What Every Doctor & Administrator Should Know About a Physician’s Reputation:

I recently published 12 case studies where doctors’ reputations were improved with mobile technology and the impact they made on the profitability of their practices. The case studies were tied closely to recognition of physicians’ top areas of expertise, patient satisfaction from health care services, brand recognition, and most importantly new patient volumes for highly specific procedures.

There are no longer any doubts if patients Google their doctors and run very detailed background checks before scheduling their first appointment.

I recently published 12 case studies where doctors’ reputations were improved with mobile technology and the impact they made on the profitability of their practices. The case studies were tied closely to recognition of physicians’ top areas of expertise, patient satisfaction from health care services, brand recognition, and most importantly new patient volumes for highly specific procedures.

There are no longer any doubts if patients Google their doctors and run very detailed background checks before scheduling their first appointment.

1) Your top area of expertise. “Orthopedic surgery” is not expertise. Minimally invasive knee surgery is much closer to what educated, empowered public is looking for. Several well-known hospitals feature all their physicians and their sub-expertise (even down to the exact procedures) and have been able to gain 60-70% of market share because of it. The competing hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers are still wondering why they can’t compete. And it just happens the failing hospitals are the same ones resistant to take part in social media, but spend millions on “brand marketing”. In areas like plastic surgery highlighting of sub-expertise is a requirement, and can save literally millions of dollars in advertising.

2) Patient-Reviews. In all 12 case studies, 100% of the doctors involved were “screened” by new patients using publicly-displayed patient reviews before scheduling their appointment? What happens to a practice/hospital if a few hundred patient reviews & comments are publicly displayed about all of their doctors? Total brand recognition. This is one of the most commonly missed opportunities that can seriously enhance new patient volumes. You can’t beat PR that is free and works for you 24/7.

3) What if the same mobile technology can help improve patient satisfaction and catch potential bad reviews before they’re ever published? Most doctors have 1 or 2 reviews on physician-review sites. What if one of them is bad? What if that one bad review from 4 years ago is still affecting your practice? Now what if every patient was given a chance to provide honest feedback and you’d be able to review each comment and address potential problems before they become disasters? What if this can seamlessly become part of the process of every patient visit without you or your staff spending any extra time on this process?

Google is the most over-looked form of social media. Think about it, what is the #1 resource where virtually every patient at one point or another looks up their doctors? Is it Facebook? Twitter? Pinterest? It’s going to be Google, every time.

It’s time to get your reputations in order and realize what your patients are doing. Step 1, go Google your name!