Best Practices

Protecting Your Online Presence

By Derek Preece

Some realities of medical practice never change. Patients who are unhappy with their care tend to be much more vocal than those who are pleased, so negative experiences tend to have greater impact than positive ones. That fact is a huge challenge — and a big opportunity — in this era of online communications. Only a decade ago, unhappy patients used to tell a few friends about their bad experience, and usually the damage to a practice was limited. With today's technology, grumpy patients can post a nasty note on the Internet while they are walking between your office and their car, and that message instantly can be seen by hundreds or even thousands of interested Web surfers.

I recently did an Internet search on a practice and found only two reviews — both negative and both from 2009. It's clear that current online resources allow one patient's comment to be nearly unlimited in both time and reach, so anyone who believes that their practice is not affected by its online footprint is ignoring reality: In one of BSM's patient satisfaction surveys, an average of 35% of patients discovered their doctor from a patient referral, while almost as many (28%) found their physician through the Internet.

Strategic Communications Needed

All of this argues for a thoughtful, disciplined and strategic approach to the online world. Practices that want to expand their appeal to patients need to enlarge their vision of what it means to communicate with those customers and think about their online presence as a true extension of the practice.

1. Good service is absolutely essential, but so is making sure that your patients and potential patients can easily find your website. Tip: There are a number of options you have to increase your online visibility, including search engine optimization techniques, online advertising, linking strategies, and content enhancements. Offering your website as a resource for disease information, compliance and appointment reminders, and other useful material for your patients also helps. These capabilities can be enhanced further through email and smart phone apps.

2. Good clinical outcomes are important in building a practice, but so is having a strategy for encouraging good comments online so that the inevitable negative messages from cranky patients are balanced with enthusiastic accolades from patients thrilled to have visited your office. Tip: Many practices have begun to ask patients to share their positive experiences online or complete online satisfaction/feedback surveys. Simply allowing patients to provide suggestions or concerns may help reduce online criticism, while highlighting avenues for improvement in the practice. Acknowledging such feedback is critical to closing the loop.

3. Building your practice's image in the minds of your patients through consistent, high levels of service is critical to creating a sustainable operation, but sharing that image in the online community is now just as important. Tip: Think about what your website says about you and your staff, about your shared commitment to outstanding medical outcomes and uncompromising patient care. Work with your Web developer to create online query forms that collect important information but also give the prospective patient a feel for your approach and interest. Show the human face of your practice — celebrate your staff and their achievements, highlight patient news if possible and showcase any community involvement.

Tomorrow will bring us even more advances in virtual connections with patients. A physician recently showed me an application on his cell phone that allows his patients to make appointments, request prescription refills and find information about his practice. There is even a function that identifies when the patient leaves his office and opens a patient satisfaction survey to give immediate feedback on the visit. He mentioned that he hoped the patient survey function would serve as a “relief valve” for unhappy patients so they would be less tempted to go online and spread a complaint about an impatient receptionist.

As we ended our conversation, my thoughts were that I had just been given a peek into the mind of a doctor who is embracing the world of technology and who will benefit greatly from a strategic approach to online communications. OM

Derek Preece is a senior consultant and principal with BSM Consulting, an inter nation ally recognized health care consulting firm. For more information and resources, visit www.bsmcafe.com.