Yext CMO Jeff Rohrs at Cleveland Clinic Patient Experience Summit: Solving Healthcare’s Location Data Crisis

Earlier this month, Yext CMO Jeff Rohrs took the stage at the Cleveland Clinic's Patient Experience Summit to discuss the current location data crisis in the healthcare industry. His presentation, "Empathy for the Mobile Patient: Solving Healthcare's Location Data Crisis," examined the evolution of patients' search behavior brought on by the rise of mobile, why location data must be managed by providers, and what steps can be taken to ensure patients always receive accurate facility and physician information when and where they need it.

For patients searching for emergency medical care, accurate location information about healthcare facilities and physicians can mean the difference between life and death. The reality of this situation is clear when you hear stories like that of cardiologist Dr. Mustafa Ahmed, who experienced firsthand the serious dangers of bad location data.

According to a posting by Dr. Ahmed on the Google My Business forum, three critical care patient referrals sought his address online. Instead of being routed to his office in Birmingham, Alabama, these patients received information for another cardiologist–also named Dr. Mustafa Ahmed–in Gainesville, Florida. Two of the patients drove the 450-plus miles to Florida and one flew there, only to discover upon arrival the mistaken identity caused by bad location data found during their Google searches.

Fortunately, each of these patients was able to get to their Dr. Ahmed in Birmingham in time. Unfortunately, however, location data errors like Dr. Ahmed's are all too common for the healthcare industry. A recent Yext analysis of over 1,800 physicians and healthcare facilities (across over 15,000 online listings) found these troubling statistics:

• 68% of listings had a name-related error
• 29% of healthcare facilities lacked accurate phone numbers
• 48% of facilities' listings contained basic address errors that misdirected patients
• 32% lacked an online, local listing – that's 3.6x greater than the unlisted average (8.68%) of other types of businesses!

Mobile-empowered patients are using smartphones to find for medical care information on a wide variety of different search engines, directories, apps, websites, and social media platforms, it has become increasingly imperative that healthcare providers invest in comprehensive location management technology.

For more information on the healthcare location data crisis, and how Yext can help your organization address this problem today, download Yext's free white paper: Healthcare's Location Data Crisis: Improving the Mobile Patient's Journey.