Your Guide to Healthcare Reputation Management

Quick question: would you rather go to the 4 star hospital, with hundreds of positive reviews, that’s 2 kilometers away? Or, the 2 star clinic, with four reviews, that’s just down the road?

Exactly.

It can seem like patient feedback is out of your control. But healthcare reputation management is actually a crucial area for hospitals, clinics, and doctors – one that is very much within their control.

What is healthcare reputation management?

Healthcare reputation management (HRM) is the practice of monitoring, influencing, and protecting public perceptions about a healthcare provider. It’s about managing how patients, staff, partners, and the wider community view a healthcare provider, in terms of their quality of care, professionalism, and credibility.

We can break down HRM into the following three stages:

1. Building: Establishing an online presence on social media, Google and review sites
2. Maintaining: Regularly update your content and engage with your audience.
3. Recovery: Respond to feedback (both negative and positive). Follow up on and close negative feedback.

Why is HRM important?

Hint: it’s all about building patient trust.

83.23% of patients require a 4-star rating to even consider a healthcare provider. But what drives such high expectations?

Well, research shows that patients don’t only value the clinician’s expertise. But they also value the attitude and quality of the care shown by the staff.

Moreover, patients today seek to make informed choices about their healthcare. With the rise of online ratings, they expect a certain level of transparency from their healthcare provider.

When any of these expectations aren’t met, it can lead to a drop in ratings.

The benefits of healthcare reputation management

1. A Stronger Online Presence

Medical reputation management provides a calling card for your business in two ways.

First, it gives potential patients consistent and accurate information about your clinic. So they can easily find and verify your credentials, services, and contact details.

Secondly, through positive reviews and a strong digital presence, patients understand that you’re a provider they can trust. This way, you have established a relationship before they have even booked an appointment. 

2. Better Patient Satisfaction

Imagine you’re growing a tree. You need to give it regular care and attention to show results.

Similarly, responding to reviews, especially negative ones, with care and empathy is like growing a tree. It enhances your reputation, and also shows that you value your patients’ concerns – whether offline or online.

3. Higher Social Media Reach

If you’re hesitant to jump on the social media bandwagon, let us tell you: here is a powerful tool to connect with your patients and the community overall.

If you need an example, check out Mayo Clinic. They use social media to spread information about health topics, using plain language and relatable imagery. With careful planning, you can also use social media to address patient feedback, respond to emergencies, and promote your specialties.

4. Improved Patient Experiences

In an earlier blog, we talked about the importance of closing the feedback loop. A study revealed that this concept remains underutilized in healthcare improvement, due to two factors: a lack of specific, timely surveys, and a failure to take action on the feedback.

This inaction translates to a missed opportunity: better patient experiences.

Healthcare reputation management is the answer. This not only drastically improves the quality of your care, but also translates into a major competitive advantage.

5. Increased Patient Retention

The end result? Patients are more likely to continue returning for care.

“The probability of your existing patients visiting your practice for healthcare services is 60%-70%. For new patients, the likelihood is 5%-20%.” – Ajay Prasad, ‘Patient Acquisition Vs. Retention‘

In other words, retaining existing patients is more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. By improving patient satisfaction through medical reputation management, you can reduce the need for paid marketing.

Where do patients leave feedback?

Based on search results, the top 5 patient review sites are:

1. Google My Business: As a part of the world’s largest search engine, Google My Business is a crucial platform for healthcare reputation. In fact, 64% of consumers use Google My Business to find information.

2. WebMD: WebMD doesn’t have a built-in doctor rating system. However, their ‘Find a Doctor’ tool shows patient ratings for each doctor. These ratings are on a 5-star scale and are sourced from patient reviews.

3. Healthgrades: This is a popular leading healthcare review site. Healthgrades allows patients to research and rate doctors, hospitals, and other medical services.

4. Facebook: With its massive user base, Facebook has become a popular platform for patients to leave reviews of their experiences.

5. Vitals: Vitals is a dedicated healthcare review site that also helps you search potential providers. You can sort doctors according to specialty, insurance type, ratings, distance and more. Also, you can see patient reviews alongside other details such as a doctor’s experience, board certifications, and hospital affiliations.

How to improve your healthcare reputation management: 8 core strategies

1. Claim & manage your listings.

Ensure your clinic/hospital’s address, phone number, email and working hours are accurate.

Also, make sure they are consistent across platforms like Google My Business and WebMD. This increases discoverability and removes confusion.

2. Generate & respond to patient reviews.

Encourage your patients to leave feedback online, and make it as easy as possible. For example, a QR code in the lobby, or an SMS survey after the appointment.

Next, respond promptly to both positive and negative feedback.

3. Activate your social media.

From fighting misinformation, to crisis communication, there are lots of good social media strategies for healthcare.

Let’s return to Mayo Clinic as an example. In 2016, they created a video series called “Mayo Clinic Minutes” that covers popular health topics. These short videos regularly get over 10,000 views on Facebook, and establishes the brand’s credibility as a leading healthcare provider.

4. Optimize your website.

Create a website that is both user-friendly and mobile-friendly; because 63% of searches are on mobile devices in the US.

Your website must do these three things: showcase your hospital’s expertise, highlight great patient testimonials, and provide a smooth experience for people seeking information.

5. Utilize reputation management software.

Manual monitoring can be a pain, especially if you have limited resources.

Reputation management tools can simplify review monitoring, automate responses, and offer valuable insights into patient sentiment. This lets you address concerns and close issues faster, even with a small team.

6. Monitor online mentions.

Use social listening tools like Buffer and HootSuite to track online conversations about your hospital. This will keep you in the loop about patient experiences, and quickly catch negative feedback before it escalates into a PR issue.

7. Request private feedback.

Ask patients for feedback through online surveys and forms. This is a form of direct feedback, and it gives you deeper insights into the patient experience beyond online reviews.

8. Close the loop.

Use the feedback to ensure a consistent and positive experience at every touchpoint.

What to look for in reputation management software for healthcare?

Reputation management is a key part of every good patient experience tool. But there are some features you need to look out for:

1. Review Management and Monitoring: Tracks reviews across various platforms.
2. Sentiment Analysis: Understands patient sentiment (positive, negative, neutral).
3. Review Generation: Lets you easily request and collect reviews.
4. Closing the Loop: Respond to and close feedback directly within the platform.
5. Surveys and Forms: Collect patient feedback through various channels.
6. Reporting and Analytics: Get key metrics like review volume, sentiment analysis, and patient satisfaction scores.
7. HIPAA Compliance: Ensure patient privacy and data security. This is a must for any healthcare software.

Healthcare reputation management: How SurveySparrow can help

Meet SurveySparrow – your trusty wingman for better patient experiences. Here’s what you will get:

• Review management for 100+ platforms – including all of the ones we have mentioned above.
• Omnichannel surveys in 130+ languages
• 12+ survey distribution channels
• Ticketing software to flag negative feedback and close the loop
• Wings AI for speeding up form creation and replies to reviews.
• HIPAA compliance and GDPR compliance
• Executive dashboard for tracking trends in your healthcare experience over time.
• Sentiment analysis and downloadable reports

Get a risk-free (and totally free) trial. Access all of these features with the template below.