In Google We Trust

Healthcare consumers increasingly turn to online ratings and reviews, especially Google ratings, when selecting a healthcare provider.

In a recent Press Ganey survey of 1,000 adults, online ratings were the number one factor influencing a consumer’s decision to book an appointment. And that’s not only true when patients are searching for and self-selecting a new provider.

A positive online reputation is imperative for hospitals, too. CHS-affiliated hospitals averaged 2.7 stars from reviews posted in 2018 – before we began soliciting patient reviews. Since then, we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of reviews and a significant improvement in review sentiment. During the first half of 2022, the consolidated average rating for CHS-affiliated hospitals was 4.4 stars with more than 22,000 total reviews posted.

Earlier this year, Reputation, a leader in online reputation, released its 2022 Healthcare Reputation Report which evaluated hospitals across the 25 largest healthcare systems in the United States. Community Health Systems ranked number one for online reputation based on nine measures that included review volume, review sentiment and responsiveness to reviews.

Reviews are helpful to healthcare consumers, especially when they are current, high-volume and represent a wide range of experiences. They are equally important to providers.

Insights from reviews can help us identify opportunities for improvement and lead to service recovery if a patient or family member has a bad experience. Just as important, positive comments about physicians, nurses, and other team members provide an opportunity to recognize excellent care.

Finally, positive ratings can help improve the likelihood of attracting new patients via the Google search engine because Google considers ratings and reviews in its algorithms determining search results.

Google reports that on average the top placement in search results gets approximately 33% more clicks than any other link on a search results page. And, since nearly 80% of patients use search engines prior to booking appointments, top placement can help providers acquire new patients and grow their practices.