to your clinic more.
Building a brand is a systematic process. You need to increase your online presence, boost your marketing efforts, create quality content, and provide high-quality service. There’s no shortcut to achieving all of this. You can only build your brand over time with careful planning and execution.
A great way to start with brand credibility is by building an online and social media presence. Use platforms that can boost your business. For B2B (business-to-business) markets, use LinkedIn and Twitter. For patient engagement and marketing, use Facebook and Instagram.
Develop or Offer New Treatments and Services
Because of the global pandemic, people are looking for more ways to make themselves healthy. Take advantage of this opportunity to develop and offer new treatments and services.
To know what new offerings you can market and provide, evaluate your current list. From there, add treatments and services that will be compatible with your current ones.
In-house pharmacy and telemedicine are two of the most in-demand services today. COVID-19 sped up the need for digital health tools. In the spotlight is telemedicine. It became too risky for people to personally go to the hospital and have themselves checked. Instead, many turned to virtual medical check-ups.
Another option is to provide a wide array of treatments. For example, you can offer ketamines for depression as a treatment if you have an alternative medicine practice. Or, you can offer IV drips for wellness.
For your initial promotion, try offering free trials and observe how many patients will get interested. Document everything and study the results. Focus on a new offering that will drive sales to your clinic.
Invest in Technology
Technology is a valuable tool that can increase your business efficiency. You can automate processes to boost productivity. Using technology can make it easier for your staff to accomplish their jobs easily and faster.
Technology can also lead to increased patient satisfaction. When workflows are automated, lines are cut. Patients don’t have to wait in line, which reduces the risk of being exposed to the coronavirus. Both your staff and patients are safe, leaving both parties most satisfied.
Investment in technology can cost you. But if you look at it in the long run, you’ll get more out of it. Some of the tools you can try include clinic management software and patient record management tools.
Boost Productivity
A simple way to put this is to improve your operational efficiency. You can invest in technology to do that, but that’s just a tool to help ease the process.
To improve how your clinic works and provide treatments and services, you need to constantly measure two things. First, you have to evaluate the performance of your staff. Second, you need to measure the outcomes of their work. If it’s taking them longer to finish one task, there has to be some improvement in that process. If a task always ends up in error or creates issues, it should be eliminated or changed.
The need to increase productivity can only come from you, the business owner, or other company senior leaders. But, you need to communicate your goal with your staff. To successfully boost productivity, you must inform them about your productivity targets. It may even be the only way you can motivate your employees to become more productive.
Focusing on Patients’ Expectations and Needs
It’s impossible to increase your business profits without providing quality care. Harvard Business Review once stated that the lifeblood of businesses relies on the profits they acquire from building good relationships with customers. To sum it up, all these strategies lead to improved patient care. By following these suggestions, you get to provide better services and earn more profits.
