As patients increasingly turn to the internet for healthcare recommendations, physicians are tasked with maintaining reputable reputations, The Wall Street Journal reports.
A Pew Research Center survey found upwards of 70 percent of consumers search online for health information. Seventy-seven percent of consumers reported they go to online reviews first when looking for a new physician, based on a 2015 Software Advice survey.
Companies are popping up to help physicians and practices manage their online presence, so critiques don't cause irreparable damage to their businesses. Other firms are calling on patients for reviews and creating additional positive content to bury negative online content below more positive content in the search bar. Some physicians are asking for firms' assistance in contacting patients with negative reviews, hoping to address the problems.
Although rating sites will remove reviews with profanity or proven fake content, most negative reviews will stand even if a physician argues against the claim, WSJ reports.
Physicians face an additional obstacle with online reputation management, as there is an element of patient privacy involved. Therefore, firms recommend physicians respond to online complaints vaguely and then direct the patient to contact the practice.
Here are a few companies helping providers manage their online reputations:
1. Empathiq monitors online reviews on sites like Healthgrades and Yelp. By leveraging this tool, physicians can stay on top of negative reviews.
2. IHealthSpot helps healthcare providers by creating microsites embedded in clients' websites. The microsites gather rating sites' reviews, but only show reviews with three, four and five stars on the clients' page.
3. Reputation.com also offers businesses a way to track online reviews.
4. Salesforce.com leverages natural-language recognition technology to assess social media comments. The service segments comments into positive, neutral and negative categories. The software monitors the negative comments through business hours and flags complaints that could improve with action.