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6 Patient Acquisition KPIs You Need to Track

Effective patient acquisition is crucial for a successful healthcare organization. This process involves deploying diverse strategies to attract new patients and maximize revenue. These strategies include digital marketing, community outreach, partnerships with other healthcare providers, and offering unique services or programs.

Healthcare institutions monitor their patient acquisition efforts through key performance indicators (KPIs) such as patient retention rates, new patient growth, patient satisfaction scores, and the cost of acquisition per patient. Discover the essential KPIs you need to track below.

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Importance of KPIs In Patient Acquisition

Key performance indicators (KPIs) allow you to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, helping you discern what works and what doesn’t – avoiding costly mistakes during patient intake. By consistently tracking these KPIs, you clearly understand how your patient acquisition strategies affect your bottom line. These crucial metrics also offer insights into areas needing improvement, aiding in developing new patient acquisition and retention strategies.

The Major Patient Acquisition KPIs

1. Conversion Rate

Patient conversion rate measures the percentage of prospective patients who complete a specific activity, such as signing up for a newsletter, calling a healthcare provider, or booking an appointment. It evaluates the overall effectiveness of your healthcare institution’s patient acquisition strategies. 

Calculating the conversion rate involves dividing the number of patients who completed a desired action by the total number of visitors to your site. The results will determine whether your website and marketing strategies are working effectively. A high conversion rate means that your approaches are practical, while a low conversion rate calls for improving the current strategy.

2. Patient Acquisition Cost (PAC)

Patient acquisition cost measures the total expense your healthcare facility incurs when converting a prospective lead into an actual patient. This metric shows you whether a campaign that results in a conversion is effective, needs improvement, or should be scrapped. Generally, your patient acquisition cost should be, at most, the total value of the patient throughout your relationship in order for your investments to have a positive ROI.

3. Retention Rate

Patient retention rate measures the percentage of patients a healthcare facility retains over a specific period. While attracting new patients is crucial, keeping them is even more critical. Without effective retention, efforts to acquire patients will be in vain. Given the numerous benefits of strong patient retention, it’s vital to understand your retention rates. This knowledge helps determine if new strategies are needed to prevent existing patients from leaving.

4. Patient Lifetime Value

This metric calculates how much your healthcare institution expects to make throughout its relationship with a patient. It covers the average income generated throughout the patient’s consultation visits and treatments. Knowing PLV will help you tailor your marketing strategies to attract and retain high-value patients.

5. Website Traffic

Most healthcare professionals use website analytics software to track website traffic and engagement. They evaluate page visits, average session time, and bounce rate. Low engagement metrics suggest improving user experience or website content.

6. Social Media Engagement

Healthcare facilities harness the power of social media to attract new patients by creating engaging content and sharing valuable health information. Metrics like likes, shares, reposts, and comments indicate these campaigns’ effectiveness, helping them gauge public interest and improve their strategies. By actively engaging with their audience, healthcare providers can build trust, foster community, and enhance patient care and outreach.

The Lowdown

It’s essential to track your KPIs to identify opportunities for growth and know where to make adjustments. Understanding the above key performance indicators will assist your team to know where to put the most effort. With the insights these metrics provide, you will know which strategies are working and which are falling short.

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