A Physician’s Online Reputation: Critical to Success September 15, 2015 Physician Resource, Sponsored Post, Technology Cooperative of American Physicians, online reputation 0 This is the first in a three-part series on protecting your online reputation brought to you by the San Francisco Medical Society and The Cooperative of American Physicians, Inc. (CAP). Read Part 2 and Part 3. You can download the complete copy of CAP’s full Online Reputation Action Guide here. Patients are increasingly using the Internet in their search for health care providers. According to a study by Local Consumer Review, the number of people who searched for physicians online has increased by 15% in just the last three years. This trend will only accelerate as access to the Internet increases and more health care services become digitized. Your online reputation is quickly becoming a critical factor in your practice’s success. What You Stand to Gain by Taking Control By taking control of your online reputation, you stand to gain: Increased referrals from colleagues and patients A stronger reputation within the medical community The opportunity to correct errors and outdated information about your practice The ability to address any negative feedback Information gleaned from patient reviews and other online sources can become the deciding factor in choosing a physician. Patients aren’t just searching online for proof of a physician’s medical expertise, they also want to learn more about: The physician’s bedside manner Doctor-patient communications (both in and out of the clinical setting) The quality of care offered by all staff at a practice Passivity is No Longer an Option It’s common for physicians to be wary of participating in online review sites or social media for fear of opening themselves up to negative patient reviews — but doing nothing is no longer an option. Not taking an active role in building and maintaining your online reputation will not make negative situations (or the Internet) go away. There are plenty of online forums for people to comment on your abilities as a physician, and plenty of your patients will do so — whether you participate or not. According to a study by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 61% of physicians have already been rated on the eight most popular patient review websites, with an average of nearly six reviews per physician. Software Advice reports that the most trusted review sites are Yelp and Healthgrades, followed by Vitals and ZocDoc. The problem with ignoring this situation is that a low number of reviews can lead to a catastrophe if even one is negative. To put it into perspective, consider this: if your practice has six reviews and an average rating of 8.2 (out of 10), the addition of one negative review (say, a 2.0) can bring your average rating down to 7.3. This particular example can also demonstrate the power of a positive consensus. If your average rating was the same (8.2), but consisted instead of 16 reviews, the same negative review (2.0) would only bring you down to 7.8. Make that 26 reviews, and it drops to just 8.0. Of course, your online reputation isn’t just determined by patient review sites. It consists of anything patients, prospective patients, and colleagues see when they type your name or your practice’s name into a search engine. The only way to combat negative material is by being proactive and increasing the amount of positive content associated with your name. If you ignore your online reputation, you are effectively ceding control of your good name to others. We’ll be back in the coming Tuesdays with more about how to control your online reputation in our upcoming blog posts The 5 Key Things Physicians Can Do to Boost Their Online Reputation, and Why Your Practice Needs a Social Media Policy. In the meantime, you can learn even more about building a strong and positive online presence by downloading CAP’s full Online Reputation Action Guide. The Cooperative of American Physicians, Inc. (CAP) provides medical professional liability coverage to nearly 12,000 of California’s finest physicians. Click here for more information about CAP and the Online Reputation Action Guide. Comments are closed.
