Avoid Patient Drop Outs and Maximize Treatment Results
Patients will have better results when they stick to their care plans by complementing in-office care with a home exercise program. However, many patients miss appointments, don’t follow their HEP or even drop out of care altogether. If this occurs, they will be frustrated with their results and may lose their belief in the value of your care, potentially leading to lost referrals of friends and family. In fact, patient drop out can be a serious threat to your business. This blog post will cover some ideas that can help improve patient compliance, outcomes and your bottom line.
#1 Education improves engagement
Help patients to understand the value of care and their own responsibility for optimal care results. Educate them on the benefits of regular in-office treatments and home exercise programs. Motivational handouts, videos that run in your waiting area, and a professional yet inspiring social media presence can help to support this.
#2 Patient experience is key…not only in your office
Provide the best possible patient experience. In your practice and at all other ‘patient touchpoints’. These include your website, your social media presence, your emails and your instructions for home exercise programs. Use ‘patient-friendly’ language and make sure they can easily access all the information needed to follow their care plan.
#3 Manage expectations
Set clear expectations and provide them with a detailed plan. Educate them on how long it will take to see improvements for their condition and what THEY can do to get better. Provide patients with detailed instructions on the frequency of office visits, duration of care, and a detailed schedule for their home care.
#4 Empower your patients
Make it easy. Providing patients with time-consuming, overwhelming plans will only create frustration. For example, limit their home exercise program to a reasonable amount of exercises. Provide them with clear instructions that ideally include pictures or better yet videos, so they feel confident instead of intimidated. Always remember: patients will have better results if they do a minimum of 2 exercises per day versus no exercise at all.
#5 Make patients part of their healing journey
Acknowledge progress. Review with them what they have done at home. This should not take long but will show them how much you care and will keep them motivated. Respect the time and effort they put into doing their “homework” and celebrate small wins.
We hope this gave you some inspiration to grow your practice and help your patients! Please email us feedback or comments to rikeaprea@webexercises.com
About the author: Friederike is the VP of Business Development and Marketing Strategy at WebExercises. She previously worked for Reebok, BMW, and the Adidas Group in the US and Asia and is an ACE certified personal trainer and NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist.
About WebExercises:WebExercises was created with the belief that patients want to participate in their healthcare, and if given the proper guidance they will succeed. In the rehabilitation environment, home exercise program paper handouts have been an industry standard, however we believe patients deserve more than the status quo. This has driven us to lead the industry since 2005 providing the best home exercise program and patient experience. We have delivered over 10 million exercises to patients helping them improving their health. Learn more at www.webexercises.com/join.
