Over the past several months, you may have noticed promotions online and in practices encouraging patients to share online reviews of their providers. We embarked on this project to celebrate EvergreenHealth physicians and to provide an important resource for the community. Today we want to provide an update on the campaign.
Of the patients who search online for healthcare, nearly 60 percent say that physician rating sites are important when choosing a provider. Our campaign has encouraged patients to review their providers on healthgrades.com, which is the nation’s most widely used resource for patients seeking a new provider.
We rolled out the campaign in two phases. Phase one launched in late March, timed with Doctors’ Appreciation Day; it leveraged social media and online promotions to encourage patients to show their appreciation by sharing reviews on healthgrades.com. A second phase bolstered the campaign through in-practice displays that were provided to all EvergreenHealth Partners locations.
The campaign’s impact is evident in the volume of new positive reviews and improved rankings for EvergreenHealth providers. Since March, we’ve tracked a 15 percent increase in reviews. Over the course of the campaign so far, 182 providers have earned 381 new reviews, and the average star rating for EvergreenHealth providers is about 4 out of 5 stars.
Some highlights include:
- One provider earned his first two reviews – both five stars – improving his satisfaction rating by five stars and his ranking by 448 spots.
- Another provider earned three new reviews, improving her satisfaction rating by one-and-a-half stars and her ranking by 722 spots.
While EvergreenHealth will continue to promote the “Share Your Appreciation” campaign, here are a few ideas of how your practice can help to generate more online reviews of its providers.
- All EHP member practices were sent acrylic displays for the Share Your Appreciation campaign to be placed in your waiting areas, complete with take-away cards with the web URL. Are these being used in your practice? Do you need more take-away cards?
- Put a link to the Share Your Appreciation webpage (www.evergreenhealth.com/appreciation) on your practice’s website, with an invitation for your patients post an online review. If you prefer, you can refer them directly to the healthgrades.com site with the instructions of how to find and complete the survey.
- When you receive positive feedback from a patient via email, a letter or in person, consider including in your response an invitation to complete an online review so others will know how much you appreciate your provider’s care.
It’s important that you not tell patients to go online and “rate your provider.” Instead, tell them it’s a way to show their appreciation; that will keep the focus on positive comments.
If you have any questions, or need additional signage or takeaway cards, please contact Gail Neubert in the EvergreenHealth marketing department at gneubert@evergreenhealth.com.