Proactive action needed to protect online reputation
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Most ophthalmologists agree that patient expectations regarding their eye care continue to rise.
In the face of an ever more challenging external environment in regard to payer and employee expectations, we eye care providers (ECP) now have an empowered patient to satisfy who expects not only quality eye care but also snappy, polite service in a clean and fashionable office or surgery suite environment. The success of any practice or individual ECP has always depended on positive word-of-mouth recommendation from satisfied patients — and a minimum of the opposite.
Patients today, especially of the baby boomer and younger generations, expect a positive patient experience starting from the moment they call the office for an appointment. More than three to four rings on the office phone without a response, and the patient journey is already off to a bad start. “Best Doctor” ratings from our peers remain nice to have and can generate referrals from other professionals, but if a referred patient is unhappy with any aspect of their care and complains to their referring provider, future referrals dry up fast.
As discussed in the accompanying cover story, today’s patient has the power to communicate any level of dissatisfaction widely and do great damage to an ECP or their practice through the internet. I looked up Richard L. Lindstrom, MD, on Google and found more than 30 entities that provided ratings and/or information about the patient care experience provided by Minnesota Eye Consultants and me. I was amazed at the number and diverse nature of the rating organizations, many of which were new to me. The old classics including Healthgrades, WebMD, Angi (formerly Angie’s List) and the like were still there, and fortunately my ratings were 4.6 to 4.8 on these familiar sites. But I was also reviewed by Zocdoc, CareDash, Wellness, Yelp, Cylex, eyedoctor.io and more than a dozen others. This, for me, is a brave new world.
I suspect few ophthalmologists in the trenches who see patients every day are experts on internet reputation management, but it is clear that the quality of each patient’s experience and the image our practices project on the internet are important. This led us at Minnesota Eye Consultants to monitor and manage our internet reputation using experts in our marketing and professional outreach team.
As a first step, I suggest to every ECP:
- Look yourself, your partners and your practice’s website up on the internet.
- If you do not like what you see, get professional help to enhance your internet image.
- Try calling your own office as a patient in need of an appointment or with an important question, and if you are disappointed with the response, and most will be, there is work to do on the patient experience in your practice.
In closing, the extraordinarily talented and committed editorial team at Healio/Ocular Surgery News tells me this is my 350th consecutive twice-monthly Lindstrom’s Perspective. It has been a special privilege and honor to work with the amazing Healio/OSN team and to share my thoughts with you, the reader.
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