Any patient returning to seek medical care from the same provider after the initial visit and continuing to do so until the end of treatment requirement is referred to as successful patient retention or patient loyalty. Patients, faced with different options for getting treatment, obviously weigh them against each other for comparison and choose the one that is the most comfortable, convenient and less draining financially. So, healthcare organizations come up with methods to ensure patient loyalty and experiment with methods for better patient retention.

Some of the ways to ensure patient retention are

• Ensuring patient satisfaction by improving communication ways between patient and provider is the foremost way in which patients can be given a well-cared-for experience and hence make sure that they return to the same provider.
• Being in a position to be easily approachable by patients and answer their questions and put them at ease immediately.
• Providing quality treatment time by the provider helps retain patients in a major way, not only during visits but a follow-up communication after the visits too, from the healthcare organization, goes a long way to ensure patients stay satisfied with the care provided.
• Having follow-up enquiries about the patient experience in the healthcare set-up can largely influence their positive experience and further rectifications can be set in place with the help of patient experience and suggestions.
• Utilising technology wherever possible to improve patient experience from the point of appointment to the time they leave the healthcare set-up, improves their overall satisfaction. Using telemedicine, software applications for appointment scheduling, etc, which can reduce waiting time in hospitals has a positive patient retention rate.
• Making available information about the hospitals/providers online, where patients can get their necessary questions answered, is a way of reaffirming their confidence and is an indirect marketing strategy for good patient retention.