Sam R. Patel on Why Florida’s Healthcare Boom Is Forcing Clinics to Grow Up Fast
Wellness and aesthetic clinics are having a moment. Medspas were relatively uncommon just a few years ago, but they’re now popping up all over the country in record numbers. However, as Sam R. Patel, founder of the healthcare app Looped can tell you, the elective healthcare boom is stronger in some areas than in others.
The aesthetic and wellness market has become especially concentrated in Texas, Colorado and Florida. In recent years, Patel has seen the most growth in Florida. “Florida is a very competitive landscape,” he says. “There’s a massive market there.”
What is it about the Sunshine State that makes it so popular among wellness clinic owners? Florida has long been a retirement destination, and each year, it sees an influx of affluent, aging residents. Although wellness and aesthetic medicine clinics are for everyone, they’re especially popular among older people with money to spend.
However, as anyone who’s ever managed a wellness clinic in the state knows, competition for patients is fierce, and clinics are doing whatever they can to stand out. As more clinics open, they have to fight even harder to attract new patients and keep the ones they have.
Standing Out is Getting Harder
When most people imagine a medical practice trying to edge out the competition, they picture a clinic trying to offer superior care, better prices, or both. However, Patel believes that competition in Florida’s medspa landscape has evolved past that point.
“I think people are beyond focusing on having the best skills. Now they’re focusing on providing the best experience for their patients,” he says. “The experience could be something as simple as answering the phone call properly or making the environment feel inviting and warm.”
“That can lead to revenue, that can lead to retention, that can lead to people coming back and not going to your competitors,” he continues. “Right now, everyone competes on price. So what they’re competing on instead is going to be performance and experience.”
Patel’s Simple Way to Explain the Shift
He illustrates the situation with an analogy: “A vehicle is a vehicle. If you get a mid-range car, it’s a great car. If you get a luxury car, it’s a great car. They both get you where you need to go. The difference between the two is the experience they give you. One has a better drive. One has better leather. But they do the same [thing]. And so it’s that sort of concept in the clinic space.”
Patel’s app, Looped, is one tool that clinics are using to help improve the patient experience.
Looped is a white-label healthcare app that clinics can purchase. It allows healthcare providers to send video-based education, customized procedure-preparation guidelines and track healthcare milestones through each patient’s app. It also helps keep patients engaged and invested in their health.
From the patient’s side, Looped looks like a social media app. Users can scroll through a curated feed of content from top health experts and earn reward points for watching content. They can then use those points to pay for future treatments.
What Looped Does for Clinics: Payments, Communication, Retention
Looped also doubles as a point-of-sale solution and a patient-relationship-management interface. Some wellness facilities don’t take insurance, so Looped partners with a payment provider to offer low-interest financing for procedures.
Importantly, providers can use the app to keep patients involved and engaged between visits. “One of the things we’ve added to the app is text automation,” Patel says. “Clinics often struggle with maintaining effective communication with patients. And so the actual app can text all patients and tell them about their pre- and post-care reminders.”
Most of Looped’s Florida customers are aesthetic and wellness clinics. However, Patel says Looped can benefit every kind of medical practice.
“It’s not just a tool for wellness and aesthetics,” he explains. “It’s a tool for dentistry. It’s a tool for pain management. It’s a tool for almost every specialty.”
Scaling Service without Adding Staff
One of the app’s greatest strengths is its scalability. It increases touchpoints with patients and helps improve the patient experience, but it does so without increasing demands on staff.
Because staff members don’t have to oversee promotions or handle payment logistics for procedures, they can be more present with the people who walk through the clinic’s doors.
For any medical practice that needs to professionalize its operations quickly, Looped offers a streamlined and cost-effective way to do so. While it doesn’t guarantee a practice’s success in an ultra-competitive market, it offers clinic owners the opportunity to outdo the competition.
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