Here are five tips:
1. Name a social media lead. Each practice should delegate social media monitoring to an employee, who will check rating sites like Healthgrades and Vitals daily. This employee will respond to all patients and encourage them to call to discuss problems instead of sharing personal information online. This employee will then relay any information to the whole practice, so everyone is on the same page.
2. Update payer directories. Patients often unknowingly find themselves at physician offices that are not in-network. If practices review their payer directories every couple months, patients won’t be shocked by extra bills, and hopefully won’t write bad reviews.
3. Clearly communicate payment. Patients may be overwhelmed by financial information, so take extra care to inform them of the costs beforehand.
4. Enhance communication with patients. Patients don’t want to feel like they’re forgotten, so if the physician is running late, inform the waiting patient.
5. Send patients off with a smile. A practice’s staff should always ask patients how their visits went, giving them the opportunity to bring up any issues. Staff can express regret much more effectively with in-person complaints than online.
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