As a physician or practice manager, are you bold enough to do what the University of Utah Health Care (UUHC) did by putting their patient reviews online, complete with unedited comments and an accessible five-star ranking?
Protecting your practice’s reputation is essential to ensuring continued practice growth. After all, if your practice does not have a favorable online reputation, new patients will elect to choose another provider. How important are reviews to your online brand reputation?
Online Reviews Are the New WOM (Word-of-Mouth)
Online reviews shape the relationship between physicians and patients. They validate decisions and drive patients to take action. Traditional WOM is quickly being replaced with an online form of WOM, which can have a significant impact on the practice’s overall growth.
In fact, according to a survey shared by Modern Economics, the power of online reviews is significant: Nearly half of the survey respondents, 44%, expressed a willingness to go out of network to see physicians with good reviews, even if it means incurring more costs and fees. That means potential new patients are willing to pay more out of pocket for care based upon what someone they do not even know says.
A Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) survey found that more patients are aware of websites that rate physicians, and those websites have a growing impact on their choice of doctor.
Patients today are empowered when choosing physicians because they have access to real-time information online.
A 2014 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that consumers seek the same support from the Internet for healthcare decisions as they do in other markets — 59% say physician rating sites are “somewhat” or “very” important, and 37% of online review users say they had avoided a physician with bad ratings.
What Are Patients Looking For in Online Reviews
Online reviews provide a quick and easy way for patients to research and validate their provider options. That’s why, as a provider, you want to ensure that you have an online brand reputation strategy in place that aligns with what your prospective patients are seeking.
What are patients seeking?
- Insurance
- Expertise (years of experience)
- Location
- Availability
- Timeliness
- Bedside manner
- Efficiency of staff
- Overall practice reputation
Own Your Online Reputation
By managing your online reviews, providers can attract new patients, strengthen their practice, and control their web presence. According to ZocDoc.com, physicians with the most reviews on ZocDoc typically receive nine times as many appointments than those with the fewest.
Online reviews are the future of patient-first healthcare, improving the quality of the patient experience and the health of the provider’s practice. If you seek practice growth, then perhaps it’s time to reevaluate your digital marketing plan and identify measurable strategies to support your online brand.
