TAKE THIS TABLET Why not ask patients' families for comments while they're on site?

Positive Promotion
Don't Let Good Reviews Get Away

For a long time surgery centers have hidden the praise they receive, with patient satisfaction survey scores and thank-you letters simply thumbtacked to the break-room bulletin board. Why not put patients' and families' compliments to use in your facility's marketing efforts?

Instead of just handing patients a survey in their discharge materials and hoping they'll return it, ask them during your follow-up communications if they'd be willing to post a comment about their experience on your website or the social media sites you're represented on. E-mail them a link to make it easy for them to do so.

Or, even more proactively, if you hear their family members expressing positive feedback while they're waiting for discharge, ask them if they'd mind writing a review. Restaurants often ask satisfied diners to share a good word about them online. I've been to some that even bring you an iPad with the check so you can write it to Facebook or Yelp right there. While I've not seen this in practice at a surgery center, bringing a tablet to patients' families could be a low-cost marketing solution.

Don't let your satisfied surgical customers walk out the door without capturing their kind words. Potential patients have a lot of choices, and their physicians hold privileges at a lot of facilities. The details they see, or don't see, about your center while they're Googling for information can easily sway their healthcare decisions.

Joan Dentler, MBA
Avanza Healthcare Strategies
Austin, Texas
[email protected]