Like it or not, in today’s digital world physician practices must focus their attention and efforts toward online marketing to attract new patients. According to research, 75% of patients have searched online to find a healthcare provider. Of those patients surveyed, 61% said they search often or sometimes. (1)
While having a digital presence is already very important, having a strong digital presence into the future is essential. As more and more patients turn to the internet to help them make decisions about which providers to see and where to go for care, online review sites mean more to your practice than ever before.
You would think that patients receiving a physician referral from a healthcare professional would be cause enough for that patient to go ahead see that physician. Not so. A whopping 92% of patients that receive a referral still go online to do research, for themselves, before moving ahead with the referral.
Just based on what we have seen here at MedicalGPS over the last couple of years, the physician practice’s online Google Review Site is a prime destination for patients looking for information about a potential healthcare provider.
There are other review sites that are also attracting potential new patients. According to research published as recently as June 1, 2021, the review sites listed below, which of course includes Google, are among those Top Physician Review Sites that your practice should be monitoring and maintaining. (2)
Google My Business- Yelp
- Healthgrades
- Vitals
- Caredash
- Wellness.com
- ZocDoc
- RateMDs
- Dr. Oogle
- Doctor.com
- RealPatientRatings
- RealSelf
When potential new patients were asked, 72% say researching doctor reviews on various healthcare provider review sites is their first step to finding a new doctor.
How important is a positive online review? 69.9% of patients see a positive provider review as “very” or “extremely” important. Of those surveyed, 60.8% of patients indicated that they stay away from healthcare providers that have had negative online reviews. (2)
For providers, this means that the importance of a strong online reputation is crucial and the impact of negative ratings most likely will be damaging. Even so, the reality is, most practices do not have the time nor the personnel to manage their online ratings adequately and effectively, over a multitude of review sites.
Having worked with physician practices since 1994, it’s been my experience that physician practices and their patients are better served when healthcare providers stay focused on treating and caring for the patient. That is why more and more healthcare facilities are turning to MedicalGPS and the M3-Advocate® physician reputation management software as a means to ensure the practice maintains a strong online reputation.
MedicalGPS’ online reputation solution allows physician practices to increase social media reviews AND improve social media ratings, concurrently. It is not unusual for healthcare providers that utilize M3-Advocate to find 90%+ of their social media reviews are 5-Star reviews, after deploying M3-Advocate..
M-3 Advocate® Overview
M3-Advocate® obtains continuous patient feedback from patients utilizing M3-Patient Experience®. As patients provide same-day or next-day feedback regarding their most recent office experience, an analysis of the patient experience is performed using MedicalGPS proprietary algorithms, resulting in an Advocacy Quotient – a measure of the practice’s level of patient loyalty.
Through extensive research examining each aspect of the patient experience, MedicalGPS understands the key ‘touch-points’ of the patient experience that engender patient loyalty — loyalty at the highest level — advocate-loyalty. Patients that qualify as ‘advocate-loyal’ are identified, sent a warm expression of appreciation for choosing your practice as their healthcare provider, and invited to leave a review of their most recent office experience on major social media sites such as Google, HealthGrades, Vitals, and others.
Continuous Improvement:
M3-Advocate® runs in the background and places little or no workload on practice staff or management. Because M3-Advocate runs continuously, the practice’s online reputation is protected and even bolstered and improved, on-going, 24/7/365. As ‘advocate-loyal’ and ‘highly satisfied’ patients are identified, those happy patients are invited to leave social media reviews. Using the same proprietary algorithms, as potentially unhappy patients are identified, practice managers are alerted in real-time, allowing service recovery to happen immediately following the patient’s office visit.
If your practice is not already using M3-Advocate, we’d love to schedule an introductory call with you.
Please let us know if you have comments or questions, and subscribe to our Email Updates so that you can be assured to receive Thinking Thursdays TIPs.
Thank you!
Jerry
Jerry L. Stone
Co-Founder/COO
MedicalGPS, LLC
References:
- https://www.patientpop.com/blog/internet-new-ways-patients-find-physicians/
- https://www.reviewtrackers.com/blog/doctor-review-sites/