If you think your patients are finding your otolaryngology practice by looking in the Yellow Pages, think again. Increasingly, patients are deciding which physician to call by visiting the web and reading feedback on sites like vitals.com, healthgrades.com, lifescript.com and drscore.com.
So far, independent rating sites such as yelp.com and citysearch.com are largely restricted to restaurant reviews, but expect that to change rapidly as well, said Peter Ericson, president of The Complete Website, LLC, a Grantham, N.H., website developer and social media strategist. Yelp.com already has nearly as many health and medical categories as shopping or restaurant listings.
The increasing presence of physicians on multiple ratings and social media sites presents both opportunities and challenges for otolaryngology practices. The availability of information about your practice at the click of a mouse may allow you to reduce marketing and advertising budgets. On the other hand, incorporating social media into your practice can backfire if you don’t adopt policies about online use and monitor your presence on the web.
Social Media
Kevin Watson, administrator of Colorado Otolaryngology Associates, PC, in Colorado Springs, uses social media as a form of “free advertising.” He’s created a Facebook page for the practice and is debating whether to add a Twitter account. Practices shouldn’t establish an online presence until they’re prepared to maintain them, he said. “It’s OK to have a page, but unless you’re continually updating it, people aren’t looking at it,” Watson told ENT Today. “That’s how Twitter works. If you’re not sending tweets, people aren’t paying attention to you.” Unlike a typical advertising or promotional campaign, “you have to commit for a year or more to build traction,” Ericson said. “But once you get there, you have an incredibly efficient communications vehicle.”
Watson is still tweaking the Facebook page, but “at some point, I’m going to put a sign at the check-out desk saying, ‘Look for our Facebook page online and become a fan of ours on Facebook,’” he said.
Social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube each attract different types of users, according to Ericson. Practices can use sites not only to connect with patients but also to educate and mobilize them.
Twitter, for example, can be used to broadcast an opinion, about local or state legislation, for instance, or fill an open appointment slot later in the day. Facebook fan pages help to build traffic and provide feedback to the practice. LinkedIn, an online business networking tool, can be used for professional discussions with other otolaryngology practices or to recruit staff.
Practices face a slew of implementation decisions. In addition to deciding whether to select Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social media networks, they must choose who will manage their sites and how much access they’ll provide employees. Some practices allow all employees to post on the sites to build content and traffic, provided they follow written guidelines regarding appropriate content and comments.
Ericson advocates this open approach, noting that employees can access Facebook on their cell phones if they choose. Many practice administrators can learn tips from their employees about setting up and navigating a Facebook page. And, from a practical standpoint, it’s best to have multiple users monitor the site on an ongoing basis so the practice can respond quickly to patient questions or concerns, he said.
Nevertheless, some practices restrict access to the physicians and practice manager. “Managers are afraid that employees will waste time on social media, and the truth is that they do spend time on Facebook or watching videos on YouTube,” Ericson admitted.
Monitor Your Presence
To monitor their online presence and reputation, otolaryngology practices should search online for the name of the practice and physicians on a regular basis. You also can use “Google alerts” and social media sites to build and monitor your online image. “For specialties such as otolaryngology, you don’t necessarily need to pay for Google ads,” Watson said. “There are ways to create your page so that search engines will find you.”
That being said, many otolaryngologists need help managing their presence on the web. The Internet is still “the wild West,” explained Greg Johnson, president of Vital Element, Inc., a web service provider with offices in Michigan and Florida that provides medical website design, web-based medical marketing and web strategy consulting to the medical industry. “Whether someone puts information on the web that’s true or untrue, it’s still going to show up.”
Combating that problem takes varying degrees of cost and effort. You can hire a company to defend your reputation online, but the optimum approach usually involves a balanced strategy that combines professional website development with internal practice oversight.
External service providers, for example, can help practices take control of their online presence through professional website development, search marketing strategies, social networking and patient reviews management, where a site is monitored to respond quickly to unfavorable reviews and remove them from public view.
