6 Best Patient Retention Software of 2024

Introduction 

Patient retention refers to the ability of healthcare providers to retain patients by keeping them engaged in their healthcare and by offering them a great patient experience. Since the money and time spent on marketing strategies for acquiring new patients can be quite costly, once you have booked a patient, it is important to consider how to retain them. And one of the most efficient and cost-effective ways to achieve this is by considering investing in the best patient retention software.

What is Patient Retention Software?

Patient retention can be improved largely by focusing on patient engagement, patient experience, and care. And this is where having patient retention software comes in. Patient retention software offers tools and capabilities that could allow you to improve patient experience and keep them more engaged in their healthcare. When a patient is engaged and satisfied with the experience, they are more likely to choose you again and even refer your service to others in case of future emergencies. 

Top 6 Patient Retention Software: A Quick Comparison 

Key highlights:

• Emitrr is our top pick for the best patient retention software because of its affordable pricing, 5-star customer rating, comprehensive features, ease of use, and best value for money.
• Weave and Solutionreach have poor customer support ratings and have the least value for money. They both are also the most expensive and charge an additional set-up fee. 
• Although Nexhealth has good customer support and value for money, it is expensive as compared to Emitrr, which is equally good and costs way less.
• Nexhealth and Doctible are quite labor intensive, which defies the whole purpose of having software that can automate patient retention to a good extent. 
• Practice Better costs the lowest, but it offers limited features and has an average score for everything else. 

Features to Look for In A Patient Retention Software

1. Patient appointment reminders & follow-ups

Appointment cancellations and no-shows could lead to loss of revenue and patients. To avoid this and to retain patients, you must look for appointment reminders and follow up features with capabilities that allow you to:

• Customize reminders
• Update confirmations automatically into your PMS/EMR
• Send text, voice, and email-based reminders
• Define the reminder cadence and frequency
• Track confirmed vs unconfirmed appointments
• Schedule an automated follow up for unconfirmed appointments, no-shows, and last-minute cancellations

2. Patient portal

Healthcare treatments are often stressful for patients, and the last thing that they should worry about is paperwork, appointment bookings, access to their reports, etc. As a Healthcare professional, you should ensure that these formalities are simplified for your patients so that they do not have to worry about trivial matters. For this, you must choose a patient retention or patient reactivation software that allows you to offer a patient portal for easy access to bookings, reports, form filling, etc. 

3. EMR/EHR integrations 

If you choose a patient retention software that does not integrate with your current EMR/EHR system, then you would end up wasting precious time that would go to tedious data entry. Hence, look for a patient reactivation software that allows you to easily integrate with your existing EMR/EHR system and that can easily sync and save your existing patient data. 

4. HIPAA-compliance

When it comes to texting or communicating with your patients to increase patient retention, it is crucial to look for software that is HIPAA-compliant. By looking for HIPAA-compliant patient retention software, you can ensure that you are doing patient communication within legal bounds and can save yourself from hefty penalties.   

5. Patient engagement tools 

Utilizing patient engagement tools is the best way to increase patient retention. For this, you must look for patient retention software that offers useful patient engagement tools including:

• Two-way texting
• Feedback forms and survey
• Patient portals
• Accessible medical reports
• Post-discharge follow up
• Patient reactivation features
• Personalized communication
• And more..

6. Patient recalls

Patient recalls are important to encourage your patients to return to the clinic for hygiene or routine checkups and is also a great way to retain patients. So when looking for patient retention software, look for the patient recall feature with capabilities that allow you to:

• Send recall reminders
• Schedule appointments on reply
• Send recalls via both SMS and email 
• Segregate recall messages according to type
• Set cadence for recall texts
• Set frequency for recall texts
• Choose, customize, and save the recall template 

7. Two-way texting with patients

What good is a communication tool that does not allow your patients to text you back? When looking for patient retention software, look for a two-way texting feature so that apart from the automated messages, you can manually text your patients and continue one-on-one conversations. This would also allow you to personalize patient outreach and address any specific concerns that your patients may have. Additionally, within this, look for capabilities such as HIPAA-compliant texting and the option to send links, videos, and images. 

