Medical research is an ongoing process. Every day it brings new medicines and updates to the world. As a result, doctors have to constantly learn and upgrade their knowledge. If you are a doctor who has his/her own medical practice, you would need to improve. You need to upgrade your equipment and technology as well.
Using interactive and practical methods to update your practice is a better idea than using a distance learning approach. You can have access to online journals. Through these you can search their entire archive (as opposed to one article in one issue in print). Or you can try online courses as well.
Either way upgrading your knowledge is essential. Here are a few ways to upgrade your knowledge and your practice:
1. Upgrade Your Technology
As a doctor, you need to be adept at using technology and you need to constantly upgrade both your skills and equipment. Besides gaining more knowledge in your field through online courses and journals (as mentioned above), you can use technology to keep in touch with your patients as well. You can even use patient management software programs to connect with multiple patients at the same time.
Moreover, you can also set up a website to do some marketing, or even just get your clinic/ hospital listed on a doctor listing website. The more active you are online, the more patients you will attract. Appointments, filling out forms and test results can all be done online, saving both your and your patient’s time and energy. Moreover, you can also get feedback through social media.
2. Begin With E-Prescription
Using patient management software programs can help properly organise patient data and records. Instead of paper prescriptions, which can get misplaced easily, you can also start with electronic prescribing or e-prescribing. It allows you to communicate directly with the pharmacy and inform them about the required medicines for a particular patient.
Not only is this more convenient and cheaper for doctors and pharmacies, but it also saves lives by reducing the risk of medication errors and drug interactions. Thus, e-prescribing makes everything more transparent in health information exchange.
3. Offer Reminder Options
When you send reminders to patients about their appointments, offer them a reminder option of their choice- be it phone, email, or text. This will help you reduce the number of late comings and absentees by almost half. Additionally, it works better if the patient can choose their preferred method.
4. Provide Preventive Care Recalls
Preventive care is as important in medicine as diagnosis. Therefore, be sure to maintain records and run reports to know when your patients are due for their preventive care appointments, be it for vaccines or just routine check-ups. This will help them maintain their relationship with your hospital or clinic. Moreover, you can fit their slots to better suit your time as well.
5. Add Outreach Communications
When you engage with your patients on social media, or through email, newsletters or a blog, you develop a stronger relationship and trust with them. Additionally, hiring and maintaining the best staff allows your patients to better trust your clinic/ hospital as well. This is because seeing the same faces when they come, allows them to build and maintain a connection with the same doctors.
To achieve all this, there is another aspect to be taken into consideration- cost. If you run a small clinic, you may not internally generate enough working capital to upgrade your high-end equipment or purchase new software. This is where doctor loans come to your rescue.
These loans are available from banks and non-banking financial corporations (NBFCs) like Bajaj Finserv, and can be used for both personal and professional requirements. Business Loan for Doctors offers up to Rs. 30 lakh, and comes with a line of credit facility that allows you to borrow the amount you need (within the credit limit) as and when you require it.
You also have a flexible repayment option that allows you to prepay the amount anytime within the tenor. What’s more, the complete online access facility allows you apply online as well!
Punit