Dive Brief:
- In response to some negative comment about its physicians, the University of Utah Healthcare Center has decided to post patient ratings of its physicians on its own website.
- Now, when patients search for a University of Utah Health Care doctor, the hospital's website reviews rank first in the search engines, giving the hospital chance to tell its story and tout the strength of its doctors firsthand.
- According to Healthcare IT News, the Cleveland Clinic is considering a similar move. "This is clearly a trend that is coming," James Merlino, MD, Chief Experience Officer at the Clinic, told the publication.
Dive Insight:
No matter what hospitals and medical practices do, there will be dissatisfied patients, and these days they take to the web pretty quickly when they're unhappy. Some doctors have handled this by suing patients who slammed their services, but that hasn't done much to slow the flow of negative comments across the web and social media. Bringing doctor and hospital critiques to their own websites, which could give providers a bit more control, seems likely to be adopted by other health care organizations.