Back when there were doctor’s house calls and the neighborhood doc was everyone’s physician, it was easy to connect with patients. And while you might think that the internet gives you more avenues to reach out, patients become apprehensive behind a screen when they aren’t familiar with their doctor.

With all the choices in the medical field, it can be overwhelming to choose a doctor who can put their patients at ease, so they’ll keep coming back for treatment. The doctor-patient relationship is an important one, and there are some key things you can do to connect with your patients in the modern age.

Remain Transparent

Patients appreciate a doctor they can count on and who communicates with complete transparency. They want to know about their doctor’s specialty, who they are, and how they treat their patients before they even walk through the door.

Doctors might have their credentials hanging on their wall or their website but that only tells part of their story. One way to connect with patients and explain a doctor’s specialties in a way that patients can relate to is through a medical PR campaign. Bridging the gap between patient and doctor is a great way to build a trusting relationship.

Be Available

When establishing a doctor to patient relationship, the doctor must be available to the patient. There’s nothing more frustrating for a patient than to reach out to their doctor and not receive an answer. The only thing worse is having no way to contact the doctor at all.

To open lines of communication and keep them open, doctors should have a way to contact patients, and patients should have a way to contact their doctor. This connection can be through email or phone, but communication must be a two-way street to be effective.

Social Media

Social media is a great way to share educational resources that are not only helpful for patients but helps to establish trust. This way of communicating with patients brings a familiar neighborly feel to the doctor-patient relationship by connecting where most people spend their time online.

Doctors should invite their patients to follow them on social media. This will show they are available and willing to share helpful information patients can use. It’s a good way to reinforce health-related material that doctors address during appointments, and it gives patients another avenue to reach out to their physicians.

Keep Patients in the Know

Just like doctors, patients tend to stay on top of health news, especially if it relates to their health matters. So, it’s good practice for doctors to talk to their patients about trending news. Doing so does two things: It lets the patient know that the doctor is proactive when it comes to the latest health information, and helps to establish their credibility and trustworthiness.

Keeping the Communication Lines Open

A doctor’s main focus is to help their patients stay healthy, and they can’t do that if they do not connect with their patients properly. If you don’t establish trust and the communication lines aren’t open, the patient isn’t likely to seek the treatment they need in a timely manner.

Communication and connection are key elements of a healthy relationship between doctors and patients. Even though most of us don’t remember the small-town neighborhood docs that brought medicine to your door, we have the virtual world. And if doctors and patients use that virtual world correctly, it can help to grow a trusting relationship that could affect a patient’s health over their lifetime.