Online Reviews Study Can Negative Review Lead to the Loss of Existing Patients

Patient reviews of doctors on sites like Vitals, RateMDs and HealthGrades can make or suspension a medical practise. While online review sites give patients influence and control over their healthcare, negative and fake patient reviews tin promptly ruin a medical provider's reputation.

Different other professionals or service providers, who tin can respond to online reviews without worry, medical professionals must tiptoe through an upstanding and legal minefield. If your medical practice is the target of negative or fake patient reviews, nosotros recommend adhering to these all-time practices when responding:

1. Empathise HIPAA regulations and confidentiality obligations;
   • Practise non acknowledge that the reviewer was a patient;
   • Practise non identify the patient by name;
   • Practice not discuss individual patient experiences;
2. Avoid responding publicly (this is the general rule of thumb);
3. Avoid responding impulsively or defensively;
4. Just include simple statements almost your general practices and procedures (if you practise respond publicly);
5. If advisable, consider reaching out to the patient via private phone call.

At Minc Constabulary, we accept helped countless medical professionals and practices navigate the complexities of responding to negative and fake patient reviews. Many healthcare providers believe they are "stuck" because of HIPAA and patient confidentiality obligations and do not know that they can respond. At that place are options and we are hither to help.

In this commodity, we will hash out how to respond to negative patient reviews, the importance of monitoring your patient reviews online, and ways to deal with negative reviews. Nosotros will also provide some tips on challenge your online profiles without running afoul of HIPAA regulations.

Touch of Negative Patient Reviews on Medical Doctors

All businesses, even professional medical practices, need to be concerned with online reviews. Negative reviews can deter potential customers, while positive reviews have the ability to directly boost a business organisation'south profitability.

While most doctor and healthcare provider ratings are overwhelmingly positive, medical professionals need to keep an heart out for negative and fake reviews. Almost negative reviews and patient complaints are a result of miscommunication.

For medical providers, reducing the number of negative reviews tin take a positive impact on the practice's lesser line. In fact, nearly lxxx% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

ConsumerMedical, a healthcare decision support service, compiled a list of acme doctors based on data that measures doctor operation – like patient readmission rates, surgical infection rates, and patient outcomes. Only 2 % of physicians who appeared every bit the top-ranked medical professionals in search results (co-ordinate to online reviews) made ConsumerMedical's list of top performers according to quality metrics.

A prominent online presence or plethora of positive online reviews do not always sync with a medical professional person's actual quality.

What Are the Consequences of Poor Patient Services?

Poor patient services can decrease a medico'south quality metrics and oft lead to negative online reviews. Even a single negative review can pb a business to adventure losing 22% of customers. Such a meaning loss in customers, naturally, leads to financial losses – reducing the number of new patients and causing existing patients to take their business elsewhere.

Multiple negative reviews have a compound upshot – with roughly lx% of customers opting to avert businesses with three or more negative online reviews.

What is Patient Satisfaction in Wellness Care?

Since patients do not rank medical providers on the aforementioned types of quality metrics equally other professions, you may be wondering: what does it take to satisfy a patient? Most patients focus on factors similar bedside style, availability, and convenience when leaving online reviews.

Medical patients are consumers like whatever other – they want the aforementioned things people want from near other businesses, an excellent client service experience. While every patient is dissimilar, the American Academy of Family Physicians institute 5 common factors that contribute to about patient's satisfaction:

1. Clarify expectations – find out exactly what a patient wants from the visit at the start.
2. Positive communication – patients want their doctor to take their problem seriously, explain the condition, and attempt to understand their background.
3. Shared determination-making – patients want to express their ain ideas and concerns to exercise some command over the visit.
4. Fourth dimension spent speaking – patients capeesh when doctors take the time to build a rapport and satisfaction rates increase with longer visits.
5. Medico'due south appearance – patients like to work with grinning physicians who clothing semi-formal clothing, equally opposed to white coats or casual wear.

Of grade, your staff and administration contribute greatly to patient satisfaction. The first fourth dimension a patient calls the office, staff can analyze their expectations and make an impression by communicating positively, showing the patient that their concerns are taken seriously from the start.

Finally, a make clean and organized function tin as well go a long way toward establishing your practise as a professional and trustworthy establishment.

