When it comes to the way patients choose their physicians, times are changing. "Patients want to go to good doctors and this, of course, isn't new," says Luke Kervin, co-CEO of Los Angeles practice growth platform PatientPop. "What is new is how they're gathering evidence to decide who is a good doctor and who is not." He notes that in the past, prospective patients might have asked their primary physician for a referral or family and friends for recommendations. Today, they're conducting their own research on websites such as Healthgrades, Vitals, and Yelp. That means attention to maintaining a positive profile is a must. "Online reputation is critical to attracting new patients for most physician practices today," says Matthew Bates, MPH, managing director of medical group transformation at Studer Group, a healthcare coaching and consulting firm in Pensacola, Fla. He cites research showing that more than half of healthcare consumers will search online to find or check on a new physician before seeing them. Given this realty, how can physicians garner the best possible scores? Here are tips for earning high ratings from patients. Source