Why patient drop-off analysis (milestone) is better than PVA for retention:
The patient visit average is touted by most consultants as a key metric for patient retention. It has some value, but it only points out a potential problem. It doesn't show you if it is a problem or where it is.
I like patient drop-off analysis because it shows you that a problem exists and where to fix the issue.
Before we discuss how to use this, let's talk about the 'theory of constraints.'
It is a method for identifying the most important limiting factor, i.e., the constraint. Every process has a throughput, and each visit in your office will be in patient drop-off analysis. For example, if you want to put a herculean effort into measuring how many patients make it to your 36th visit exam and convert into wellness care, that may be a good idea.
However, if 80% of your patients dropped off by the 12th visit and the final 19% dropped off before visit 36, why would that much effort tracking a 36th Rexam visit and training on that exam, just to convert more of the 1%.
Your effort should focus on visits 0-12 to determine where the problem is. Visit 0 would be everything that happens before the first visit.
Where to start?
You can go ahead and go the milestone report and configure your visits. First, you set the visit # you wish to track and then you set the milestone or the timeline to attain that visit.
For example, you can see how many patients reached a goal or milestone of 12 visits in 6 weeks in a specific month. This is important for retention and compliance.
If you mark new patients as "starts" then the report can be filtered by the "np start" tag to identify how many patients who started on care actually reached specific milestones. Click on the blue numbers to see the patient's names. This will show you which patients reached the milestone and which ones did not.
Q: How do I edit the settings in the Milestone Report?
A: Click on the Settings button at the top of the page. Then click on Configure Milestones. Add or delete # of visits and target time settings with the red trash icon or the plus + icon based on your desired goals.
Q: I only want to see milestone (retention) data for new patients who have started on care? Is this possible?
A: Yes, the Milestone Report can be filtered by tags. The easiest way to do this is to use the 'automations' in the setting section. This marks patients off as starts/conversions based on certain criteria that you select.
Click on the Filter icon on the upper left portion of the report. Select Tags.
Click on the box next to the desired tag (most common = np start). Ensure a green plus + is in the box next to the tag.
Then click Filter and allow the report to load data.
Q: How do I analyze the milestone report?
100% of the patients will make the first visit, in total, you will see 81 of 81 patients making it to that milestone
There are 79 of 84 patients that completed 3 visits within 4 weeks
The analysis of this requires you to look at the drop-offs, in which there is a significant drop between visit 5 and visit 8.
Inserting a re-exam between those visits may be a solution
Inserting a workshop before that visit might be the solution
If you look at larger visit milestones, please make sure you look at dates that are old enough, so those patients had an opportunity to reach that visit milestone. If you had 80 visits as a milestone, 0% of them would reach that by 8 weeks probably.
After clicking on the numbers in blue:
A green check mark on the report means the patient met or achieved the milestone.
A red X means the patient did not meet or achieve the milestone.