How Tin can Negative Patient Reviews Hurt Your Medical Practise

In the medical profession, negative reviews can injure much more than than your practice's lesser line.

Depending on the nature of the review, a poor patient experience and subsequent review could lead to an investigation into your medical practice, peradventure resulting in fines or disciplinary activeness. Not just can negative reviews result in malpractice issues, sometimes a medico's response to the review itself runs afoul of the law.

In one example, a patient left a negative review on Yelp following an appointment with her dentist. The dentist responded publicly on Yelp with details that included the patient's personal dental information. The dentist'due south response led to a HIPAA investigation and a warning from regime.

How Doctors Should Answer to Bad Online Reviews

If your medical practice receives a negative review, it can be tempting to reply with specifics to protect your reputation. But the consequences are not worth information technology – especially when there are much more than effective ways of dealing with a negative review.

In the video below, Attorney & Founder Aaron Minc is going to walk yous through why information technology is important to monitor your medical practice's online reputation, best practices for responding to the reviews, and when it is an appropriate time to accept legal action.

Video: How Medical Professionals Can Remove & Respond to Negative Patient Reviews

Watch

In the next section, nosotros examine the all-time practices for responding to a negative (or fake) online review.

Can Doctors Reply to Reviews?

In most cases, no, doctors should not answer specifically to negative reviews.

Unlike typical businesses that tin can answer to positive or negative online reviews however they see fit, medical practices are strictly limited in how they can communicate with a patient in a public forum.

Your chances of running afoul of HIPAA regulations or making the situation worse are non worth the risk.

Responding to Negative Reviews Nether the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Deed

Every bit a md, you are (hopefully) well-versed on HIPAA regulations, but how those regulations apply to online reviews is not e'er intuitive. HIPAA prohibits any responses that are non simple statements about general practices and procedures, such as "I provide all of my patients with proficient patient care," or "Thanks for your feedback. Nosotros aim to provide the highest value service to all of our patients. We welcome our patients to contact the states directly at xxx-30-xxxx to talk over any questions or concerns."

Responses that acknowledge someone was a patient or discuss any details regarding the patient'south visit violate HIPAA and could event in fines or disciplinary activeness.

Avert Using Restrictive Contracts With Patients That Prohibit Them From Leaving Reviews

Medical professionals should likewise refrain from including provisions in patient contracts that prohibit, restrict, or penalize patients for writing online reviews. These provisions are unlawful nether the Consumer Review Fairness Human action and could event in financial penalties too as a federal court order.

If your patient contracts contain any language restricting a patient'south ability to speak honestly nigh your medical practise y'all should remove it immediately.

So, this begs the question – what tin medical practices practice to show patients they value their online reviews without violating the police force?

Add together a Disclaimer to Your Website

We recommend claiming your profile on any review sites and calculation a disclaimer explaining that yous are restricted from responding to online reviews. This will provide potential patients reading poor reviews context about your ability to answer. Here is an case of a suitable disclaimer that can be added to whatever review platform:

Love patients,

We greatly value patient feedback and appreciate that online reviews are a useful tool that consumers utilize to educate themselves and select medical services. Still, please be aware, unlike other businesses who may answer freely to online reviews, every bit medical professionals, we must, and do, provide complete confidentiality to our patients. That ways we are prohibited from responding in any way that acknowledges whether someone has been in our intendance. If y'all have an result that needs attention, delight contact our office directly.

What Should a Doctor's Response to a Bad Online Review E'er Include?

If you practice decide to respond to a negative patient review, there are a few things yous should always consider:

• Consider reaching out to the patient via a private telephone call,
• Be empathetic,
• Apologize,
• Do non blame the patient.

Reach Out Via Private Phone Call

First of all, the best style to handle a bad review is by reaching out to the patient direct with a phone call.

Read the patient'south review a few times and let them the opportunity to vent. Sometimes customers just desire someone to mind to their concerns.

Empathise With the Patient

Additionally, empathy goes a long manner – prove that you are taking their concern seriously and endeavour to sympathise where they are coming from.

Exercise Non Blame the Patient

The worst way to answer is with a lengthy rant on the review site blaming the patient and failing to take any responsibility for the customer experience. A 2016 investigation by ProPublica identified physician responses that crossed the line (on top of breaking HIPAA laws).

