Do You Have a Patient Retention Plan? Here’s Why You Need One

If you are building a new medical practice or if your practice is stagnant or, worse yet, declining, it may be time for you to explore and implement some solid patient retention strategies. Why is patient retention so important? It’s difficult to maintain a successful practice without it.

Estimates show that it’s six to seven times more expensive to acquire a new patient than it is to keep a current patient coming back. (4) It’s also estimated that upwards of 80% of future profits come from just 20% of existing customers. Furthermore, big gains can be made by retaining patients because increasing patient retention rates by just 5% will increase profits anywhere from 25 to 95%. (8) That means that focusing on patient retention is one of the smartest financial strategies your clinic will ever have.

Prioritizing patient retention instead of acquiring new patients is a smart business strategy.

Patient retention in healthcare

There is no question that it’s exciting to acquire a new patient. After all, that’s another new person that can be helped by your clinic. But if most of your focus and money is placed on lead generation and getting new patients, your existing patients may feel neglected and your clinic’s bottom line can suffer significantly. In addition, giving returning patients extra attention will also positively influence their health outcomes.  

And it’s not only less expensive to keep an existing patient coming back, it’s easier. Research shows that the chances of converting a new patient to a loyal patient are 60 to 70%, whereas the probability of converting a lead to a new patient is only 5 to 20%. (5) 

Patient retention rate

The fact is, the 12 to 15% of patients who keep coming back to a health clinic represent 55 to 70% of total appointments. (6) And yet, one study on patient retention showed that the national patient growth rate was 45%, but the patient churn rate (loss of patients) was 48%, so most healthcare clinics were losing patients faster than they could keep them. ()