“Otolaryngologists get a large portion of their patient base through referrals,” said Glenn Lombardi, president of Officite, a Downers Grove, Ill.-based medical website and marketing firm. “The Internet is the first place a patient will go to learn something about that doctor and the practice, so doctors have to take control of their identity by managing their brand online.”
The reputation of an otolaryngology practice is especially important thanks to recent changes in Google’s local searches. When potential patients search for an otolaryngologist in their neighborhood, only practices with a physical location in the same town will display in the search results, according to Lombardi. The address, phone number and reviews of the practice from around the web now appear adjacent to the search listing, placing greater emphasis on reputation management.
Some service providers also offer local search engine optimization, which helps practices to verify their local Google search listing and ensure their ranking at or near the top of a local search page.
“Your ranking in sites like Google and Yahoo is greatly influenced by the consistency of your information throughout the web,” Lombardi explained. “The more consistent your information, the more confident a search engine like Google is that it’s supplying accurate information, which is going to help you rank higher in a search.” Web optimization services aren’t necessarily expensive. Officite charges $495 annually for website monitoring and search optimization.
Patient Reviews
With the tremendous increase in physician review sites, managing and encouraging patient review is also increasingly important for otolaryngologists. Encourage patients who have shared good feedback in the practice to do the same online, Lombardi suggested. E-mail these patients with a link to the review site or provide review cards as they leave the office, inviting them to submit a positive comment.
You could also create a page on your website that includes positive patient testimonials and optimize it for search engine recognition, Johnson added. However, he advises clients to find a balance that works for their practices.
“Otolaryngology practices only have so much bandwidth,” he said. “Their job is to practice medicine. If they do good work, they shouldn’t have to worry too much about what’s flying around on the Internet.”
HIPAA Compliance
Practices also must determine how to maintain patient confidentiality and compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Last fall, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a policy on professionalism when using social media that stresses the use of privacy settings to safeguard personal information and content on social networking sites and internal monitoring to ensure that shared content is accurate and appropriate. The one-page policy is available on the AMA’s website at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/meeting/professionalism-social-media.shtml.
The AMA has also published more comprehensive guidelines for physician-patient electronic communications at http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/young-physicians-section/advocacy-resources/guidelines-physician-patient-electronic-communications.shtml.
The social media policy comes none too soon, with some physicians already crossing the line in their use of Twitter, according to Katherine Chretien, MD, FACP, associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. Research conducted by Dr. Chretien and colleagues revealed that social media offers the potential for positive social impact, but some physicians who are regular Twitter users disseminate unethical or unprofessional content. The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (2011;305(6):566-568).
“We certainly found that physicians are using Twitter to communicate health and medical information, which is potentially very positive,” Dr. Chretien said. However, the raft of potential patient privacy violations was troubling, she added.
“With Twitter time and date stamping each tweet, it becomes very tricky for physicians to talk about patients they’ve seen in clinic or the OR,” she said. “Even if you don’t include names or exact location, or if you remain anonymous, you can still disclose enough details that the information may be recognized by patients or their families.”
Despite these challenges, a good example of the goal of social media is to promote two-way dialogue to encourage feedback about the practice and recommend physicians to other online friends. Ericson advised practices to start with a blog, where physicians can publish stories illustrating their expertise and answer patient questions.
“When someone asks a question in the exam room, that’s a story,” he said. “Building a database of answers to common questions is a great approach for a physician blog.”
For search engine optimization, a blog attracts “a ton of traffic,” Ericson added. “Each story becomes a magnet for a specific search.” In addition, you can use the blog as an “information distribution hub” by posting automatically to the practice’s Facebook page or Twitter account.
Like almost every activity within an otolaryngology practice, time is the biggest constraint. “Practices realize they need to have a presence online or they’re going to be left out,” Watson said.