Recognize, Assess, and Manage Reputational Risk

Your hospital or healthcare system’s reputation is tied to its success in attracting and retaining patients. If patients have trust in your institution and see continued progress, they will turn to you when they need care, maintain relationships with your providers, and likely expand their relationship with your organization over time.

Reputational risk is the potential for events, both within and beyond your control, as well as negative perception or publicity, to harm your reputation and – by extension – your performance compared to competitors.

Let’s explore the factors that can affect your hospital or health system’s reputation, the difference between risk management and crisis management, and how you can assess and manage your reputational risk.

WHAT ARE SOME REPUTATIONAL RISKS SPECIFIC TO HEALTHCARE?

Many factors can damage a hospital or health system’s reputation. Some of the most common across the industry include patient data breaches, healthcare-associated infection rates, emergency preparedness and patient safety issues, and staffing issues that may affect patient access and perception of care quality.

Misinformation intended to deceive, and incorrect interpretations of health information, both of which are prevalent across social media, negatively impact public perception of healthcare, and they may dissuade people from seeking the preventive care and treatments they need. This misguided distrust of the medical field as a whole could be directly damaging to your organization, especially if negative comments and misinformation are shared in response to social posts created by your hospital or health system.

Even a few negative online reviews can have a big impact on your reputation – especially if they are not counterbalanced by positive reviews, patient success stories, or testimonials. A dearth of positive press can also have a negative effect.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN RISK MANAGEMENT AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT?

Risk management means identifying, assessing, and responding proactively to an issue or event that could negatively impact your reputation and performance. Crisis management is responding to, managing the fallout of, and recovering from an unexpected event that could have harmful impacts on your organization.

For example, risk management may be noticing an uptick in patients with chronic conditions like diabetes and increased pressure on your primary care practices. To mitigate potential access issues for these and other patients, you explore digital medicine and virtual health management programs for these patients. Crisis management would be trying to recover from a large increase in negative reviews because patients have to wait long periods of time to see a doctor and feel rushed at appointments.

HOW TO ASSESS REPUTATIONAL RISK

To manage your hospital or health system’s reputational risk, you must understand what those risks are. To do that, you need to know what’s being said about your brand. Social media listening and monitoring will give you insight into what people are saying – both the negatives and the positives, what people are looking for to improve their engagement with your organization, and how people feel about your competitors. Subtle changes in social media perception can indicate a bigger problem on the horizon, so it’s important to pay attention. You should also keep track of reviews of your individual hospitals, practices, and providers on Google, Healthgrades, Yelp, and WebMD.

Once you determine the reasons for negative reviews, comments, or publicity, you can respond directly to patient concerns, develop strategies to address issues that are adversely impacting patient experiences and public perception, and find ways to expand upon the strategies and services people are happy with.

Next, assign risk scores to the factors potentially affecting your reputation, and weigh them against your organization’s risk tolerance and appetite. If a factor’s score falls outside your risk tolerance, develop a prevention, reduction, and/or damage-control plan to address it. Finally, tie key risk indicators (KRIs) to specific key performance indicators (KPIs) within your organization, so that it’s easier to see how risks affect your ability to achieve specific goals.

HOW TO MANAGE REPUTATIONAL RISK IN HEALTHCARE

A hospital or healthcare system’s reputation is intertwined with its potential for success, so reputation management needs to be part of your overall management strategy. Here are five tips for maintaining and encouraging positive patient and public perception.

1. Ensure Reputation Management Is a Leadership Priority: Your brand’s reputation and image are key to attracting new patients and maintaining and expanding relationships with existing ones. You need clear strategies for regularly monitoring and responding to any risks – and people in charge of ensuring those strategies are carried out.
2. Create and Communicate Clear Standards and Processes: Identifying, mitigating, and preventing reputational risks requires buy-in from every member of your organization. Communicate your hospital or health system’s values and expectations clearly to every team member, as well as each person’s importance in contributing to the perception and progress of the organization as a whole.
3. Respond Directly to Patients’ Feedback and Pain Points: By paying attention to social media and patient reviews, you have opportunities to not only respond directly to improve individual experiences but also incorporate their comments, critiques, and praise into strategies for expanding services, enhancing access, and helping your communities feel more invested in your growth.
4. Have a Response Plan in Place: No healthcare organization is perfect, so there will be threats to your reputation caused by certain internal actions, lapses in judgment, and unforeseen emergencies. Having clear guidelines in place about who will respond – and how – if your organization is exposed to one of the risks you’ve identified will lessen its long-term impact.
5. Promote the Positives to Patients: You can feature plenty of positive and helpful content – including success stories and patient testimonials – on a user-friendly website, trustworthy blog, and/or well-managed social media accounts. Sharing patient stories humanizes your brand and makes patients more likely to imagine their own positive experiences with your organization – leading them to choose you over your competitors.

Risk is inevitable in healthcare, but there are plenty of ways you can better protect, monitor, and manage your reputation, even as you potentially face situations beyond your control. Ready to launch your own reputation management strategy and communicate it to all the key players on your team? Reach out to LIGHTSTREAM.