For example, one California dentist responded to a negative Yelp review past scolding the patient, "I looked very closely at your radiographs and it was obvious that y'all have cavities and mucilage affliction that your other dentist has overlooked…you can live in a world of denial and simply believe what you want to hear from your other dentist or brand an educated and informed decision."

Non simply did the higher up dentist violate HIPAA by acknowledging the review was a patient, but they also revealed private health data and used a tone that is not likely to win them whatsoever new patients.

A skilful example of a response might include leaving a simple message such as:

"Thanks for your feedback. We aim to provide the highest value service to all of our patients. We welcome our patients to contact united states of america directly at thirty-xxx-xxxx to discuss any questions or concerns."

You can besides let readers know that yous cannot respond freely to online reviews, but you are happy to hear them out privately over the phone.

What Should Physicians Avert When Responding to Online Reviews

While every situation is unlike and should be handled on a case-by-case basis, some general rules of thumb employ to nigh all online reviews.

When responding to online reviews, information technology is best to avoid:

• Responding publicly,
• Becoming defensive,
• Attacking the patient, and
• Disclosing any confidential information that could violate HIPAA.

While we have focused primarily on negative reviews, information technology is worth noting that positive online reviews can exist problematic equally well.

You cannot republish positive online reviews without a patient'south permission – so you should not re-create reviews from Yelp and post them on your practice'south website. In 2016, a physical therapy office did exactly this and was fined $25,000 past the Health & Human being Services Office for Civil Rights.

How Medical Providers Can Identify Fake Patient Reviews

Why Would Someone Write a Fake Online Medico Review

Competitors may apply fake online reviews to gain an unfair reward and steer patients away from your practice. Sometimes, disgruntled sometime employees have out their anger by leaving faux reviews to harm their previous employer.

Also, former patients that had a bad experience, or an "ax to grind" with a doctor (perhaps over a collections outcome) may resort to imitation reviews. In short, there are several reasons why someone might leave a fake review but at that place is a common motive – the desire to harm a physician's practice and reputation.

How Should Doctors Manage Imitation Online Reviews?

The best fashion to found and protect your online reputation is by providing splendid customer service. When you lot exit of your way to requite patients a positive experience, it will show upward in online reviews.

Once you have multiple satisfied patients, y'all can solicit reviews from returning patients to help bolster your online presence. While negative online reviews are unavoidable, they can be offset by positive reviews.

For example, if you check out a concern on Yelp and meet that it has 200 positive reviews and 1 negative review you are more likely to patronize the business concern than if they had a single positive review.

Finally, yous tin can take reward of online reputation management (ORM) services to suppress negative reviews and build trust in your practice. ORM strategies employ a combination of marketing, SEO, and public relations strategies to heave an individual or business organization's online reputation. This may likewise include removing or suppressing unwanted content similar negative reviews.

How Exercise You lot Verify if a Negative Review is Fake?

It is not always easy to spot a imitation review, because some anonymous reviewers are relatively savvy with their attacks. Especially if you lot are dealing with a disgruntled old employee or patient who has personal experience with your practice, they may be able to leave a rather disarming review.

However, there are a few common ways to spot a simulated online review:

Consult Business Records

If you discover a negative review, check your records to come across if the username resembles any of your patient'south names or whether the described experience was legitimate.

Research the Reviewer's Account

If the account was created on the same day of the review and has no review history, that could be a red flag that the review was fake.

Place if the Username is Suspicious

Fake reviewers accept trouble resisting the temptation to use sarcastic names like "Seymore Butts." Others may utilize elementary names like "John D." to maintain their anonymity.

Deport a contrary image search on the reviewer's profile motion picture to encounter if it has been copied from a stock image.

Analyze at the Timing of the Review

If you have a consequent rating and all of a sudden find multiple 1-star reviews all at one time, that could exist an indication the reviews are simulated.

Likewise, reviews left at odd hours (when most of your clients would be asleep) could bespeak an unknown tertiary political party is leaving the reviews.

Clarify the Language Used

Does the review describe your services inaccurately or promote a competitor? If yous have multiple reviews, are they written in a similar manner with specific similar complaints? This could be a sign the review is faux.

Look For Signs That it Was a Professional "Hit Job"

Sadly, some competitors volition resort to unscrupulous tactics, like hiring a professional reviewer to attack other professionals and steer clients toward their do.

