How to get more new patients for any practice

"The patient's initial call can be the difference between gaining or losing their business." Dr. Justin West, plastic surgeon and practice owner, in CareCredit's advice for practice owners

Find your leak in 30 minutes

You need four numbers from the last 90 days. If you can't get one of them, that's your first job.

1. People who saw you. Go to your Business Profile on Google and click Performance. It shows your views and clicks on Search and Maps.
2. New-patient calls and forms. Your phone system may count these. If not, start a tally by the phone today.
3. New patients booked. Your scheduling system has this.
4. New patients who showed up. Same place.

Now find your row:

Then start one habit today. Ask every new patient, "How did you find us?" and write down the answer. In a month, you'll know what deserves more money and what to stop paying for.

Know how patients choose you

"Patients" aren't one group. Someone with a cracked tooth and someone thinking about a facelift want very different things from you.

Find your row and spend your time there first. A few kinds of practice have their own twists. For chiropractors, it's mostly chiropractic marketing that doesn't sound like a sales pitch. For therapists, the real question is how to get more therapy clients without feeling pushy. Vets have a patient who can't talk, so how to get more veterinary clients means winning over the owner.

Test your own front door

This takes 15 minutes and costs nothing. Ask a friend to call your office at lunchtime and again at 5:15, as a new patient. They ask three things:

• Are you taking new patients?
• Do you take my insurance?
• How soon can I be seen?

Afterward, ask your friend how many rings it took, whether anyone sounded rushed, and whether anyone offered a time. This tests the system, so nobody gets in trouble for what you find.

The simple fix is to offer a time on every call. Give everyone who answers the phone wording like this, using only what's true for you:

Dr. West's own rule is that a trained person should pick up within three rings. That's hard on a busy morning, and it isn't your front desk's fault. So give them some backup at busy times. Pick a second person who answers after three rings. Pick one person to return every missed call and web form by the end of the day. Write that person's name down, because "someone will call them back" means nobody will.

Say when you can see them

In a survey of doctors' offices in 15 big US cities, new patients waited 31 days on average for an appointment. If you can see someone next week, that's a good reason to pick you. Say so on your website, on your Google profile and on the phone.

Try this wording, if it's true: Taking new patients now. Most new patients are seen within a week.

If your first opening is months away, fix that before you market anything. More calls will only make the wait longer. Hold back a few new-patient times each week, and keep a short-notice list for cancellations.

Long waits and nerves can both lead to no-shows. Send a reminder, and tell people what will happen at the first visit, how long it takes and where to park.

Ask the people who already trust you

Your patients

Busy practices can look full. Your patients may love you and still assume you aren't taking anyone new. So tell them, in plain words, at checkout and in your reminders:

We're taking new patients right now. If you know someone who needs this, we'd be glad to see them.

On the first call with any new patient, ask who you can thank for sending them. It tells you who your best sources are. Just don't send that person a thank-you note without asking, because the note tells them their friend came to see you.

Don't pay for referrals, either. In many businesses a gift or a discount for a referral is normal. In healthcare it can be a crime. The US government's plain guide to the law against this covers care paid for by programs like Medicare and Medicaid. It says the ban applies to referrals from patients too. Your state may add rules of its own, so ask a healthcare lawyer before you offer anything.

Other offices

If other doctors send you patients, this may be your best source of new patients. Write down five offices whose patients often need you. Then go and see them in person, and ask one question: "What makes it hard to send people to us?"

Then make it easy. Promise a first visit within a set number of days and a letter back to the doctor soon after. Keep showing up, because one visit won't do much. The same law applies here, so don't pay or give gifts to earn their referrals.

Reviews

A person who gets your name from a friend usually looks you up next. Reviews are what they find. In a survey by Sermo, a network for doctors, about six in ten doctors said they rarely or never ask for one. So just asking helps you stand out.

Google lets you make a link or QR code for reviews. Send it the same day as the visit, or offer it the moment someone says thank you:

That means a lot. Would you mind saying that on Google? It helps other people find us. I can text you the link.

There are two ways to get this wrong:

• Paying for them. Google bans discounts or free services given in exchange for reviews. The FTC, the US agency that protects shoppers, also bans rewards tied to a good or bad review. So ask often and give nothing for it.
• Replying like a normal business. Even saying "we remember your visit" confirms the person is your patient. A Dallas dental practice paid $10,000 to settle possible privacy violations over patient details shared on social media.

