Most physicians start entrepreneurial practices to deliver better care. But better care alone doesn’t guarantee patient loyalty or referrals. A Five-Star Experience often separates thriving private practices from ones that struggle to retain members.
Here’s what entrepreneurial physicians can learn from the hospitality playbook.
Patients Are People First
The most successful entrepreneurial practices treat every interaction as an opportunity to demonstrate care. These interactions start well before any clinical encounter.
Think about your onboarding process. When a new patient signs up, what happens next? Many practices default to sending paperwork and scheduling an appointment. That’s functional, but it’s not memorable.
Practices that excel at patient experience take a different approach. They listen during initial conversations to understand what matters most to each individual. They make sure paperwork arrives complete and error-free. They communicate proactively so patients feel informed rather than processed.
Think of your practice as a swan on water: calm and composed on the surface, with intense coordination happening underneath. Patients should never see the difficulty involved in tracking down records, coordinating with specialists, or managing schedules. Their job is to show up.
The Consistency Principle
Luxury hotels succeed because guests know exactly what to expect. A Four Seasons in New York delivers the same standard as one in Tokyo. That predictability builds trust.
The same principle applies to entrepreneurial practices. Every touchpoint should reflect your brand and values, from how phones are answered to how follow-up emails are written.
This doesn’t mean being rigid or impersonal. It means being intentional.
Does your team answer calls with a consistent, professional greeting? Do written communications avoid casual language that undermines your positioning? Does your physical space reflect the quality of care you provide?
Small details accumulate. “Please allow me to connect you” has a different meaning than “Hold on a sec.” Neither is wrong, but one reinforces a premium experience.
Preventing Buyer’s Remorse
Your patients make a significant financial commitment to join your practice. They’re choosing to pay out of pocket for something insurance might cover.
That decision creates a unique psychological dynamic. Patients arrive hopeful but watchful. They’re assessing whether the experience matches what they were promised.
Smart entrepreneurial practices recognize this and take a proactive stance. Rather than waiting for dissatisfaction to surface, they look for early signals of doubt and address concerns before they calcify into regret.
This might mean checking in after the first visit to confirm expectations were met. It might mean anticipating questions and answering them before they’re asked. The goal is reinforcing confidence in the patient’s decision at every opportunity.
Relationships Outside the Exam Room
The physician-patient relationship remains central to entrepreneurial practices. Practices that deliver exceptional experiences extend relationship-building across the entire team.
Patients should feel known and valued by everyone they encounter: the person who answers the phone, the nurse who takes vitals, the coordinator who schedules referrals. Each team member affects how patients perceive the practice.
This requires intentional culture-building. Staff need to understand they’re not performing administrative tasks; they’re shaping how patients feel about your practice. Regular huddles, shared communication protocols, and a genuine orientation toward service all contribute.
Beautiful offices and advanced diagnostics matter, but patients can find those elsewhere. What they can’t easily replicate is a team that truly sees them as individuals.
Communication as Experience Design
How you communicate shapes the patient experience as much as what you communicate.
Written messages deserve particular attention. Before sending any patient communication, ask: Is this complete? Does it anticipate likely questions? Does it reflect our brand voice?
Incomplete or contradictory messages erode trust quickly. Patients shouldn’t receive multiple emails about the same issue or instructions that conflict with what they heard on the phone.
Phone etiquette matters equally. Teams benefit from explicit training on language choices, tone, and how to handle common scenarios. These aren’t natural skills for most people; they need to be taught and reinforced.
Experience Is the Differentiator
Patient experience is the fulfillment of the promise that brings patients to your door.
Entrepreneurial physicians who invest in experience design build practices that retain patients longer, generate more referrals, and command premium fees with confidence. Clinical excellence is the baseline expectation, not the differentiator.
The practices that thrive treat every interaction as a chance to show patients they made the right choice. PPA members gain access to detailed frameworks for patient experience, including peer discussions on what’s working in practices across the country. They also receive access to Standards of Excellent Care and Company Culture, and consulting services for assessment and staff training as it relates to Five-Star Service. Learn more about membership today.
