Take ownership of "doc website" profiles?

[heybrother]

Morning.

Recently graduated resident in new area. Just got PP website updated to include myself. Have an up to date linked-in profile. Have taken over/updated our Facebook profile. Getting privileges at local hospitals which do create profile pages for you ultimately.

That said, a search for my name still pulls up numerous junk doc websites and most of them list my residency practice location.

Anyone have any experience claiming their profiles on these sort of websites? Part of me wonders if its worth it early on to take charge of the top listings and also correct wrong information. Another part of me wonders about unforeseen hassles. A search online has some people suggesting this is a powerful way to take over your marketing, but these people also suggest you'll need to respond to patients/negative feedback etc.

Thoughts?

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[dtrack22]

These website typically will update all of your info, it just lags behind as they pull info from CAQH, NPDB, CME (or some sort of national databse). Until you are credentialed with medicare, for example, there is some of that info that isn't visible to the websites you are referring to for several months after starting a new job. And even then they aren't necessarily looking to update that information for you every day of the week.

Most of them will allow you to "claim" your profile for free in order to edit basic information. I would do that, mostly because they have money and will pay for SEO services (search engine optimization) that clearly your current practice does not. That means that Vitals, Healthgrades, Caredash, etc. will show up on the first page of a google search and therefore patient's searching for podiatrists in your location MAY stumble upon you via one of those websites. That being said, your money is better spent on the practice's own website and getting things like google reviews and facebook reviews. When you google my name, you get a surgical center where I have privileges, a hospital where I have privileges, and the practice's website with my landing page as the top 3 hits. Vitals.com and healthgrades are right behind. I wouldn't pay any of these organizations money, I think it is better spent elsewhere (like the practice website where they can actually see what it is you offer and make an appointment potentially). But I would do whatever I could to "claim" the profiles to make sure they are accurate. I have never received a review from a patient on any of those sites. We struggle to get folks to write google reviews...they aren't creating accounts on vitals.com to write something nice (or bad) about you.

Long story short, claim and update anything that you can do for free. Don't pay these websites/companies any money to do it. Focus on SEO for your own website and don't worry about the "hassle" of responding to negative reviews because the only reviews you will get will be ones you post about yourself from random, anonymous email accounts or ones you pay someone else to post.

 

[heybrother]

Thanks for the insight.