Vanguard Communications  

Denver,  CO 
United States
http://vanguardcommunications.net

• Booth: 1811

Want more patients? Vanguard Communications guarantees a 15%-30% increase in new patients in just 13 months or we work for free. (In 27 years, we've never had to work for free.) We guide academic and private fertility clinics to grow with our proven patient education and digital medical marketing program called MedMarketLink. It integrates all the components needed to attract new patients and grow revenue, including content marketing, online reputation management, search engine optimization, secure web forms, e-newsletters, PR and more. In fact, we guarantee it. We also resolve common practice pain points, such as phone bottlenecks, billing, patient retention, appointment no-shows and more. That's because our research shows 96% of damaging online patient complaints about physicians have nothing to do with the medical care but everything to do with customer service. Patient experience matters. If you're serious about growth, visit us at booth #1811 at the Expo.

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 Press Releases

• Analysis of 1.5 million online reviews finds doctors are nearly 200% as likely than restaurants to receive 1-star reviews (Aug 04, 2021)

  Denver, Dec. 20, 2019 – Patients are much more likely to both publicly laud and lambaste their experiences with physicians than with restaurants and hotels, an analysis of 1.5 million Yelp restaurant, hotel and doctor online reviews.

  While doctors, hotels and restaurants each average a 3.5-star rating out of 5 stars possible on the business review website Yelp.com, a doctor is 64% as likely to receive a 5-star review but 194% as likely to receive a 1-star review, according to research conducted by Technical Director Jonathan Stanley of Vanguard Communications, a national healthcare marketing and practice management consulting firm.

  See more at LoveOrHateDoctors.com

  The data suggests that while people’s experiences with doctors are distinctly polarizing, their expectations of restaurants and hotels are more nuanced, explained Stanley.

  “Given the findings, a disappointing appetizer or a noisy corner room doesn’t appear as upsetting to restaurant and hotel patrons as a physician’s poor bedside manner or a billing error might be to a patient,” Stanley said.

  Doctor online reviews carry 5 times the impact

  However, the findings indicate that doctor online reviews do not rate generally better or worse than other businesses. Rather, the polarizing effects of a disappointing patient experience are more dangerous to medical practices than other businesses.

  On average, a hotel receives 61 reviews and restaurants 27 reviews, but doctors average only 13. That means each online review for a doctor carries as much as five times more impact toward a medical practice’s overall rating.

  Doctor online reviews have the least to do with medical care

  Prior research by Vanguard Communications has found that disorganization, poor communication and other customer service complaints are the dominant ratings issues for doctors’ offices and hospitals.

  “In the online age,” said Ron Harman King, CEO of Vanguard Communications, “healthcare consumers demand not just good clinical care but also customer service as good as that of four- and five-star hotels and restaurants.”

  Overall, doctor online reviews are more positive than negative

  While physicians may feel unfairly attacked online, patients are almost twice as likely statistically to give doctors good marks online as poor ones. Prior Vanguard research of 34,748 online patient reviews found that 66 percent awarded 4 and 5 stars, while only 34 percent gave 1 and 2 stars.

  Research by the Pew Research Center has found that patients research healthcare online similarly to how they investigate the purchase of cars, homes or other big-ticket items – by starting at a search engine. They form initial perceptions based on a doctor’s internet presence, including online reviews, the practice’s website, and social media.

  Media Contact: Lisa Long | 303.382.2999 | lisalong@vanguardcommunications.net

• Higher COVID-19 mortality rates correlate to lower online ratings of doctors, clinics & hospitals (Aug 04, 2021)

  November 12, 2020 – The level of satisfaction with the quality of your healthcare overall may be a predictor of your odds of surviving the coronavirus pandemic, an evaluation of COVID-19 mortality rates and patients’ online reviews suggests.

  In a study of new coronavirus deaths nationwide reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Vanguard Communications – a Denver-based healthcare management consulting firm – found a correlation between COVID-19 mortality rates and patients’ internet reviews of healthcare providers.

  See the data and methodology: Check Your City | Research Findings

  Vanguard compared the rate of COVID-19 deaths in the most populous cities and counties against the healthcare satisfaction levels as measured by reviews on Google and Yelp ratings websites– the latter yielding what Vanguard calls the Happy Patient Index (HPI).

  Researchers found that locations with COVID-19 mortality rates below 1% of all reported cases had above-average satisfaction ratings online in every instance. Conversely, residents of areas with mortality rates greater than 5% usually gave their healthcare providers below-average healthcare reviews, as measured by the average number of stars on a five-star rating scale.

  “The data suggest that as a whole, the most satisfied healthcare consumers are more likely to survive COVID-19,” said Ron Harman King, Vanguard CEO. “However, this is a vast generalization drawn from aggregated data, and the correlation does not apply uniformly in all instances.”

  Vanguard’s model projected that if all healthcare providers had an average online patient rating of four stars and the mathematical correlation held, there might have been from 53,108 to 73,283 fewer COVID-19 deaths through October 25. That is roughly double the number of lives that might have been saved by October 1 if 95% of the population wore masks in public.

  The findings show Madison, Wisconsin, enjoyed the greatest success, with a mortality rate of just 0.33% and an average 4.09-star rating in online reviews. The average rating is 3.70 stars. Madison was followed by Lincoln, Nebraska, trailed by Anchorage, Alaska, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and San Francisco. More information on specific locations is available at HappyPatientIndex.net.

  Cities with the highest mortality rates were New York City (8.94% mortality rate, 3.53 average star rating), Detroit, Jersey City, New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, and Buffalo, New York.

  However, a few outliers included New Orleans, scoring a high HPI of 3.97 stars in online reviews while experiencing a mortality rate of 4.6%, more than tenfold that of top-performing cities. Bakersfield, California, experienced a mortality rate of just 1.19% despite an HPI of 3.33.

  “Because these findings suggest only a broad trend, it’s easy to infer too much,” said King. “By no means do we see direct cause and effect, that giving your doctor or hospital a good review inoculates against any disease or poor health condition.”

  Clearly, patient satisfaction appears as only one factor, among others, affecting COVID-19 outcomes, King said.

  Nevertheless, studies have found that patients’ positive experiences with healthcare – especially those reporting strong communications with providers – correlate to better outcomes.

  A formal report of the study will appear in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Medical Practice Management.