Patients travel through a series of steps—whether they know it or not—before they engage with your practice. This is known as the patient journey. For patients, the journey they undergo is not something they often think about, as they are just looking for an outlet to fulfill their needs. For healthcare practices, the patient journey is the difference between an engaged patient in your practice or them finding their needs met in your competitors office. 

Many people think that the new patient lifecycle ends at the point of the patient beginning some form of service or purchasing a product at your practice, but that is not entirely true. The patient’s journey continues well after this point, and they have a major influence on other potential new patients when sharing their experience about your business practice.