Best Patient Retention Software 

1. Emitrr
2. Weave
3. NexHealth
4. Practice Better
5. Doctible
6. Solutionreach 

1. Emitrr 

Emitrr is our top pick for the best HIPAA-compliant patient retention software. Be it receiving real-time online bookings through reminders, sending automated hygiene reminders, following up with patients for their upcoming appointments, or allowing two-way texting for better communication, and more. Emitrr’s comprehensive suite of features and tools makes everything very easy. On top of this, it offers plenty of EMR/EHR integrations, custom pricing, superior customer service, etc., making it the ideal patient retention solution. Here is a detailed look at what more you can expect from Emitrr: 

Emitrr Features 

• Automate and streamline key patient touch points (Reminders, Reviews, Scheduling, No show follow ups, and more)
• Connect with your patients on the channel they prefer – text, social media, calls, website, and more
• Allow patients to book 24*7 without needing to call the office
• Send HIPAA-compliant instant messages
• Seamless integration with your EMR (1000+ integrations)
• Text confidently with end-to-end encryption 
• Send appointment reminders & confirmations
• Send 1 to 1 message
• Send broadcast or group or mass message
• Send and receive images, files (lab reports, insurance, x-rays), or videos
• Send personalized messages to boost patient engagement
• Increase patient retention with automated reminders, no-show follow-up, reactivation, etc.
• Get important patient information through secure digital forms
• Manage reviews from one single place
• Track and improve performance with analytics 
• Plenty of VoIP features 
• Customizable templates

Emitrr EMR/EHR Integrations

So, Emitrr integrates with over 500+ external tools and software including these for healthcare providers: 

Pros of Emitrr

• Easy-to-use interface 
• Seamless integration 
• Multiple useful features
• Easy to set up dashboard 
• Excellent customer service 
• Affordable & flexible pricing 
• HIPAA compliant
• Customizable
• No-show reduction
• Versatile
• Saves time
• Reactivate patients with easy patient recalls

Cons of Emitrr

• No major issues with this software

Emitrr Pricing

Emitrr offers an affordable and flexible pricing structure. Its pricing starts at $149 a month, and customers can opt for the pay-what-you-choose option and pay for only the features they really want. 

Emitrr Customer Rating 

• Capterra: 4.8/5
• G2: 4.7/5

2. Weave

Weave is an all-in-one communication software that offers powerful growth tools for patient retention and patient communication, such as online scheduling, reminders, analytics, etc. The software caters to healthcare professionals in multiple niches, including dental care, eye care, physical therapy, medical spa, plastic surgery, and more. Here is some more information on Weave’s features, integration, pricing, etc. for patient retention:

Weave Features 

• Automatic appointment reminders
• Online scheduling
• Digital forms
• Automatic appointment confirmation
• Analytics
• Personalize patient outreach

Weave Integrations

• Dentrix
• Dolphin
• Denticon
• Dentimax
• Easydental
• Eddson
• Eaglesoft
• And more..

Pros of Weave

• Useful texting feature
• Easy-to-use interface 
• Multiple communication tools
• Good customer service

Cons of Weave

• Limited features 
• Messaging issues
• Technical issues

Weave’s Pricing

Weave’s pricing starts at $399 + $750 setup fee. 

Weave’s Customer Rating 

• Capterra: 4.8/5
• G2: 4.5/5

3. NexHealth

NexHealth is another popular HIPAA-compliant patient communication software that offers handy patient retention tools for patient retention such as communications tools, forms, payments, etc. The platform integrates with a major popular patient management system but does not have transparent pricing and also has limited features. Here are some more details on the software: 

NexHealth Features 

• Messaging
• Campaigns
• Reminders
• Recalls
• Reviews
• Scheduling 
• Payments & forms

NexHealth Integrations

• Dentrix
• Open Dental
• eClinicalWorks
• Doctible
• Opencare
• Jefferson

Pros of NexHealth

• Easy patient communication 
• Good customer support
• Online booking feature is great

Cons of NexHealth

• Difficult navigation
• Limited features
• Lots of extra work

NexHealth’s Pricing

NexHealth’s pricing starts at $350 a month. 

NexHealth’s Customer Rating 

• Capterra: 4.9/5
• G2: 4.8/5

4. Practice Better

Practice Better is an all-in-one EHR and practice management software that is meant to build the health and wellness of healthcare businesses. The platform offers features and tools for practice management and client experience, such as automation, scheduling, and more, that can be utilized for patient retention. Practice Better also serves multiple niches in the healthcare industry, including nutritionists, medical doctors, chiropractors, and more, allowing you better flexibility. 

