For many people across the globe, Google is a valuable resource. But for many hospitals, it is pure frustration and a drain on limited resources.
"Google is providing bad information in search results," said Ed Bennett, director of Web and communications technology at The University of Maryland Medical System and all-around healthcare social media guru. "And it's impossible to get it fixed."
Google, Bennett said, often offers incorrect contact information for hospitals. Its wrong search results can lead to inconvenience and – at least potentially – adverse health effects.
At UMMS, for example, the CEO’s private office number was once listed as the main contact number. “All of sudden his phone is ringing off the hook from people thinking they're calling the hospital," Bennett said.
"The fundamental issue here is Google's business model: automate everything," said Bennett. "There is no customer service. There is no one to call. They automate everything."
And that makes correcting problems a major challenge – for some large and complicated health networks, it's an expensive, ongoing, nearly full-time job.
Many – the ones who can afford it – have hired outside consultants to deal with rectifying the situation. Others simply muddle through, trying to get the right information to appear in Google's famous algorithms as best they can.
If a hospital sees that its search data is wrong, Google offers two ways to verify and claim its status and provide the correct information.
First, one can enter the correct phone listing, after which an automated call will ring those digits with a security code to verify the claim.
The other option is that Google will mail a postcard to the address in question, stamped with a similar a security code. Upon retrieving it, organizations can log onto Google Places and claim their correct info.
"These processes work fine if you're running a dry cleaner," said Bennett. "They do not work if you're managing 100 physical locations with 50 different location names."
Google offered a statement to Healthcare Finance News’ sister publication, Healthcare IT News, noting that the business listings on Google and Google Maps "come from a combination of sources such as third-party and publicly available directories and business information from our Web search results."
"… with millions of listings, there may be an occasional error," Google said in its statement, but "… anyone can edit and contribute business information to Google to help keep these listings up-to-date."
But the process is such that many providers find themselves at a loss.
"We're pretty sophisticated with the Web office here," Bennett said. "I can't image what it's like for a small community hospital."
The headaches caused by bad search results have not been inconsequential.
A healthcare client of Cynthia Newton’s, who is president of consulting firm HCCG in Mooresville, N.C., had its phone calls misdirected to a member of a local school department.
"She would come in the morning and her voicemail would be full,” said Newton. “People were calling thinking they've reached the hospital, and leaving personal health information."
Turns out that many years ago the hospital used to be in the physical building where the school department is now. It took four months of constant work before Newton was able to get the situation corrected on Google.
Struggling to keep Google’s search results correct has been a reoccurring problem for several years at Boston-based Tufts Medical Center said Tim Brennan, Tufts’ public affairs and communications manager.
"It's not just an inconvenience,” Brennan said, “it's also an expense."
Tufts hired a search engine optimization firm to investigate. The company's response: "We tried to do everything via phone and just really got nowhere."
"It's very slow and frustrating," said Alex Panagiotopoulos, marketing writer at HealthAlliance of the Hudson Valley in New York. HealthAlliance has several campuses and just went through a name change. He has to continually monitor and claim the locations to ensure the contact information is current.
"It just feels kind of antiquated,” he said. “My concern is that there are not enough human beings who are in charge."
“Google needs to take a closer look at the tools they are giving us to deal with this," said Jeremy Harrison, program supervisor, Web service at MultiCare Health System, in the Puget Sound area of Washington.
"For hospitals and emergency rooms, I feel like they need to give us more of a leg up than, say, Jack-in-the-Box, or some other kind of business," he said. "Public health is involved. And that information needs to be accurate and quickly available."
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