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Topic starter
Hi there !
Looking for general feedback from all who'd like to share ideas/suggestions or recommendations on how to promote Patient Portal to the patient population!
Thank you!
Posted : January 29, 2015 11:05 am
Dear Lyocher -
Here is one idea. It is not so much a marketing campaign, but an approach. Our initial approach was to get patients interested at their visit, then they could think about it while at home and sign up. They would contact us for a portal pin # after we verified them. Then we mailed them a pin letter.
This is slow, confusing and not an efficient approach. Recommend this entire process be done while the patients are standing there.
Marketing piece - get an intern, or junior person with great customer service skills a booth near the front of your operation, similar to a booth at a CHUG. They can explain why, how, offer support and possibly kill patient wait time. Give that person a tablet and access to setup portal accounts and show the patient how to use it. Based on demand, more than one booth operator might be necessary.
This approach could be targeted to key hours with heavy patient traffic, allowing the same individual (if appropriate) to work portal login tickets for the remainder of the day.
An additional benefit is the same individual can receive direct patient feedback about portal design or functionality concerns.
Bruce Forshay, Mason City Clinic
Posted : January 29, 2015 12:16 pm
Topic starter
Bruce,
Thank you for the quick response. I agree with your statement about not making it such a marketing campaign. As with most new things being introduced, it's the approach that can make or break a project. I appreciate your advice and will discuss this with the others on my team. We have been so focused on ways to motivate and educate staff to build anticipation for our go live, that hearing ideas on the opposite end like this is refreshing. I love the idea of having a station in our waiting room, that gives privacy and time for a patient to understand the full benefits of the patient portal. Having one dedicated employee full time to signing up and educating patients is definitely stronger than a room full of trained staff that "don't have the time at the moment." I like this idea. Thank you again. Regards, Lyndsay Yocher, Orthopaedic Specialty Group, PC.
Posted : January 30, 2015 3:34 am
We start when the patient makes an appointment, then when the tech takes the patient back to the room, they talk about the portal. We send the CVS automatically to the portal so we talk to them about getting the summary and Dr XXX wants you to review it. We created a hand out with step by step instructions on how to sign up for the portal. Included our website and social sites to gain traction on these as well. We had a 'surf the web' party and had trivia contests in the waiting room- encouraging patients to go to website and/or portal. Gave away 1$ coins as a prize. We have written several blogs for our website on different parts of the portal, i.e. online bill pay, mobile app, Secure messaging etc. Staff buy in is HUGE. Share stories of how one employee is using it or getting efficiency from it- this helped us a ton with staff.
I really like the intern idea from Bruce, going to have to look into it.
Posted : January 30, 2015 4:39 am
Topic starter
Wow, again.. terrific ideas there, hbias. I like the idea of the MA also engaging with the patient in the exam rooms where privacy is optimal. What type of questions were involved for your trivia contests?? I think that is a unique way to get patients involved with the portal yet it keeps them distracted between wait times and schedule delays !! 🙂 Right now, our team has prepared a list of ideas we are enthusiastic about that I would like to share with you all as well. We are thinking about possibly running a powerpoint slideshow in our employee lounges that explains the features of the portal to heighten awareness to our staff. With this approach also came the idea of a countdown clock 30-60 days before go live to build anticipation. We have also considered creating a QR CODE [scan barcode] to print on our posters/brochures so that when patients scan from their phones, the barcode takes them directly to the mobile site of our patient portal. We also like the idea of small stickers to place on patient handouts and forms. Thanks for sharing all your ideas!
Posted : January 30, 2015 5:28 am
Make sure you put some blurb on your phone system's "Music on hold" too. "Did you know you can...." kind of stuff. It beats the drab elevator music at least and if you offer the $1 coin or something let them know there too.
Mike Zavolas
Tallahassee Neurological Clinic
Posted : February 11, 2015 8:51 am
We had great success with running internal contests between our clinics. However the real change happened when doctors saw the benefit and started really marketing it to their patients.
Posted : April 23, 2015 10:49 am
Topic starter
Hi Bovie! Would you care to share what types of internal contests you held? Thanks in advance!
Posted : April 23, 2015 10:55 am
We ran quite a few but based everything around % of patients signed up. That way the small clinics could still win. Everything from Pizza parties to coffee and donuts.
Posted : April 23, 2015 11:18 am
Hii All,
I see nice ideas in the comments above. I just thought of sharing this article on 10 Tips to convince your patient to use your portal. Many of you might have used some but there are more unique ones. Here's a link http://www.billingparadise.com/blog/2015/05/26/how-to-convince-patients-to-use-your-patient-portal-10-tips-working-right-now/
Thanks,
Erika
Posted : July 9, 2015 2:53 am