Practice Better Features

• Scheduling
• Charting
• Automations
• Client portal
• Messaging

Practice Better Integrations

• Nutri-Q
• Apple Health
• Google Calendar

Pros of Practice Better

• Customer service
• Client engagement features 

Cons of Practice Better

• Limited SMS features 
• Integration issues 

Practice Better Pricing

• $25 per month
• $59 per month
• $89 per month
• $145 per month 

Practice Better Customer Rating

• Capterra: 4.8/5
• G2: 4.8/9

5. Doctible 

Doctible is a well-known HIPAA-compliant patient communication software that offers plenty of patient retention tools and features such as HIPAA and TCPA-compliant data storage and messaging history, targeted group messages, and more. However, the platform lacks automation, requires manual work, and also is quite expensive compared to other patient retention software. Here are some additional details on Doctible: 

Doctible Features 

• Patient communication
• Two-way texting
• Patient recall
• Group messaging
• Customization

Doctible Integrations

• DentiMax
• Dentrix
• Total Dental
• Opendental
• Sensei
• ClearDent

Pros of Doctible

• Great customer service
• Intuitive interface

Cons of Doctible

• Poor integration
• Lack of automation
• Expensive

Doctible’s Pricing

• Gold: $199/month
• Gold Plus: $299/month 
• Platinum: Custom

Doctible’s Customer Rating 

• Capterra: 4.8/5
• G2: 4.5/5

6. Solutionreach

Solutionreach is another popular patient retention software that serves independent practitioners as well as experts with practice in multiple locations. The platform offers solutions for different healthcare niches, including dental, vision, hospitals, medical groups, and more. The software is rich in features but has limitations with messaging and customer service. Here’s a detailed look at Solutionreach:  

Solutionreach Features 

• Appointment reminders 
• Recall
• Insurance reminders
• Customization
• Omni-channel messages 
• Batch messaging
• Two-way texting
• Digital intake
• And more..

Solutionreach Integrations

• Denticon
• Fuse
• Dentrix
• Opendental
• Eaglesoft
• Curve Dental 
• And more..

Pros of Solutionreach

• User friendly design  
• Handy communication tools

Cons of Solutionreach

• Messaging issues 
• Technical issues
• Poor customer service

Solutionreach Pricing

• Solutionreach’s pricing starts at $329 a month plus it charges a set-up fee of additional $399. 

Solutionreach Customer Rating

• Capterra: 3.8/5
• G2: 4.3 

Why Emitrr is the Best Patient Retention Software?

After reviewing 6 best patient retention software, we think that Emitrr is the best option that you can possibly find, and here’s why:  

Affordable & flexible pricing 

Emitrr is quite affordable as compared to its competitors. Its pricing starts at just $149 a month, and customers can select the features they want and pay for what they choose. Additionally, Emitrr offers a pricing model based on outgoing message credits rather than users or locations. So if you want software using which you can send SMS to patients in a cost-effective way, then Emitrr is just the platform for you. 

Comprehensive patient retention features 

As mentioned earlier, patient retention heavily relies on patient engagement and good patient experience. And to make this possible, you need software such as Emitrr with extensive features and capabilities such as two-way texting, appointment reminders, recalls and scheduling, EMR/EHR integrations, etc. to make this possible for you. 

Team collaboration tools 

In order to offer a good patient experience to facilitate patient retention, you must work on team collaboration first. Thankfully, Emitrr offers such useful team collaboration tools, including a unified inbox for patient conversations, translation, notes, etc., allowing you and your team to collaborate and achieve your goal easily. 

Integration 

Emitrr integrates with over 500 external tools and software. It also integrates with over 100+ EHR and practice management systems including Dentrix, Denticon, Curve Hero, OpenDental, etc. ensuring that you are able to carry on your day-to-day tasks smoothly without any unwanted hiccups. 

Customer support 

Emitrr takes pride in offering exceptional customer support 24/7. Its support can be reached easily via chat or email. You can also access their customer dashboard, knowledge portal, FAQ section, and videos online in case you have any queries. Emitrr has in fact, been rated 5/5 for its customer support on sites like Capterra and G2, unlike its competitors, making it one of the best software to choose from if customer support is important to you.  

Patient Retention Software FAQs

Conclusion

By improving patient experience and patient engagement, healthcare professionals can improve their patient retention rate exceptionally. However, in order to facilitate this in a cost and time-effective way, you will need reliable patient retention software. 

There are not that many software that are focused on patient retention; however, after studying the six best options on the basis of features, integrations, pricing, support, and pros and cons, we can say that Emitrr is the number one patient retention software that you can choose for your practice.