Medical professionals understand that annual wellness visits are part of effective preventative care. However, many people don’t do it.
Annual wellness visits don’t just have benefits for patients. Medical practices greatly benefit when they make providing wellness visits as a standard part of their practice operations.
Annual Wellness Visits: What Are They?
It’s essential to know that annual wellness visits are different from annual checkups. A yearly wellness visit doesn’t require a physical exam but only involves a detailed assessment of a patient’s current health condition and risk factors through a set of questions.
Annual wellness visits help identify health risks, and it involves counseling to reduce these risk factors. Therefore, a yearly wellness visit with a healthcare professional is an opportunity for patients to dive into their lifestyle and any symptoms they may have to better understand what to change and watch out for.
Why Are Annual Wellness Visits Appealing?
Undeniably, annual wellness visits are gaining so much popularity, and it’s because of the elements in the visits. It covers medical and family histories that enable healthcare professionals to provide customized health advice for a better quality of life.
It also covers health risk assessment and cognitive health assessment. Furthermore, the patient’s height, weight, blood pressure, and BMI calculation will be taken during an annual wellness visit.
How Can Medical Practices Benefit from This?
One of the great benefits that medical practices can get from annual wellness visits is using the data collected during these visits to improve patient care. For example, the information provided by patients during their annual wellness visit can be used to plan for the future care of a patient effectively.
Another benefit that medical practices can get from annual wellness visits is that it is a way to improve their patient satisfaction. In fact, most patients who go for annual wellness visits are satisfied because of the benefits that the visits provide for them.
The consultations during annual wellness visits allow patients to have a more positive impression of their medical practice. It builds a connection between the patients and the medical practice. This increases the loyalty of respondents toward their medical practice.
In addition, when medical practices see a growing number of patients who prefer to do annual wellness visits, they can boost the marketing of their practice. They can also include a promotion for yearly wellness visits on their brochure so that patients take notice.
How to Make an Annual Wellness Visit Successful?
Annual wellness visits are successful because they are made to be responsive to patients’ needs. First and foremost, the visit needs to be easy to schedule. Not only should patient data be accessible, but their medical records should be easy to access as well.
Second, the annual wellness visit should be affordable. Therefore, medical practices can provide affordable annual wellness visits by applying a sliding scale for those who can’t afford the annual health visits.
Third, patients should be provided with an incentive to do annual wellness visits. Patients can be provided with incentives and rewards for meeting their goals when it comes to a healthier lifestyle. For example, medical practices can provide patients with discounts for their next medical treatment.
The Bottom Line
Annual wellness visits are essential for patients to monitor their health. In addition, it can be an opportunity for medical practices to improve their business.
Medistics Health plays a huge role in preventative care. When your patient has chronic conditions, behavioral health conditions or needs help transitioning out of an inpatient facility; we can simplify the experience through our Remote Patient Monitoring system. Get in touch with us.