The New Patient page is the front door to your FQHC.

Here’s how to keep it open.

There’s no shortage of advice about how healthcare organizations can attract new patients to their website. 

But too often, when a prospect is on-site and ready to become an actual patient, the journey stops at the New Patient page. And even though nearly 40% of patients claim to use New Patient portals, almost 70% of community health center websites don’t have one.

So, if you’re a savvy healthcare marketer with an underperforming New Patient page – or if you’re an aspiring healthcare marketer ready to add one – this is for you.

3 Steps to Creating an Effective New Patient page

1. Build Trust

Here’s why: Healthcare decisions are rarely if ever based on factual data alone. Emotions play a key role, and the person deciding whether to become a new patient may be in a state of anger, stress, anxiety, confusion, or depression. Language barriers can make matters worse. So you need to take prospects by the hand.

Here’s how:

1. State your Mission. It reassures new patients that you’re grounded in a belief system.
2. State your clinical capabilities and areas of specialization. It confirms the new patient has arrived at the right place.
3. State your Point of Difference. Define what makes you good/better/best.

Content to consider: Short format video. A 1-2 minute segment with animation, kinetic type, and a voiceover describing the mission of the organization and the services it provides.

2. Shape expectations

Here’s why: You need to prepare the person to become a patient. You need to establish reasonable, realistic hopes. This will help make the first visit align with what the patient anticipates.

Here’s how:

1. Use your best images. Facilities should be showcased as clean, professional workspaces. Staff photos should show a range of emotions from serious to happy.
2. Offer financial information. This may include sample pricing for basic visits or insurance claims support.
3. Describe how care is provided. State clearly that care is provided by a team, and that the team includes professionals beside the physician.
4. Share parking information. Especially if there’s potential for confusion in way-finding.

Content to consider: A Pre-Appointment Call. Touching base with a voice message to 1^st-time patients the day before an appointment.

1. Confirm the appointment
2. Identify key reminders (insurance info, pre-visit questionnaires)
3. Humanize the organization.
   • NOTE: Person-to-person calls are ideal, but automated calls can also add value.

3. Go step by step

Here’s why: A sequential process increases the likelihood of a successful conversion. It can reduce confusion, especially in multiethnic patient populations. And it establishes your organization as an authority on how to do things.

Here’s how: 

1. Information graphics. Use shapes, colors, and simple text to capture and guide patient attention.
2. Video explainer segments. Short (60-75 seconds) videos with simple copy graphics are an easy way to digest process-related information.
3. Send a text message that introduces the organization and provides the new patient with contact information for questions.

Content to consider: A New Patient Roadmap. Design a graphic (viewable or downloadable) on your site that presents the steps a person will take to become a new patient. Highlight preparation, the necessary forms, and the sequence of steps in order. If possible, make it mobile-friendly and translatable.

When you’re ready to start using data and creativity to solve healthcare marketing problems, contact us.