Every practice owner has written the perfect reply to a one-star review in their head, usually at 2am. It's fair, it's funny and it's a privacy violation. Leave it there.

Keep one reply ready that confirms nothing, and have whoever handles your privacy rules approve it:

We take concerns like this seriously. Privacy rules stop us from discussing anyone's care here, so please call Maria, our office manager, at (555) 555-0100.

Make your website answer three questions

Open your site on your phone with Wi-Fi off. The first screen should answer these:

1. Are you taking new patients? Say it in words.
2. Do you take my insurance? "Most major plans" doesn't answer that. List them by name, and tell people what a visit costs if you aren't on their plan.
3. How do I book right now? Give them a phone number they can tap and a booking button.

Then pretend you're a stranger and time yourself booking a visit. It should take less than two minutes.

Online booking matters, even if your patients still like the phone. Zocdoc, a booking company, says nearly half of patients book at times when the office is closed, so a site that only says "call us" loses people at 10pm. Show real open times if your system allows it. Once you have a booking page, add it to your Google profile. Find your profile on Google Search, select Booking, then Add link.

After that, add three small things:

• A page for each of the few reasons people come to you most.
• Real photos of the people they'll meet, including whoever answers the phone.
• A step-by-step of the first visit, with how long each part takes.

Bring back patients you've lost

Your easiest new patients may already be in your files. Under the billing rule, someone counts as new if they haven't had care from you, or from another doctor of the same specialty in your group, in three years. Medicare's wording is a little different, so ask your biller before you use a new-patient code.

Either way, these people already know you, and it costs almost nothing to reach them. Run a report of everyone you haven't seen in two years or more, and send a short note:

It's been a while, and we'd love to see you. Here's how to book.

HIPAA, the US health privacy law, generally lets you remind your own patients about your own care. Still, have whoever handles your privacy rules check the wording. Patients who stay also send you their friends, so new-patient work and customer retention strategies go together.

Get found by strangers

Start with what's free.

1. Your Google Business Profile. Claim it, then fill in your services, hours, photos and booking link. It's what people see when they search near you.
2. Your listing with each insurer. Look yourself up in every plan's online directory, then call the number shown. A wrong number or "not taking new patients" sends people elsewhere, and you'd never know.
3. Local talks. Ask an HR manager or a senior center if they'd like a short, useful talk. Dr. Kathy Wiederkehr, a vet, sent trained team members to nearby businesses and apartment buildings, and held open houses every two or three months. She gave out coupons with codes so she could see which events brought in clients. Ask a lawyer before you give out any discounts.

Then, once your phone and website pass the tests above, think about paying.

Social media is slow for most practices, though it can work well for treatments people can see. Dr. Brian Harris, a cosmetic dentist, started posting before-and-after photos of his patients. When one patient who was shy about her smile messaged him, he sent back a short video with her options, rough costs and how to pay, then told her he'd be there when she was ready. She came in a few weeks later. Instagram became his top source of new patients. A family practice shouldn't expect the same, and doesn't need to.

If you hire an agency, ask for a monthly count of booked new patients. Clicks don't sit in your waiting room. Also make sure you own your website, your Google profile and your ad accounts if you ever part ways.

When someone's ready and your office is closed

Even a good website makes people hunt for their own answers, and at 10pm nobody is there to help. That moment is why we built Possible, so read this knowing it's our own product. It's an AI built on real sales psychology that asks each visitor the right question at the right moment, remembers what they say and guides them to a booking. It's free to start, and here's more on our AI sales assistant for clinics and local services.

It suits the patient with lots of questions, such as someone weighing up a big treatment. Someone in pain just needs your phone number. Fix your phones and your insurance list first. And with any tool you try, ours included, ask your privacy adviser before it collects anything about someone's health.

Your first week

1. Today: Have a friend call your office. Start asking every new patient how they found you.
2. Tomorrow: Pull your four numbers and find your row.
3. Day 3: Give the front desk its wording. Name who returns missed calls.
4. Day 4: Put "taking new patients" and your plan list on the first screen of your site. Add your booking link to Google.
5. Day 5: Start asking for reviews, and get your review reply approved.
6. Days 6 and 7: Check your insurer listings, list your five offices and run your report of lost patients.

After a month, read your "How did you find us?" list. Do more of what's at the top.

Questions about getting more new patients

Go deeper on conversion tactics.