Meet Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Specialists
Founded in 1956, Wisconsin-based Orthopedic & Sports Medicine Specialists (OSMS) has grown into a leading independent, physician-owned orthopedic practice with 37 providers dedicated to providing high-quality musculoskeletal care. Over the years, OSMS has expanded its services to include rheumatology, sports medicine, pain management, and spine care.
As a growing practice, OSMS aims to increase patient volume, expand market share, and create broader awareness of the services they offer while providing exceptional patient experiences.
The Problem
Despite its reputation for high-quality care, OSMS faced several challenges related to budget. Unlike most large health systems in the area, OSMS lacked an integrated primary care referral network, requiring the group to attract patients directly.
“Our biggest challenge is that we’re not connected to a system,” said Darin Schumacher, OSMS’s Marketing and Business Development Manager. “Most health systems in the area have more dollars to spend on marketing, wider patient networks, and an established primary care referral base. We have to work harder to get patients to choose us for care.”
“It’s a little noisy in this area,” added Lauryn Steffes, OSMS’s Marketing Specialist. “Breaking through that noise from all the large health systems to show patients who we are and how we can help is one of our biggest challenges.”
Before rater8, OSMS relied on printed “share the care” handouts to encourage reviews, but response rates were low.
“The hardest part was that it wasn’t easy for the patient to leave a review,” Schumacher said. “They had to go home, remember to do it, and take the time to write it out. Some did, but most didn’t.”
Low response rates coupled with disjointed feedback resulted in missed opportunities to engage with patients directly. OSMS’s leadership team needed a solution that not only simplified reputation management, but amplified the voices of their happy patient base.
The Solution
To streamline their review management process and improve their online reputation, OSMS turned to rater8.
The decision to choose rater8 was driven by its intuitive interface, making it easy to integrate into OSMS’s existing workflows. “One thing I appreciate about rater8 is that everything they said would happen, happened the way it was supposed to,” Schumacher said. “If there were any hiccups, they weren’t big enough for me to remember, which speaks volumes.”
Another deciding factor was rater8’s ability to control where reviews were posted thanks to its goal-based pollin8™ algorithm. “We wanted to prioritize Google, but we also knew that sites like Healthgrades and Vitals play a role in physician selection,” Schumacher explained. “With rater8, we could fine-tune where reviews landed, ensuring our reputation was strong across all key platforms.”
“We wanted to prioritize Google, but we also knew that sites like Healthgrades and Vitals play a role in physician selection. With rater8, we could fine-tune where reviews landed, ensuring our reputation was strong across all key platforms.”
Schumacher added that having access to rater8’s robust reporting tools helped highlight ROI and progress to key stakeholders. “The ability to show our doctors the impact of reviews has been huge,” he said. “We can look at their ratings over time and prove that this investment is working. When you can show the ROI, it’s much easier to get buy-in.”
Additionally, rater8’s customizable patient satisfaction surveys provided valuable insights, helping the OSMS leadership team adapt to the evolving needs of their patients. “The ability to adjust our patient surveys has been another great feature,” Steffes said. “We recently switched to a new patient portal, and we were able to add a question asking patients for feedback. That insight was incredibly helpful in making improvements.”
The Results
Since partnering with rater8, OSMS has transformed its online reputation and patient acquisition strategy. “The hardest thing about tracking SEO impact is that it’s a mix of many factors, including reviews,” Schumacher explained. “But we know that keeping our listings and reviews up to date plays a major role in how new patients find us.”
Indeed, new OSMS patient referral data confirmed that managing their online reputation has worked in their favor when it comes to patient acquisition. “When new patients come in, they tell us how they heard about us, and our ‘online’ category is now our third-largest source of new patients, up from fifth-largest,” Schumacher noted. “It’s a mix of reviews and digital marketing, but we know these efforts are making a real impact.”
After their first year with rater8, OSMS saw an impressive 5,389% increase in online patient reviews, with 92% of them being 5 stars. The organization’s overall star rating also saw a jump, growing from a respectable 4.53 to a stellar 4.88 stars.
Moreover, OSMS’s improved Google presence and higher star ratings across multiple review platforms (e.g., Healthgrades, Vitals) have increased their credibility and trust, making them the obvious choice for prospective patients seeking musculoskeletal, rheumatologic, and pain management care.
Beyond online reputation management, patient feedback from rater8’s satisfaction surveys directly influenced several operational changes within the organization.
“We analyze comments from our patient surveys every six months to identify trends,” Steffes explained. “If we see multiple comments about wait times, for example, we know we need to make a change.” Comments about long wait times led OSMS to introduce self-check-in kiosks, improving operational efficiency and overall patient experience.
Patient feedback also indicated a need for better communication regarding appointment delays. “On the clinical side, we’re now making sure that we have staff members letting patients know there will be a delay,” shared Steffes.
Survey responses also illuminated another area for improvement that may have otherwise gone unnoticed: swapping out the uncomfortable chairs in OSMS’s infusion center, helping patients feel more at ease during their appointments. The follow-up scheduling process also saw an upgrade, with optimization that now allows patients to book their next appointment before leaving the exam room.
With rater8, OSMS transformed its approach to patient acquisition, strengthened its position in the crowded orthopedic market, and proved that independent practices don’t need massive marketing budgets to win more patients and make their experiences better — they just need the right tools.
“Our goal is to make sure people know who we are, and that we provide the best possible care,” Schumacher concluded. “rater8 has helped us do that by making our reputation visible to the patients who are looking for us.”
