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CASE STUDY – Capturing patient satisfaction through texted review links
CHALLENGES
- Cumbersome Google review process too complicated for patients to start
- Review request and other communication relied on business cards or phone calls, outdated and confusing
SOLUTIONS
- OhMD Reputation Management to simplify the review process for patients
- OhMD Texting to expedite messaging with patients
RESULTS
- 3.9 to 4.5 stars on Google within 6 months of review request implementation
- Over 100 reviews from patients since implementation, steadily increasing and many 5 star
- Eased communication between both patients and providers
Patient texting opens the door for this pain management practice to request physician reviews by text and transform their online reputation
Champlain Spine & Pain Management in Plattsburgh, New York originally signed on with OhMD in September 2020 to improve patient and team communication. Six months in, the pain management practice is making the most of two-way patient texting by leveraging it to request online physician reviews. Speaking to their Google review score, office manager Kristie Jabaut beams, “When we started with OhMD, we were at a 3.9 and now we’re at a 4.5.”
Champlain Spine used to hand out business cards to patients in the office as a way to encourage them to leave physician reviews online. They tried to explain the process to patients in person so they could do it themselves at home. “But with Google, if you don’t have the direct link, it’s kind of confusing how to leave a review,” says Jabaut. The practice was struggling to find a way to raise their online ranking quickly while remaining authentic.
When we started with OhMD, we were at 3.9 stars and now we’re at 4.5.
-Kristie Jabaut, Office Manager
They decided instead of asking patients to leave physician reviews in passing, they would work follow-up review requests into their routine patient texting with OhMD. “We did some research, came up with a paragraph on how we wanted to talk to the patient through the Google link, and we copied the Google link from our site into an OhMD saved reply. It’s just this little paragraph that we send to the patients that we want to receive a review from,” says Jabaut. By copying Champlain Spine’s Google review link directly into a text that she can send to patients, Jabaut has made leaving physician reviews straight-forward.
To improve online patient engagement and boost the practice’s local search engine ranking, Jabaut and her staff make sure to comment in response to every physician review, whether it’s positive or negative. “We’re a little bit behind because we have so many reviews that have come through in the past two weeks,” says Jabaut. She’s not exaggerating. In a one-week span from February 18 to February 25, 2021 Champlain Spine received a total of 48 Google reviews, 46 of them five-star reviews and two of them four-star.
Before they began texting patients through OhMD, Champlain Spine had 50 total reviews on Google, averaging 3.9 out of 5 stars. Now the practice has 155 reviews, 4.5 stars, and is getting more reviews by the day. “Obviously, your online presence and your reviews mean a lot, so it’s definitely helping us out,” says Jabaut.
It’s clear that shifting to requesting reviews through text has helped Champlain Spine showcase patient satisfaction, but they’ve also been working to raise satisfaction behind the scenes. Two-way patient texting has offered patients more direct communication with the practice. They can now ask quick questions and request prescription refills by text instead of leaving voicemails or waiting on hold. “In today’s age, a lot of people don’t like answering the phone. So being able to send patients messages, and even more so texting them, has been a big plus for us,” says assistant manager Chelsea McDonald.
I wish that we would have known about OhMD sooner. No matter the office type, everyone could use it.
– Kristie Jabaut, Office Manager
OhMD has become the routine patient and team communication platform at Champlain Spine. Jabaut says the most dramatic change the office has seen with OhMD is a higher level of communication. “It’s just so direct. It’s not like another email or another message waiting in our EMR system that we just kind of skim through,” says Jabaut. The practice counts on OhMD to log every conversation between patients and staff. It helps get staff up to date if they’ve been out of the office, keeping everyone accountable and on the same page.
For Champlain Spine, improved communication through OhMD doesn’t stop with their patients. Internal communication has also improved with the use of colleague messaging. “I think it’s brought not only patient satisfaction up, but also staff morale,” says Jabaut. “We cheer each other on in the messages. It’s really nice to have that direct, open communication because that’s the world we live in right now”. McDonald agrees that constant communication between the staff is possible more so than ever with OhMD. “I think the staff find it fun in a sense because it’s like texting”.
