help consumers find and connect with your providers
TRANSCRIPT
© Copyright 2020 Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc. All rights reserved.
Today’s consumers take an active approach to health-related decisions. To make
informed decisions, healthcare consumers are searching for credibility and validation,
and they are empowered with a wealth of information about their options by the time
they act. When it comes to consumer choices, 77% of online health inquiries start with
an online search,1 and almost three-quarters (72%) of patients use online reviews as
their first step in finding a new doctor.2
For medical groups, that means executing a consumer-centric digital engagement strategy
is essential. A well-designed strategy optimizes lead generation and conversions by reaching
consumers when and where they are making buying decisions — online. But to meet consumers
where they are, medical groups often find they must juggle multiple digital solution vendors to
handle reputation management, scheduling and other digital functions, which is neither efficient
nor cost-effective.
Help Consumers Find and Connect with Your ProvidersA Single-Vendor Approach to Digital Engagement
by Dave Stanis, Senior Director, Digital Platform Solutions
ENGAGEMENT CENTER MARKETING MODULEHELP CONSUMERS FIND AND CONNECT WITH YOUR PROVIDERS
Building the digital front door
BUSINESS LISTINGS MANAGEMENT Let’s start with the basics — business listings management. If a consumer searches
by name for a provider in your health system but any of a dozen listings for that
provider returns incorrect contact and practice information, you may lose the patient.
Outsourcing listings management to Healthgrades alleviates the ongoing burden of
maintaining ever-changing provider and location data because we painstakingly review
each listing to discover and correct discrepancies, then automatically submit updates
across the search and social ecosystem.
Your correct listings are then distributed to search engines. Learn how your listings stack
up against local competitors, receive recommendations to outrank your competitors and
dominate local searches with easy-to-use templates that are mobile-responsive. You can
monitor progress over time by measuring listing visibility and accuracy across the web,
segmented to meet your stakeholders’ preferences.
Reputation management While each aspect of your digital engagement strategy is important, streamlined
reputation management can be the most challenging. Today’s patients express their
voices in a powerful way online, and your marketing success depends on healthcare
reputation management. Think of a patient’s review response as an extension of the
great — or perceived not-so-great — service you provide in your exam room.
2 |
1. 2016 Google/Millward Brown Digital “Path to Treatment” study. http://www.liftconversions.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Partners_Healthcare_OneSheeter_v5.pdf
2. Loria, G. (2019) How Patients Use Online Reviews. Retrieved from https://www.softwareadvice.com/resources/how-patients-use-online-reviews/
of patients use online reviews as their first step
in finding a new doctor
72%
of online health inquiries start with
an online search
77%
When patients and healthcare consumers are
searching online, they’re encountering your
reputation, whether you’re managing it or not!
When it comes to evaluating physicians to
make healthcare decisions, a whopping 94% of
patients use online reviews to do so.2 And 80% of
consumers trust online reviews as much as personal
recommendation.3 So it’s critical to manage your
reputation online across all providers. This includes
responding to positive and negative reviews,
soliciting additional positive ones, and using best-in-
class vendors.
In Healthgrades’ experience, consumers are 82%
more likely to schedule an appointment with a
provider that has a clear photo, a well-articulated
care philosophy, detailed insurance information,
and positive reviews. You must then follow through
by delivering good patient experiences to establish
your reputation and build loyalty.
The ability to compare physicians across medical
groups and validate choices is an important input
for 75% of consumers.4 Many times this process
takes place on third-party consumer health
websites. Sites like healthgrades.com provide data
on insurances accepted, which procedures doctors
perform and how often, physician ratings, doctor
education, appointment availability, hospital quality,
and more. These attributes continue to rank as key
elements for how consumers select a provider.
Leveraging paid tools available via these consumer
health websites can give medical groups a
competitive advantage over basic organic listings.
Much like Zillow has a program to help agents
increase engagement with home shoppers,
consumer health websites offer programs to
foster engagement with healthcare consumers.
For example, in a recent partnership with
healthgrades, hospital-affiliated physicians on
average retained 60% more existing patients and
acquired 150% more new patients.
HELP CONSUMERS FIND AND CONNECT WITH YOUR PROVIDERS
| 3
Facebook and Google AdWords are the leading advertising platforms, but third-party consumer health websites, which includes healthgrades.com, are often valuable too, lending to more discoverability - through additional avenues.
