Online reputation management for physicians and healthcare practicioners

If you’re a doctor, an owner of a healthcare practice, or a senior member of staff in the medical profession then you’ll probably heard of online reputation management. However, how serious do you take it? Whether you like it or not, managing your online reputation is serious business and can be the difference between a failing practice and one that is continually satisfying patients beyond expectations.

What is reputation management?

Have you ever wondered why reputation is becoming so important? To understand this, it helps to consider the following question: What is the first thing you do if you want to visit a restaurant when you’re visiting a new city? While you may have locals to help you out and give you guidance, if you’re without a trustworthy resident of that city, then it’s more than likely that you’ll do an online search. It’s far more likely that you’re going to be visiting a restaurant that has prioritized its online reputation (and, of course, provides quality food and service at the right price). It’s not just restaurants that need to take care of their online presence. These days, anyone operating in the medical profession also needs to take stock.

How medical online reputation management became so important

medical online reputation management

Do you know what is meant by medical online reputation management? And, more importantly, the impact it’s having in the medical profession. Consider how a traditional medical practice functioned in the past. Patients would simply book appointments, turn up that was that. They had very little say. Nowadays, a modern healthcare facility has to function more like any other service business. Patients, therefore must be treated like customers, and satisfaction is a top priority. Why? Because patients have access to the web and will now be reviewing medical practices and their staff online.

Healthcare online reputation management

Healthcare online reputation management  

List out all online search engines, forums and specialist sites where people can go visit, rate, review and comment on their experience at your healthcare center. 

Start to record, or at least get an idea of all the ratings and understand what your reputation is. Are you providing a five star service? If not, how can you improve?

If someone has written a relevant comment about you, then the platform may give you a chance to reply. If the comment paints you in a negative light then this will be a good chance to have your say and clear up any misunderstandings.

While some comments are due to angry patients or misunderstandings, others are very appropriate and provide great feedback. What makes the feedback so great is that it’s honest. If you’re a doctor and you ask a patient how their consultation is, they may say it was “fine” as they feel uncomfortable criticizing you to your face. Therefore, you should never overlook the opportunity to get unbiased feedback that can help you improve your practice.

What if you’re too busy for healthcare reputation management

There is no denying that healthcare reputation management can be very time consuming. Your probably busy enough as it is attending to patients or managing a hectic practice to be trawling the internet for comments. Is there a solution to this? Absolutely. There are now specialist companies that specialize in managing online reputations of individuals and organizations that operate in the medical industry. If time is short, it may be wise to hire one of these firms to manage your reputation on your behalf.

If you own a restaurant that serves bad food and has poor staff then no one will want to eat there. And, in modern times, if you upset at least one customer, then chances are that this will be made public. That’s why it’s never been so important to protect your online reputation.

Resource by : https://www.prlog.org/12766819-online-reputation-management-for-physicians-and-healthcare-practicioners.html