Just about every transaction begins online now, including how patients choose their healthcare services and providers.
From checking how close the nearest clinic is to home to searching for a physician who is a perfect match — a patient’s experience truly begins when they start researching your hospital or doctors online on Google, Healthgrades, Facebook and more.
On these websites, they are confronted with star ratings and written patient reviews. If consumers see negative reviews about your hospitals or doctors that are not addressed, they are likely to seek other options. If patients are impressed by what they see online, it can launch the beginning of a positive patient experience before they walk through the door.
More than half of consumers consider online reviews important as they choose a healthcare provider, according to the Journal of American Medicine. It’s time for healthcare professionals to join the conversation, as an increasing number of patients seek online reviews more valid than word of mouth. If medical professionals don’t control their brand online, someone else will.
But how do you get your providers to recognize and consider online reviews with the same level of importance as standardized rating systems like the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS)?
Although HCAHPS scores provide hospitals and providers a report of patient experience, there are serious limitations to these surveys. HCAHPS measures the inpatient hospital experience, and does not consider the overall patient experience, such as access to the hospital, scheduling an appointment or paying a bill.
Here are some practical tips to manage your organization’s online reputation:
Your online business listings are the foundation for reputation management. Make sure that all patient care locations — including doctors’ offices, clinics, hospitals and surgery centers — are listed and claimed on Google. You also want to verify that the information listed, like phone number, address and business hours, is accurate. This is often the first thing a patient sees when searching for you. Ensuring your physician and locations are listed accurately online will help your patients find you and easily schedule an appointment.
The next step is to make sure your team monitors the reviews as they come in across the social web. Work with your organization to develop a plan for how to respond to the reviews, especially the negative ones, to show your patients you care and are listening. Health systems that engage in the conversation and use the reviews to improve their care foster a spirit of trust with patients and with the community. Online patient feedback is a goldmine of information that can be used to enhance the patient experience.
As you’re addressing patient concerns online, you can get insight into what your HCAHPS scores will be and where you can make changes in the patient experience to improve them. A recent study shows that positive online sentiment predicts an increase in HCAHPS scores by 17 percent, year-over-year.
Taking control of your online reputation is good for business. Locations that run Online Reputation Management (ORM) average a 650 percent increase in positive reviews within three months and a five-fold improvement in search ranking. Not only are patients happier with the care with the receive – a positive online reputation attracts new patients.
Patient care is a healthcare professionals’ top priority, and it’s important for your patients to know that you’re addressing their concerns expressed online. Make sure you’re taking care of them from the moment you enter their lives, when they begin researching you online.
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