4 Stategies to Keep your Patients up to Date on Preventative Care Services

As a physician, you know how important preventative care is to your patients. By routinely keeping up with vaccinations, check-ups and other such details, your patients will maintain overall improved health and will, ultimately, help to make your job easier. However, it can be difficult to find efficient ways to help patients to make, keep and follow through with such measures. The following four strategies can make it easier to keep your patients up to date on preventative care.

1. Educate Your Patients

First find ways to educate those who come to see you. In an environment as hectic as a medical practice, it can be tempting to simply hand patients a pamphlet with summaries and recommendations regarding their condition. However, this effort does no good if the patient doesn't read or understand the information. Enlist your nursing and administrative staff in developing an education program that ensures patients receive needed information in as many ways as possible. Send out newsletters, give patients personalized lists of necessary screenings or vaccinations and engage them as much as possible while you have their in-person attention.

2. Enlist the Help of Technology

Much of the work surrounding the maintenance of preventative care can be automated. Obtaining a patient relationship management platform such as Solutionreach can make reminding your patients of their upcoming appointments seamless. Such programs can even be customized to send reminders that meet specific criteria for each patient or group of patients. Something as simple as a reminder can increase patient follow through significantly.

3. Make It Accessible

People are also more apt to schedule or keep appointments if the information they need is readily accessible to them, rather than depending on communication from your staff. Again, you can employ technology to make patient records accessible to them in an online platform. Doing so would allow them to conveniently monitor their own health progress and make sure everything is current.

4. Share Decision Making

Related to empowering patients to keep track of their own records is the concept of shared decision making. Taking the extra time and effort to involve patients in developing their own treatment plan can help them to feel more invested in the process, leading to increased desire to implement each stage, including preventive care. When possible, present several treatment options and request patient input regarding the direction of care.

These are just four simple strategies to keep your patients up to date on preventative care. Implementing them is relatively simply and will yield positive returns.