Amy Pearlman, MD, on tailored communication with her urology patients

In this video, Amy Pearlman, MD, discusses how she communicates with patients. Pearlman presented a talk at the 2024 Sexual Medicine Society of North America Fall Scientific Meeting titled “Building a Thriving Mens Health Practice from Scratch - Private Practice.” She is a urologist and co-founder of the Prime Institute in Coral Gables, Florida.

Transcription:

What strategies have you implemented to foster strong patient relationships and encourage long-term loyalty?

The communication piece is everything. And in my concierge practice, people are paying me for my time, my expertise, and access to my time and expertise. And so just with the conversation of how I like to communicate, I also have to ask my patients, Jose, how do you like to communicate? Bill, how do you like to communicate? Because they all like to communicate a little bit differently. Now, when it comes to you know, like the health care information, I always encourage my patients, we should communicate through our portal, because it's HIPAA compliant. But there are other times where maybe they just want to ask a simple question, and it might not be super health care related, or they want to reschedule their appointment. Then we have a business line that goes to my phone. And so they can text me, and they're texting my receptionist, but I have access to it as well. And so let's say it's 5 pm and my receptionist is off. I'm the one responding to the text, and I'll say, Hey, this is Dr Amy, happy to move your appointment. Some of my patients love texting through the business line. I also, especially for patients where I'm doing procedures on them, I give them my business card with my cell phone number. A lot of my patients have my cell phone number, and I specifically tell them this is my cell phone number, and if you need to reach me, you call me. Do I give it to everyone? No, but that provides them peace of mind for people who would prefer to communicate that way, and then I use email for other parts of communication. There are some patients that call my office and say, Please have Dr Pearlman call me back, and then I won't text them, I won't email them, then I'll call them back. That's how we communicate on a more regular basis. But in terms of other aspects of communication, how do I educate my patients, communicate with them after their visit, just about health care related information? I ask the same questions. I will send them videos. I'll ask them, do you ever go on YouTube? And if they do, I'll give them YouTube channels they should follow. I ask them, are you on Instagram? And if they are, I tell them, "These are the other people you need to follow." And they literally take screenshots of my phone in the office visit, and they follow those patients. So I think it's simple and complex. I think at the very simplest level, it's just asking our patients, how do you like to communicate and how do you like to be communicated with?

This transcript was AI generated and edited by human editors for clarity.