Meet Major Health Partners
Just a stone’s throw away from Indianapolis, Major Health Partners (MHP) has been a pillar of its Shelbyville community since 1924.
With state-of-the art facilities and treatments, the community hospital combines all the advantages of larger metropolitan health systems, with the patient-centered care found in smaller towns. Over time, MHP has grown to include 35 specialty clinics, 195 providers, and a slew of traveling specialists — allowing them to serve patients throughout central and southeastern Indiana.
The epitome of the community hospital, MHP joined rater8 in April of 2021.
The Problem
Located just 30 miles from America’s 16th largest city, MHP has faced the same challenge for decades: competing with the sprawling hospitals and healthcare systems in metropolitan Indianapolis.
Specifically, MHP lacks the enormous marketing budgets and brand recognition of their urban counterparts. While searching for and testing various strategies, MHP realized they hadn’t yet invested in improving one of their most potent patient acquisition tools: Reputation SEO and trust marketing in the form of online patient reviews.
According to the hospital’s Director of Marketing & Public Relations, Gena Linville, “MHP is always looking for creative and cost-effective ways to be competitive in our market and to better serve our community. Improving our online presence was one of the areas we identified as being able to make a big impact quicker and easier than other traditional marketing initiatives. We’ve always had highly satisfied patients, but we never had an online reputation that accurately reflected what patients tell us in real life.”
In 2020, their last full year without rater8, MHP had an average star-rating of only 3.6 across their hospital, various service lines, and individual provider Google Business Profiles — well below their big city competitors. With fewer and weaker online reviews, the Shelbyville provider was dominated online by larger groups, in terms of both patient perception and rankings in local search results.
The result of their limited online presence and Reputation SEO? Patients searching for healthcare services near Shelbyville were being directed by search engines toward hospitals and practices in Indianapolis and surrounding counties, not to their local providers at MHP.
The Solution
With guidance from their expert marketing team, leadership at MHP made a strategic decision to overhaul their online reputation — a relatively low-cost strategy with significant upside.
With this plan in mind, MHP partnered with rater8, the reputation management solution designed specifically for the healthcare industry.
Recalling the decision, Linville shared, “rater8 was the clear standout to meet our needs of improving our ratings and reviews across the board — from our individual providers, to our various service lines, to our multiple facilities. At the same time, we wanted a better solution for our patient satisfaction surveys that allowed us to survey patients in real time and didn’t require our patients to complete long and cumbersome questionnaires. rater8 allowed us to accomplish all of this simultaneously, without having to devote any time or energy to yet another software.”
Overall, MHP’s partnership with rater8 brought several impactful solutions, including:
Online Review Builder
Fully automated, real-time online review requests that prompt patients to rate MHP’s providers and services with a single click or tap. Integrated with the hospital’s EMR system, Meditech, rater8 sends requests directly to verified patients via text or email at the conclusion of their visits.
To maximize MHP’s online presence, rater8’s pollin8™ algorithm intelligently distributes online reviews, directing each patient to the listing and review platform that needs the most attention.
Patient Satisfaction Surveys
Fully automated, post-visit satisfaction surveys delivered to patients via text or email. With a customizable ratio, MHP can grow online reviews and receive patient feedback simultaneously.
Designed to gather comprehensive feedback on the patient experience, rater8’s micro-surveys cover dozens of topics, including waiting room experience, staff performance, and more.
The rater8 Platform
A unified dashboard that consolidates every satisfaction survey and online review to a single screen — for every listing, from every significant healthcare review site.
With unprecedented visibility, MHP can easily monitor, analyze, and respond to reviews, and use advanced reports to evaluate the strengths and gaps in their patient experience.
The Results
Reflecting on the solution’s impact just one year later, Linville said, “We started by piloting rater8 with our orthopedic department in 2021, and immediately saw spectacular results! The providers who were part of the pilot program were ecstatic about their new online reviews, and soon our other providers wanted to be part of it too. We quickly made the decision to expand to our entire operation and have never looked back! Our ratings and reviews look incredible now, we’re dominating local search results, and we can finally showcase what we’ve always known to be excellent patient satisfaction rates. The rater8 team has been a pleasure to work with — this has been a great experience all-around!”
Among MHP’s many successes with rater8 are the following:
Increased online reviews by 6,618%
In 2020, MHP accumulated a total of just 50 new online reviews across every major healthcare review platform. In 2022, MHP’s first full year with rater8, they amassed 3,359 reviews, a 6,618% increase.
Notably, MHP has seen an increase not only in total reviews, but in high-quality reviews as well. In 2020, the community hospital accumulated just 34 5-star reviews; two years later, that number skyrocketed to 3,127 5-star reviews, an increase of 9,097%. Conversely, MHP’s 1-star ratings dropped from 32% of total reviews to 1.4% over the same period.
Cultivated a 4.87-star average rating
At the conclusion of 2020, MHP suffered from a 3.6-star average rating across their hospital, clinic, and individual listings — burying them in search results and driving prospective patients to competitors.
With the influx of new reviews from rater8, MHP dramatically improved their online ratings for every clinic, provider, and facility in the organization. In 2022, the community-centric healthcare provider grossed an overall star-rating of 4.87 across all of its listings.
Maximized online presence
When MHP began their partnership with rater8, their goal was simple: grow their online presence to better compete with larger healthcare systems in Indianapolis.
Now, nearly two years later, they have done just that. With a cumulative average rating of 4.87 stars and rising, MHP has cultivated a well-rounded image, complete with an abundance of reviews on every single one of their listings.
In practice, these optimized listings have positioned MHP as a dominant local online presence, holding the top-ranking spots for nearly all relevant search results. For example, MHP owns all three listings in the Google 3-Pack for the area’s most lucrative keyword: “best hospitals in shelbyville indiana.” In earning these top rankings, MHP’s listings are virtually guaranteed to receive more than 50% of actions from this search.
Over 86% of patients rely on online reviews to choose their healthcare providers, and that number increases every year. MHP’s dominance means they are essentially monopolizing one of the industry’s most important decision-making methods — exponentially growing their brand awareness along the way.
As a result of this increased exposure, the community hospital has been able to drive more patients to their services, leading to greater acquisition and long-term retention.
This growth is just the beginning for MHP. With rater8’s solutions, the Shelbyville hospital will continue to cultivate timely, high-quality reviews — staying ahead of competitors and maximizing their online presence in perpetuity.
Overall, rater8’s multi-faceted solution — including both online reviews and patient satisfaction surveys — has proven to be the perfect tool for MHP, giving them the insights they need to deliver and showcase unmatched quality care.
