Case study: Mr James Hepburn
Mr James Hepburn receives 240+ reviews and breaks down referral barriers with Doctify
Orthopaedics | Cork, Ireland | James Hepburn
James wanted an easier way to build trust with GPs and prospective patients
James Hepburn is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon based at The Mater Private in Cork, with a practice weighted heavily towards knee surgery, including ACL reconstruction, partial knee replacement and total knee replacement, alongside hip replacement, which makes up around a fifth of his caseload. Having trained across Ireland and completed a fellowship in paediatric orthopaedics in Southampton, he built his practice through roles in Limerick, Santry Sports Clinic and, for the last three years, The Mater Private Cork.
Before joining Doctify, James Hepburn had tried building visibility through his own website, but found it generated very little traffic. He also faced a well-known challenge in private practice, GP referral relationships take years to earn, and it’s difficult for a newer name to break into an established network of trusted contacts.
“Patients have said to me, ‘I’ve seen you online, and I told my GP I want to come and see you.’ That would never have happened had I not used the Doctify platform — and that’s the truth.“
Mr James Hepburn
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon
ROI
150+
Enquires through Doctify
Visibility
4,000+
Profile views
14,400+
Google Search impressions
Feedback
240+
Verified patient reviews
4.98
Doctify rating
What have been the main benefits of Doctify on James's practice?
For James, the clearest sign Doctify is working isn’t just the traffic to his profile, it’s what patients are telling him directly. He’s had multiple patients say they found him online, saw his reviews, and then asked their own GP to refer them to him specifically, rather than the referral coming from the GP’s own network. He describes this as something that simply wouldn’t happen without the visibility Doctify gives him, since a new website of his own never generated meaningful traffic on its own.
James also sees a benefit for his patients. Seeing a surgeon can be daunting, and many prospective patients come in fearing they’ll be told they need surgery, or that they’ll be rush through with little explanation. He believes that having a bank of genuine, independently collected reviews helps dispel that fear before they ever walk through the door, giving people a clearer, more honest picture of what an appointment with him is actually like.
What do their patients say about them?
How does James Hepburn use patient reviews?
James reads every review that comes in, and says many of them are unexpectedly heartfelt, he see clear value in patients having a structured, independent place to share their experience – one that’s had a direct tangible effect on how both GPs and prospective patients perceive him before they even meet.
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Discover more about how Mr James Hepburn built trust and visibility online with patient reviews.