If you haven’t noticed, we’re in the midst of a movement — driven by patients and their advocates. The push for cost transparency; the availability of multiple insurance and payment options, including out-of-network tiers and health savings accounts; and accessibility to ratings sites, ranging from Healthgrades to Yelp, has given rise to the empowered healthcare consumer. Today, patients have the knowledge and means to take more control over their healthcare decisions than ever before, including where to go for care.
The impact on hospitals? … It has never been so easy, yet so hard, to build and maintain a positive public image. Many hospitals realize this — just look at the emergence of the patient experience officer. Its very purpose is to help ensure patients’ needs and expectations are being met. Why? Because anyone who has stayed in a hospital is eventually going to tell others about how much they liked or disliked everything they experienced during their stay, from meals to the attentiveness of staff. And, today, many don’t think twice about sharing those opinions online.
The point is this… A hospital’s reputation is the product of a myriad of factors, but there is one that speaks the loudest: Quality.
In his latest commentary, our CEO, Milton, points out that most patients believe a hospital’s quality of care and reputation are one and the same. Because of this and the many ways a hospital’s public image can be influenced, there has never been a more critical time to take reputation management seriously. Fortunately, most hospitals have access to a powerful tool – when managed effectively – for both improving and demonstrating quality: Their participation in clinical data registries.
To learn more about the strategic role that registries can play in reputation management, check out Milton’s Fierce Healthcare “Industry Voices” piece. Then, let us know if you’re ready to discuss how to leverage your registry participation for much more than performance assessment.