. How Doctor Ratings Sites Can Be Your Friend. Really.
EVERY physician is becoming familiar with so-called Doctor-rating sites. You know, those sites where patients can leave anonymous doctor reviews and comments about their visits to your practice. Unfortunately for many physicians, their first introduction to the digital world and “social media” is through negative doctor ratings that someone has brought to their attention. It’s tough to avoid taking these negative comments personally. They can be hurtful and frustrating.
Be sure to download my FREE 3-Step Guide to Thrive on Doctor Ratings Sites at the end of this blog post.
On the surface, rating the “patient experience” in this manner seems like a good idea. From the patient’s perspective, there should be a way to leave a completely anonymous opinion about the overall “Patient Experience” at your clinic. To let others know what they can expect; provide anonymous feedback for the medical practices. Seems reasonable, right? But from the physician’s perspective, it seems that people occasionally use these venues to punish the physician for some perceived slight or poor treatment that is, in fact, entirely out of the doctor’s control. For example, a doctor’s rating can take a hit due to a rude receptionist, or terrible hospital parking. The result? Some docs’ brands in the digital world are tarnished, when in fact they are excellent physicians and provide exemplary care.
The problem is that comments on doctor reviews are not verified.
Yes, there is a verification email that is sent to the email address of the person leaving the rating, but this merely verifies their email address. Their allegations are never verified. Of course not; how could they be? The resulting potential for abuse and punishment of a physician’s reputation cannot be reversed. Once the comment is on the website, the damage is done.
Defense
On the other hand, the resulting negative impact on your reputation CAN be defended against. Let’s think about this: if you have even a single negative comment on a doctor rating site – let’s say that person gave you 1 out of 5 stars, and you have a total of two ratings, your star rating is hugely affected, even if the positive rating gave you a full 5 stars! If the other rating was anything less than stellar, your overall rating is trashed! That’s if you have only two ratings. But let’s look at what happens when you increase the number of total ratings, and the number of negative ratings remains low: the more positive ratings you have, the less that single (or low number of) negative rating weighs down your overall rating. The solution is for your physician’s ratings to reflect the true balance of their patients’ perception. The solution is to have many positive ratings.
How do you get many positive ratings?
You can’t simply beg your patients to go online to doc-rating sites and give you 5 stars, can you? Well, you could, but that’s not really your style. I know that for certainty. Despite swimming in the alphabet soup of pain – the ACA, CMS, VBP, ACO, EMR, HCR, HCAHPS, etc. – you still have some dignity.
How, then? How to get positive doctor ratings?
You know that you already provide great medical care. That’s a given. What then? You already care about your patients. That’s a given, too. But do your patients know that for sure?
Download my FREE 3-Step Guide to Reputation Management for Doctor Ratings Sites:
[ Click on the Heart below]
Please drop me a line or leave a comment, and let me know how it works for you:
RF[AT]russellfaust[DOT]com
(Please don’t simply rant about physician ratings sites. I feel your pain, but that’s just not helpful :)
Sampling of Doctor Ratings Sites:
http://www.vitals.com/
http://www.healthgrades.com/
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