5 Ways to Attract Millennial Patients to Your Healthcare Organization

By Lisa Mulcahy via Multibriefs

As a healthcare professional, you understand that millennials are seeking traditional healthcare less frequently than previous generations — but do you really understand why?

Researchers have been making fascinating inroads when it comes to determining how millennials really approach their healthcare. Understand the way they think and how they want to be served and you'll be able to attract them to your practice and/or hospital. Use these science-based strategies to make it happen:

Stress the importance of professional opinion.

Research from the TransAmerica Center for Health Studies found that only 32% of surveyed millennials saw a primary care provider in the past year. Additional research has found that 50% of millennials diagnose themselves by Googling their symptoms and self-treat based on what they read.

It's key to focus marketing to this age group on the life-saving importance of medical accuracy. In a supportive, friendly way, structure your content to stress that these potential patients are welcome to check out their symptoms online, but then they need to bring what they find to the doctor to have that info confirmed.

Team up with a retail healthcare provider.

Accenture's 2019 Digital Health Consumer Survey found that millennials are far more likely to go to a drug store health clinic than go to the ER or doctor's office.

Working with your local pharmacies to stringently refer younger customers to your healthcare organization for follow-up or additional care is key to gaining those customers' attention. It's also medically important, as this can identify patients at high risk for certain diseases or conditions.

Know your online reputation.

50% of millennials who are seeking a PCP turn to online reviews to help them choose their doctor, according to a study by Communispace. Make sure you know what current patients are saying about your practice and make the quality control changes needed to beef up your online image.

Also, work on your healthcare organization’s SEO to make sure great online reviews zoom you to the top of Google search results. You can't pay enough attention to the details of how your existing patients' satisfaction can affect your future patient demographic.

Give written care estimates.

The Communispace study found that millennials want to know upfront how much their care is going to cost. And since 1 in 5 millennials actually can't afford healthcare, according to the TransAmerica Center study, it's crucial to offer flexible payment plans and make millennials fully aware of low-cost or no-cost health plans available to them.

Make the process of applying for plans and assistance programs easy and friendly and assist your patients who do so however you can.

Talk to the millennials you already treat.

What do they like about the care they receive from you? What do they feel needs to be improved in terms of the information and care they receive?

Their perspective is invaluable...use it to understand on a granular level how you can provide even better care to them and to your new patients, too!

Lisa Mulcahy is an internationally established health writer whose credits include the Los Angeles Times, Redbook, Glamour, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Health, Good Housekeeping, Parade, Woman's Day, Family Circle and Seventeen. She is the author of eight best-selling books, including "The Essentials of Theater," an Amazon No. 1 new release.