Ideas for how to bring in more patients to clinic?

[whatisit350]

Hey all, D3 here. Currently I'm struggling with having enough patients to actually work on in clinic. I'm actually down to one solid patient that I see once a week, and one other that I'll see like once every couple months. lol, the well is a little dry. I was just wondering if anybody had any good advertising, or marketing, ideas on ways that I could get more patients to treat in clinic. And yes, I've already spoken at length to the school about this, and they are no help.

Here are a few of my ideas. Please let me know if you've tried these and if it was successful or not.

1) Making a poster, and standing with it outside of a popular nearby grocery store, in my scrubs and talking to people that enter and leave.
2) Doing mass mail out of a post card
3) Making a Facebook ad and promoting that
4) SEO??? (lol, I'm stretching here)

If anyone has any other ideas, please feel free to share!

Also, I think it would be a good idea if I could figure out exactly what the perfect patient is like. Age, income, etc... It will probably help with the search if I know exactly what I'm looking for. So if anybody has any tips on that, please feel free to share that as well.

Thanks in advance!

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[Quinque]

I feel you I have same issue. I advertised on Facebook groups of different suburbs near my school and on Reddit subreddit city of my school.
I was able to narrow down 50 replies to 3 committed patients that already came to the school and put down tx deposit. A lot of the replies are just asking for teeth whitening or cleanings.

I heard some of my classmates advertise on nextdoor app with success

 

[oralcare123]

All of the above. + craigslist, ad in the apartment complex, maybe local assisted living facility. Give financial incentive

 

[aubreyjokes]

I made and posted flyers about "reduced cost dental care" and listed everything we do - exams, cleaning, extractions, fillings, root canals, etc, medicare/insurances accepted all in plain language obvi with a phone number to TEXT or call....just to be up and up I showed it to our clinical dean. I posted mine in several small neighborhood grocery stores, bus stops, Barber shops, some bodega/convenience stores, laundry mats, coffee shops, and also a few places around our undergrad campus. Just ask whoever is in charge and they're usually happy to let you post it.
We weren't actually responsible for finding our own patients, the school does that for us (maybe a good question pre-dents should ask when comparing schools...) but I was having a lot of no shows etc and decided to be proactive.
Obviously I got a lot of people who thought it was free or couldn't pay even for the evaluation BUT I did get a lot of actual patients that filled out my schedule.
I did get some pts off of Next door too but I think the patient pool of people who often end up at the dental school are better reached via those places I listed. My typical 50+ yr old on a fixed income patients definitely weren't checking out Reddit or other digital spaces so...know your audience.

 

[DrMarioRobles]

Hey all, D3 here. Currently I'm struggling with having enough patients to actually work on in clinic. I'm actually down to one solid patient that I see once a week, and one other that I'll see like once every couple months. lol, the well is a little dry. I was just wondering if anybody had any good advertising, or marketing, ideas on ways that I could get more patients to treat in clinic. And yes, I've already spoken at length to the school about this, and they are no help.

Here are a few of my ideas. Please let me know if you've tried these and if it was successful or not.

1) Making a poster, and standing with it outside of a popular nearby grocery store, in my scrubs and talking to people that enter and leave.
2) Doing mass mail out of a post card
3) Making a Facebook ad and promoting that
4) SEO??? (lol, I'm stretching here)

If anyone has any other ideas, please feel free to share!

Also, I think it would be a good idea if I could figure out exactly what the perfect patient is like. Age, income, etc... It will probably help with the search if I know exactly what I'm looking for. So if anybody has any tips on that, please feel free to share that as well.

Thanks in advance!

I think the first idea will definitely get you a lot of patients, try going to churches or any community service locations, shelters, etc...

If you’re in Florida I can help you get a couple.

 

[aubreyjokes]

You asked what the perfect patient looks like: I think the primary trait of a "ideal" patient (in dental school anyway) is first that they SHOW UP. It doesn't matter if they are millionaires willing to pay for any treatment plan, or difficult, or whatever; if they miss appointments all the time nothing else matters. Thats why I found that my older/retired/etc patients were golden, mostly because they had nothing better to do than spend 4 hours for a dental appointment so they always showed up.
It is a weird balance though because you want people who can pay for treatment but if they have "too much" means then theyd usually opt to go to private practice where it doesn't take half a day for a MOD, so consider all that in your demographic search.

