If you are working hard to acquire new patients for your practice or specialty, chances are you've analyzed the lost revenue from patients who leave your organization. This patient leakage happens more than we'd like to admit. Thinking about your own health, how many times have you seen a specialist outside of your health system? Or switched Primary Care Providers? One study shows that 23% of us see 3 or more PCPs in just two years.
So we know patients are leaving. So what's the cost of patient leakage? While industry estimates vary, it's clearly significant -- amounting to more than $200 million/year for the average health system. No way, you say? If that figure seems high, consider this scenario:
The typical physician sees 20-21 patients/day. If s/he loses just 1 patient/day, at an estimated $3000 revenue/patient, that single employed physician can leak $780,000 in revenue in a single year! Multiply that by the number of physicians, and the figure easily hits millions of dollars/year.
One other thing to ponder – the average physician generates $1.5M in revenue/year (PCPs less; certain specialists like neurosurgeons more). Patient leakage can drain half of the annual revenue generated by that physician. Wow, right?
Why do they leave? Certainly for many good reasons, including convenience and location. However, studies indicate that between 30% and 60% leave because of a bad experience and/or poor service.
It costs much less to keep a current patient than to replace that lost revenue with a new patient.
Watch my on-demand webinar, "It's Not You, It's Me: Four Ways to Stop Patient Leakage," and learn:
- 4 marketing and service strategies for driving greater patient loyalty
- How to identify the moments across your patient experience that need the most attention
- Practical advice and best practices from Joslin Diabetes Center and other leading health organizations
Spoiler alert - it’s all about TRUST – both INside and OUTside of the clinical setting. We share some of the ways organizations build trust, and thus patient loyalty.
Watch the webinar on Patient Leakage and let me know what you think.