Month: October 2023

Case study – new skin clinc

Posted on by Dr Simon Wilson

Two doctors in our practice want to increase their work in skin cancer detection and prevention. I want to support them in this niche. Lets follow along as we help them develop this work.

Who do the doctors want to serve? They are for patients with a skin spot to examine, or patients with a history of skin cancer or significant sun exposure in our database who desire a focused skin examination.

The desire was to set this up, clear of usual bookings so the doctor has time, focus to be in the skin check zone.

Initially we set up a skin check clinic in our online booking system, HotDoc.

HotDoc booking system skin clinic niche for GP

We notified people of the skin clinic via our newsletter and adding to the website. So far, we have not spent any money, just done things inhouse.

In subsequent months newsletters we have continued to mention the skin clinic and it is available on the HotDoc booking platform.

Next steps will be a custom website, for which we need a domain name and a GoogleMyBusiness entry for the skin clinic – I’ll follow with these as we develop!

You can’t sell a secret

Posted on by Dr Simon Wilson

“you can’t sell a secret” have you heard that saying before? I have been surprised before when a regular patient has mentioned that they went elsewhere an extra service that our clinic offers. This is no fault of the patient but ours – we were not clear to the patient what services we offered.

I heard this first on a podcast with Nathan Barry who created ConvertKit

If you offer extended skills and special interest care in your clinic, patients much prefer to stay with you, you just have to tell them about the service!

At our practice we have had two new doctors join who would like to expand their skin cancer care work. I have been working on this, using some of the ideas from promoting my vasectomy work. We have been updating Google My Business, we are creating a stand alone website and have been active in the montly newsletters about skin checks.

I have been surprised, although maybe I should not have been that patients I have seen for years have mentioned they are going to book for the new skin check clinic, never having asked me. I obviously had not offered this, not made it clear it was something we could easily do and so the patient did not see it as part of the menu of services they could get from me.

How to help the patient know your offers? There has to be multiple reminders – on your website, on your booking system, posters, newsletters and push notifications like SMS or in-app, depending on your booking system. If other doctors refer to you for your niche there needs to be clear information for them about what you offer and the reminder you will send them back to the original doctor when the task is completed. Lots of letters back help here.

The patient is not you – just because you think email marketing, social media does not work or is annoying, the patient does not need to think this. The patient has a problem and wants to be provided with the solution.

How will you make it crystal clear what you offer?