Lessons I Learned from Farrago: Communication is Key (or… Get You a Newsletter!)
After a grueling, multi-phase interview process, I purchased Forest Direct Primary Care from Dr. Doug Farrago in October 2020. In the month before that transition, Doug was kind enough to “show me the ropes”. He had set up several systems and policies that yielded success for his practice of six years at the time. As I have been mentoring resident physicians, medical students, and pre-med students, I find myself sharing these pearls and tidbits often. I offer them up for the DPC community. This is the fourth installment in this series of lessons.
Doug realized that when folks were paying a monthly membership fee, and most of those folks would not need your services in any given month, you need a vehicle to help people stay engaged and feel they were getting value for their membership dollar. Among Doug’s many hats, he is an author. He enjoys writing (and speaking and inventing, and…). He shared with me that the newsletter allowed him to do something he enjoyed and helped keep patients engaged.
This was not my personal bent. While I don’t hate writing, also don’t love it. It took me a while to develop this habit. I’ve been shocked at the results! When patients have moved to other states, several of them have requested that they stay on the newsletter list because they enjoy the articles. I have family and friends that have asked to be included on the list. I have patients ask permission to share these with their friends and family (unnecessary but thoughtful of them). I have one patient who shares some of the newsletter topics with his retirement community! I currently don’t need to market, but the newsletter is an extension of word of mouth. Trying to grow your practice? Start a newsletter!
You may wonder, as I did initially, what would I write about? Doug made it simple (KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid):
Is there some healthcare topic that’s trending in the news? Give your two cents!
Is there a study that you find interesting? Share it in layman’s terms.
There are all kinds of important health topics that have months dedicated to them: nutrition, hospice, heart health, vaccination, a different cancer for almost each month, etc. Write a small, patient-centered blurb about them. What are important things your patients can do regarding these issues? What would be some prevention or screening you may recommend (or recommend against!)?
Educate your patients about how to treat common symptoms so they call you less quickly when they have a sniffle for 30 seconds.
What important information about your practice specifically do you need to share? That you’ll be gone for a vacation? How to best contact you? Some of these I keep as ongoing sections in my weekly newsletter.
It doesn’t need to be, and shouldn’t be, long (or boring). When patients have something come from their doctor, they enjoy it.
I happen to use an email program because that’s what was handed down to me from Doug. It’s worked great and matched my personality. I think its monthly fee is reasonable and it has several tools I find useful. I’m not much of a social media guy, but certainly there are DPC docs who love other platforms, such as Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc. I like the email platform because people can read it when they want, and I don’t have to worry about whether they choose to go look for newly uploaded content. It goes to them. All patients 18 years of age and older get put on the email list. There are clear instructions for how they can unenroll at any time. The stats for my practice are that <1% of those patients have unenrolled from the newsletter. About 66-70% of patients open (and read?) the newsletter weekly.
I brought on Dr. Jeff Ponke just over a year ago (that’s another article) and his goal was to have a patient panel of 500. I advertised his joining the practice in my newsletter (and he advertised in his newsletter, and we used other Farrago pearls), and we were able to accomplish that goal within one year! We are both currently full. We have a new waiting list accumulating. We are looking for another like-minded Family Medicine physician. If you happen to know a good Family doctor that might like central Virginia…
