According to the CDC, each year between 5 percent and 20 percent of the U.S. population will contract the flu and many patients will seek medical care in ambulatory health care settings. Although health care-associated flu infections can occur in any healthcare setting where patients are seeking care, these patients commonly show up in physician practices where the flu is also circulating in the community. (Requires registration for free account)

Conducting a comprehensive patient satisfaction survey is the best way to determine whether there is a meaningful gap between your patients’ expectations and their perceptions. A patient’s expectations are simply defined as what they believe will happen before an event occurs, while perceptions are derived by their reaction to the experience after it has occurred. Ideally, there should be no gap between the two, but too often there is, especially in cosmetic, elective surgery.

Knowledge is power. Businesses around the globe survive on information, and when it comes to the business of practicing medicine, your practice is no different. What is the best way to market your practice? Who and where are your customers? How can you get new customers? How satisfied are the customers you already have? The focus of this article will be on the last question.

Social media is more powerful than you think. It has become increasingly common for patients to find their physicians online. Creating a positive online presence can be one of the easiest ways to market your practice and make a lasting impression on patients. 

Consumers today pay a great deal of attention to what friends and family say on social media. And as noted in last week’s column, monitoring social media can have a positive impact on a medical practice’s bottom line. But are physicians adhering to social media guidelines? The answer is more startling than a simple “no.”