Word-of-Mouth is “gold nugget” to choosing health care

One of the more interesting questions/discussions we had at the November CEOtoCEO Breakfast was in regard to choosing your health care professionals. I have to admit, this was a surprise to me and I don’t think I was alone.

A part of the discussion was around “distance to your doctor” or hospital. It was pretty common that most chose this because of location, not because of the hospital – at least the location was the primary driver. This makes intuitive sense to me and it did to the other CEOs in the room. However, what surprised me was how people choose their doctors.

Most people at the breakfast reported choosing health care professional via WORD-OF-MOUTH. That is not a typo – this was the primary way physicians were chosen. Not based on their credentials, not based on education and not based on the hospital where they practice. No, it was what others have to say about them.

Does any of this sound familiar? Does your business operate in pretty much the same way? This is directly linked to how most people choose other professionals – based on what others say about you. So when we think of the medical field, there are some really scary similarities to how other businesses are run as well – something to think about…

Many in the group asked to be sent the link to the Premium Designation site which provides some background on methodology used to evaluate providers as well as the ability to look up providers by a number of attributes specialty, location, language etc. Investigate this site if you would like more “facts” in addition to the “word-of-mouth” you are already getting.