Take the long view with patient reviews

True or false? Elderly patients don’t go online, so you don’t have to worry about online reviews--at least when it comes to this patient population. False. While it’s true that many elderly patients aren’t comfortable paying their bills online and often don’t need online appointment scheduling, they do go online to research medical conditions and to check out doctor reviews--or the younger people in their lives are helping them with this research, according to a survey of 200 patients’ online behavior.

That’s among the reasons that doctors need to actively manage their online reviews. Robert Wong, M.D., an Austin, Texas-based retina specialist, recommends that physicians look up their online reviews and “bury [any one Star duds] with a ton of five Star compliments,” in a recent commentary published on KevinMD.com.

Wong, whose practice conducted the survey to see what tasks patients were doing online, also endorses the use of reputation management services to assist practices with discovering and improving physician ratings. It’s also important to realize you’re playing the “long game” with online reputation management. That’s because the young internet-savvy patients of today will be your elderly patients of the future, he writes.

Still, as valuable as following online reviews can be, seeking patient feedback offline is also important, as previously reported by FiercePracticeManagement. For example, take a lesson from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which observes patients with a goal of improving the care experience. One of their findings? Postoperative patients were found waiting out in the rain for a ride home from the hospital.