Medical practice managers have extremely busy, high-stress, and important jobs. Individuals in this position are the embodiment of multitasking. They are basically in charge of keeping the entire practice functioning.
And now they have to add managing online patient reviews to their list of responsibilities? It doesn’t really seem fair, but that is the reality of the world we live in. Patients are increasingly writing online reviews, and prospective patients are increasingly using reviews to choose providers.
Thankfully, there is help out there for practice managers—systems that can make handling patient reviews simple, and better yet, that take up hardly any of their valuable time.
Practice Managers Do It All
Have you ever asked a practice manager what they do? The answer is, essentially, everything. Here are just some of their responsibilities: opening and closing the office on time every day, overseeing the daily operations of the office staff, billing, handling insurance reimbursements, setting schedules, ensuring practice compliance with a number of certification guidelines, hiring, staff training, resolving conflict, setting office policies and procedures, negotiating with suppliers, interacting with sales reps, and assessing staff performance. Is your head spinning yet?
Perhaps a better question would be what don’t practice managers do. The answer is direct patient care. That’s it. That’s truly the only part of the medical practice that they don’t have a hand in. As you can imagine, the requisite skills required for this position are extensive.
So, knowing what practice managers are in charge of every day, does it really seem right that managing online patient reviews is now being added to the list? These people are worried about keeping office overhead costs down and hiring and keeping high-quality staff members. Now they have to think about Yelp ratings?
Online Reviews Are Here to Stay
The reality is that, whether good or bad, people rely on online reviews to make choices. They use them to pick where they want to get a burger, and they use them to pick where they want to go for medical care.
Did you know that 74 percent of patients choose one provider over another when searching for healthcare online because of negative reviews? Just because a provider has been referred by another doctor doesn’t get them off the hook, either—81 percent of people will read reviews about a provider even after they have been referred. Furthermore, 90 percent of people will change their mind about a referral due to a provider’s weak online reviews.
While younger generations certainly rely more on patient online reviews, the trend is not limited to millennials and Gen Z. More than half of people over age 60 report that a positive online reputation has impacted their decision to choose one provider over another.
These statistics are probably not what practice managers want to see. They prove that, yes, like it or not, they now have to add managing online patient reviews to their long list of responsibilities. There is some great news, though. Practice managers don’t have to spend a lot of time looking at reviews on Yelp and Google if they have the right tools.
Great Reviews in No Time? Yes, Please
Practice managers don’t have time to spend thinking about online reviews from patients, and they don’t have to. There are solutions out there, such as Patient Promotor from NetOneClick, that will put in the time for them.
Using this kind of solution, every patient will be contacted after an appointment and asked a single question—how likely is it that you would recommend our practice to your friends and family? Why just that one question? First of all, because your patients are almost just as busy as you are. Second, that one question is all you need.
That one question will tell you if people weren’t pleased with their experience, and then you can find out why and what you could do differently. Through the process, that patient feels heard and you get valuable feedback for your practice.
That question also lets you identify your true cheerleaders. These are the people who had a great experience and want to share it. It seems too easy that a single question, sent automatically, can significantly increase your positive online reviews, but it really is that simple.
Practice managers are overloaded with tasks. Managing online patient reviews needs to be one of them, but it’s not one that needs to further overwhelm them and take up their precious time. With the right tools, they can ensure that online reviews benefit their practice and attract new patients, all with just one click.