 

[whatisit350]

I feel you I have same issue. I advertised on Facebook groups of different suburbs near my school and on Reddit subreddit city of my school.
I was able to narrow down 50 replies to 3 committed patients that already came to the school and put down tx deposit. A lot of the replies are just asking for teeth whitening or cleanings.

I heard some of my classmates advertise on nextdoor app with success

Next Door! I totally forgot about that. Personally, I've never used it but it seems like a great idea. And yea, I have a few friends who post in different Facebook groups of the city that we're in, and they seem to do alright with that too

 

[whatisit350]

All of the above. + craigslist, ad in the apartment complex, maybe local assisted living facility. Give financial incentive

Local assisted living facility; That's a great idea that I hadn't thought about. Thanks for that!

And for financial incentive... one dental student I know of took $1,000 off the patients total bill for choosing that student as their provider. Lol, times are rough out here yall.

 

[whatisit350]

I made and posted flyers about "reduced cost dental care" and listed everything we do - exams, cleaning, extractions, fillings, root canals, etc, medicare/insurances accepted all in plain language obvi with a phone number to TEXT or call....just to be up and up I showed it to our clinical dean. I posted mine in several small neighborhood grocery stores, bus stops, Barber shops, some bodega/convenience stores, laundry mats, coffee shops, and also a few places around our undergrad campus. Just ask whoever is in charge and they're usually happy to let you post it.
We weren't actually responsible for finding our own patients, the school does that for us (maybe a good question pre-dents should ask when comparing schools...) but I was having a lot of no shows etc and decided to be proactive.
Obviously I got a lot of people who thought it was free or couldn't pay even for the evaluation BUT I did get a lot of actual patients that filled out my schedule.
I did get some pts off of Next door too but I think the patient pool of people who often end up at the dental school are better reached via those places I listed. My typical 50+ yr old on a fixed income patients definitely weren't checking out Reddit or other digital spaces so...know your audience.

Yea... you make a great point about who is actually checking these digital spaces. I think that's why it's important to know exactly who an ideal patient is, and what they look like. But I love your idea of leaving flyers in those locations. And yep, I think advertising is all about a funnel; A certain percentage will see the ad, a smaller percentage will actually contact you about the ad, a smaller percentage will make an appointment, and then finally, a smaller percentage will actually show up for the appointment.

BUT! At the end of the day, if I get ONE more patient, my entire patient pool will have increased by 100% ‍♂️‍♂️

 

[whatisit350]

I think the first idea will definitely get you a lot of patients, try going to churches or any community service locations, shelters, etc...

If you’re in Florida I can help you get a couple.

Awesome! And yep, I think that is my most solid idea as well. I will certainly give those locations you mentioned a shot. That actually gives me a few more ideas..

And that would be amazing if you could send me a couple! I would be forever grateful . Yes, I'm in Florida.

 

[whatisit350]

You asked what the perfect patient looks like: I think the primary trait of a "ideal" patient (in dental school anyway) is first that they SHOW UP. It doesn't matter if they are millionaires willing to pay for any treatment plan, or difficult, or whatever; if they miss appointments all the time nothing else matters. Thats why I found that my older/retired/etc patients were golden, mostly because they had nothing better to do than spend 4 hours for a dental appointment so they always showed up.
It is a weird balance though because you want people who can pay for treatment but if they have "too much" means then theyd usually opt to go to private practice where it doesn't take half a day for a MOD, so consider all that in your demographic search.

You bring up even more great points. I hear all the time about classmates who had patients that canceled. Luckily, I have only had that happen to me once, but I know that is a major issue these days with dental students.

And I think you're exactly right about the older/retired age group, as well as about finding a patient with the "right amount" of means. These are definitely a few gems I'll keep in mind during my search.

Thanks a ton for your advice!

 

[oralcare123]

Local assisted living facility; That's a great idea that I hadn't thought about. Thanks for that!

And for financial incentive... one dental student I know of took $1,000 off the patients total bill for choosing that student as their provider. Lol, times are rough out here yall.

Be careful with that - some schools don't like/prohibit it. They still don't provide you with patients, but put all sorts of "ethical" obstacles. Better keep it a secret, especially from your classmates - they will sell you first
Another option would be to keep bugging your class rep, head of the program and the dean. Make em work for your tuition money