State of Digital Healthcare Marketing Report, 2019
Online Advertising Used in Healthcare 2018 2017
Google Analytics
Local Websites
Online Ad Networks
Pandora
Consumer Health Websites
News Websites
Online Video Sites
Snapchat
Microsoft Ad Center
Do Not Advertise Online
Not Sure
90%87%
76%79%
46%41%
32%
38% ▲30%
36%39%
33%32%
27%27%
26%22%
22%16%
13%9%
10%4%
6%4%
2%3%
7%5%
39%
Online appointment scheduling and contact center Once a consumer has found and preferred one of yourproviders, setting up avenues of
multi-channel scheduling access is important to create loyalty. Online scheduling should
be available across multiple channels, including your branded websites and the third-
party consumer health
websites patients use when researching physicians. For those patients who prefer to
pick up the phone rather than schedule online, friendly contact center staff are available
27/7/365 to directly schedule the appointment, using the online scheduling technology
to access the physician’s schedule. No shows are reduced with patient alerts to new
openings or cancellations, and with automatically triggered follow-up texts or email
reminders about their appointments. All of this integrates seamlessly with your current
workflow, tapping into your EHR for real-time scheduling, making it easy to manage on
the back end while meeting consumers wherever they prefer – online or over the phone.
PAID TOOLS VS. FREE TOOLS
Free and paid tools are available on most third-party consumer health websites. To help
understand the value of paid vs. free tools, Healthgrades partnered with a community hospital
to study lead generation and the return on investment of paid tools over a 3-month time period.
150% more new patients
chose the health
system
60% more existing patients
retained by the
health system, at no
additional cost
4:1 average ROI related
to new patient
acquisition
HELP CONSUMERS FIND AND CONNECT WITH YOUR PROVIDERS
A single vendor, turnkey approach To meet healthcare consumers where they are and connect them with the right
providers, health systems must adopt a solution that appeals to consumers online,
eases the scheduling process, and ultimately grows the system’s patient base and
revenue. This is challenging because providers are constantly joining and leaving the
practice or organization, resulting in inaccurate information.
With its single-vendor approach, Healthgrades turnkey physician marketing and patient
retention services make it easy for healthcare consumers to find and connect with your
provider. Healthgrades offers a suite of solutions purpose-built to meet these needs.
Rather than requiring health systems to manage multiple vendor relationships, it’s a
turnkey physician marketing and patient retention services across the web, including:
HEALTHGRADES.COM Grow your health systems by connecting commercially insured
patients with your medical group on the #1 website for finding a
doctor. Healthgrades.com increases your providers’ presence and
discoverability and presents your providers as an alternative on
your competitors’ healthgrades.com profiles.
BUSINESS LISTINGS MANAGEMENTClaim, correct, monitor and maintain all important provider listings
in one easy tool. Have confidence knowing your provider listings
are highly visible and accurate wherever and whenever patients are
looking, including Google, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, Healthgrades.com,
MD.com, etc.
REPUTATION MANAGEMENTMonitor ratings and mentions across the web and solicits patient
reviews. Quickly respond to customer concerns and measure your
organization against the competition. Drive improved preference
for your providers across all sites.
ONLINE APPOINTMENT SCHEDULINGCustomers can book appointments with your providers in real-
time, any time. Includes options to seamless integrate with
your EHR if desired. Can be deployed on your website as well as
Healthgrades.com and through the contact center so consumers
can easily appoint when and where they choose.
CONTACT CENTERFriendly, healthcare-specific contact center staff operate as
your organization’s referral service.Representatives are available
24/7/365 so you don’t miss a call. Demographic data is collected
and warm transfers can be made according to your protocols.
HELP CONSUMERS FIND AND CONNECT WITH YOUR PROVIDERS
HELP CONSUMERS FIND AND CONNECT WITH YOUR PROVIDERS
Healthgrades enhances your digital engagement strategy in order to:
Make your providers discoverable and actionable to
improve your health system’s profitability
Simplify a consumer’s ability to access, select, and book care
Drive volume and maximize/fill panels — especially critical for getting newer providers up and running
1
2
3
Healthgrades enables health systems to drive enterprise growth through smarter patient
acquisition and retention. Partnering with healthcare’s leading intelligent engagement
platform and the #1 site where Americans find a provider, hospitals ease patient access,
improve network utilization, and drive high-value service line cases. Our healthcare data
management delivers best next action insights that accelerate hyper-targeted, personalized
engagement throughout the care continuum. Our strategic services for campaign
planning and management, data science, and quality recognition further extend patient
lifetime value in a highly competitive, consumer-driven market place.
Learn more at partners.healthgrades.com
© Copyright 2020 Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc. All rights reserved.