{"id":1043,"date":"2016-07-27T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orthorank.com\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2016-07-27T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T14:00:00","slug":"how-is-your-medical-practice-handling-online-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inboundmd.com\/how-is-your-medical-practice-handling-online-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"How is Your Medical Practice Handling Online Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Patients are more in control of the patient-doctor relationship than ever before.<\/p>\n

The proliferation of review sites<\/a>, including numerous sites dedicated to reviewing doctors and medical practices, allows patients to act as consumers.<\/p>\n

Patients are going online to do comparison shopping\u00a0for doctors and healthcare providers, just like they do for a hotel or restaurant \u2013 as if they were walking down the aisle of a supermarket.<\/p>\n

Managing your healthcare\u00a0practice’s online reviews is a critical part of your reputation management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Nearly half of patients using medical review sites would see an out-of-network doctor who had better reviews than one in their plan.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Online Medical Practice Reviews \u2013 Ignore Them at Your Peril<\/h2>\n

According to a 2014 study on patient use of medical practice review sites, 42% of respondents said they consult such sites<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, that’s a 68% increase<\/strong> over the number of people who visited such sites the previous year.<\/p>\n

Of those who use the review sites, 49%<\/strong> would be willing to see an out-of-network doctor<\/strong> who had better reviews than one in their plan.<\/p>\n

Millennials are particularly plugged in to online discussions of their health care experiences.<\/p>\n

If they’re a key demographic of your target patient persona, you’re either ahead of the curve in managing your online reputation or you’re losing out to those who are.<\/p>\n

Nearly half of patients using medical review sites would see an out-of-network doctor who had better reviews than one in their plan.<\/p>\n

The lesson here is that authentic patient ratings and reviews are some of the most compelling marketing content<\/a> available to practices. They have great potential to influence whether new patients schedule appointments with you, or decide to visit someone else with better reviews.<\/p>\n

There Is No\u00a0Neutral on Review Sites<\/h2>\n

Ignoring review sites isn’t an option.<\/p>\n

First, many review sites \u2013 especially large ones like Yelp or Google My Business \u2013 will have a page for your medical practice, even if you don’t claim it.<\/p>\n

That means, people can leave reviews about you and your healthcare practice without your participation in the review process.<\/p>\n

Second, if you aren’t managing your online review reputation<\/a>, other healthcare practices\u00a0are. And these are the ones you’re losing business to.<\/p>\n

BrightLocal’s 2015 Local Consumer Review Survey<\/a> found that only 14% of those reading reviews would visit a business with fewer than 3 stars.<\/p>\n

So if you’re not getting reviews and earning stars, you’re losing out to the surgical practices that are.<\/p>\n

Review Sites Also Impact Search Rankings<\/h2>\n

Major search and doctor review sites<\/a> are starting to assign more weight to these online ratings and reviews than ever before.<\/p>\n

For example, Google ramped up its local ratings and reviews<\/a> starting in 2013 when it launched \u201cCity Experts<\/a>\u201d to help grow hyper\u00adlocal content for Google+.<\/p>\n

Activity on a review site is assumed to be local content, which search engines want to provide to local searchers. Search engines also love pages that get updated regularly on your practice’s review translates into highly relevant content for local search consumers.<\/p>\n

As a result, Google gives online reviews significant weight in local search results because it wants to give searchers the information that’s most important to them.<\/p>\n

Getting Positive Reviews<\/h2>\n

The best way to leverage this increased focus on patient feedback and scoring is simple \u2013 get more of your patients to leave positive reviews about your practice. Ask them to write reviews by:<\/p>\n