The NHS and feedback - there is a better way

One of our staffers had occasion to pay a visit to a hospital this week. And guess what they saw? This...

Here's the form...

And this was next to the lifts...

How is this feedback collated? (Goodness knows). Is it visible to other patients? (not that we can see). Does it recieve a response? (No). Is it shown on their website? (No). Seriously? In 2021?

Let's look at another medical operation, a relatively recent client of ours:

This form can incorporate specific questions if required (and these can be varied over time)

All collated, scores recorded, incorporating a response mechanism, paperless, visible to all potential patients.

That last point is crucial: what does anyone considering medical treatment need more than almost anything else? Yes: reassurance. 

And as many as possible on Google as well:

Need we say more?

Doctors - what happens if you ignore Google reviews?

This happens...

...maybe not straight away, but over time.


Why?

It is simple really, and its all down to a combination of human motivation and how we interact with the web. People are just more motivated to write negative reviews, often in the heat of the moment, and often putting the blame on the wrong agency.


The two reactions to this behaviour.... 

1.  Logical: these are just 17 opinions out of many thousands, of course some people are going to be unhappy/disappointed but this should not colour a prospective - or existing  - patient's view of the surgery (remember that most existing patients will see your reviews simply by the accident of them being in their eye-line when they look up your phone number/address/website).

 

   

 Reviews like this do get read - and do influence people - witness the eight 'thumbs up'. The fact that the review has not received a response from the surgery serves to further endorse the patients' opinion

2.  Emotional: "How can I possibly entrust my health and welfare to a surgery that scores so low (and/or has so many negative reviews)?"


The reality

Everyone reads reviews nowadays, and their reaction is likely to be a combination of both. 

No-one has to actively search for Google reviews, they are displayed in every search. In addition, many more reviews are being written - fourteen of the seventeen reviews of the surgery above have been written in the last twelve months. That pattern is not going to reverse itself any time soon.


The solution

Surgeries must engage - with Google. That does not mean abandoning any current patient feedback mechanisms, far from it, but it does mean incorporating modern professional review management into their interaction with patients.

Otherwise: dissatisfied patients will continue to post to Google, just in increasing numbers (as more and more people find they are able to write a Google review).

Preventing inaccurate or misleading reviews 

By sending an email or text to the patient asking them for a review to be independently verified and moderated by HelpHound potentially misleading or inaccurate reviews will be sent to the surgery so they can engage with the patient pre-publication, reviews will then be displayed on the surgery's own website and the reviewer then invited to copy their review to Google.

HelpHound

We are here to provide you with professional advice, and to design a review management strategy that dovetails with the way you operate your particular surgery, not shoehorn you into some 'off the peg' reviews solution.




Please feel free to comment on this article - link below - and subscribe - centre right - so you can be sure to receive every article as it is published. If you would like more information just email fiona.christie@helphound.com

Dialogue™ for the medical profession

More than ever before the medical and caring professions have to address the concept of reviews

First let's examine the current state of the reviews and the medical profession...

Specialist sites

If a business or service exists you can be sure that there will be review sites specifically targeting it, it's the nature of the web. Here are some examples:

From NHS Choices

From IWantGreatCare

General sites

A 'general' review site is one where anyone can comment on any type of business or service, from accountants to zoos. here's an example of a review on Yelp, the big daddy of them all...

Yelpers don't pull their punches!

Benefits

Everyone wants reviews: patients commonly search the web for them; they want to know what the existing patients of a given practice or practitioner think. In today's competitive environment practitioners welcome honest feedback as a way of attracting new patients, and, just as importantly, a way of gaining valuable insight.

Drawbacks

Not all reviews are written with the best of intentions: some are written maliciously (some have even been known to be posted by competitors)! Much more commonly, misguided (and potentially damaging) opinions are posted about complex medical issues without the practitioner being able to engage with the patient beforehand.

Is this really representative of the practice?

Right-of-reply

With reviews of hotels or restaurants the simple 'right-of-reply' which is incorporated into most review sites may be all that is needed to correct misconceptions. This is not enough for medical issues: they are far too important, for the patient in question and for the potential patient reading the review. There has to be a better way...

There is. All reviews at HelpHound are moderated (read by trained professional moderators) in a process we call Resolution ™, and any reviews that contain issues which should be addressed by the practitioner are first forwarded to that practitioner for response. 

People actively engage with this process and both parties find it rewarding, to the extent that over 99% of reviews that are written and subject to Resolution result in no final review being published. 

Administration

It's every medical practitioner's nightmare - more paperwork, more complex technology. How to keep track of the 47 sites where a patient might comment? The answer is simple: you don't have to. 

Invite all your patients to write a simple review, direct to your practice, once a year and/or whenever they feel the need...

What your patients' reviews will look like on your website - a mock-up with thanks to Abingdon Medical Practice

HelpHound will moderate them and we will publish them on your own website; we will also invite your patients to post their reviews to Google so you don't look like these GPs when future patients search:

Your prospective patients are looking for reviews - here (on Google) and on your own website, but only one patient has posted one review on one of these practices. What a lost opportunity to benefit for everyone concerned, practice and patients alike

To summarise

Dialogue brings you and your patients all the benefits of reviews and none of the drawbacks: it can only be good for you both.

• Great feedback, easily analysed 
• Positive comments to show to prospective patients
• Negative issues managed in private, benefiting both parties equally
 

Please contact Karen Hutchings (karen.hutchings@helphound) for more details.