Mostly, this work is outsourced to people exterior of the U.Due south., and so reviews written in cleaved English and left during odd hours could betoken the review was a hit job.

If y'all have reason to believe the review is from an actual patient, the best way to resolve the situation is with stellar customer service. Requite the patient a phone call and listen to their issues. Repent and let them know how you aim to resolve their concerns. Most unsatisfied customers (in any business) just want to exist heard.

How to Remove Negative Reviews Well-nigh Your Medical Practise

Speaking with patients with empathy and a desire to make amends tin can prevent minor issues from becoming a major dispute. Sometimes, just offering a listening ear is plenty to encourage a patient to remove a negative review (and restore their faith in your service). Nonetheless, there are some situations where legal action, or the threat of legal action, is the but style to get results.

How Do Yous Remove Negative Reviews From Rating Websites?

Everyone receives a bad review somewhen. Unsatisfied customers are an unfortunate part of doing business. If you discover a negative online review, attempt not to obsess over information technology. If you spot negative reviews and think they are serious plenty to hurt your professional reputation, there are countless effective steps you can have:

Preserve Show of the Review

Preserve evidence of the review with a screenshot and reach out to a defamation attorney to discuss your options.

Ask the Reviewer to Remove the Review

Many customers (medical patients included) just desire to be heard. A private phone call to the unsatisfied patient may go a long fashion toward mending fences.

Not simply can stellar customer service prevent bad reviews, but information technology can also encourage reviewers to remove a review once their business organization has been addressed.

Flag and Report the Review

All review websites and platforms have Terms of Service that users must attach to, both reviewers and businesses alike. For instance, most platforms prohibit users from leaving imitation reviews if they were non actually a patient.

If you believe a review violates a platform'due south Terms of Service, you tin can flag and written report the review. Though it is important to exist wary of HIPAA regulations even when reporting content to a private third party.

If the reviewer was actually a patient, you cannot identify them as such or share any confidential information with the platform's moderators in the course of making a written report. Given HIPAA concerns and the effort involved in navigating a platform'due south Terms of Service, it may exist wise to seek an attorney'southward assistance.

Pursue Legal Action

In some cases, a lawsuit or terminate and desist letter may be the best choice. Yet, this should always be considered on a instance-by-example basis. If y'all accept a ton of positive reviews and merely have a single negative review, legal activity may not be necessary or worthwhile.

On the other hand, accusations that are serious in nature, similar malpractice allegations, criminal activeness, or discrimination, are worth discussing with a lawyer. Y'all can file a defamation lawsuit if the allegations are serious plenty to impairment your professional reputation.

A lawsuit may be an constructive tool to uncover the identity of an anonymous affiche if you are having trouble determining who is backside the negative reviews.

Use Online Reputation Management Services

While the best method for dealing with a negative review is to get information technology removed, there are other ways you can have ownership of your online presence. Online reputation direction (ORM) services use a combination of marketing, SEO, and public relations strategies to ensure your digital footprint promotes the paradigm yous wish to convey.

ORM often involves an ongoing financial and fourth dimension commitment because content creation is key. By creating positive online content and claiming online profiles, ORM services can assistance drown out negative content and proactively monitor your online reputation.

Make sure to read our comprehensive article explaining online reputation management costs.

Where Can Y'all Get Advice on How to Remove a Negative Review?

The best place to get communication on removing negative reviews is by speaking with an experienced internet defamation attorney. An internet chaser can aid you develop a strategy that best meets your goals and budget.

Additionally, it may exist wise to reach out to other medical professionals who have successfully removed negative reviews. They may be able to provide actionable tips or refer you to a trusted attorney.

Why Should Yous Piece of work With a Legal Team to Remove Content From the Cyberspace?

Police force firms experienced in removing content from the net tin provide a wealth of information. They can likewise assistance you navigate legal requirements, specially HIPAA rules when dealing with negative reviews. You lot accept options when it comes to dealing with negative online content, and your legal team tin help yous determine the best way forward given your unique circumstances.

Experienced cyberspace attorneys and law firms have admission to the investigative tools necessary for identifying bearding reviewers and know how to piece of work with review platforms. If you lot need to pursue a court order to remove content, you will need to hire an experienced lawyer who knows what review platforms are looking for in a court lodge.

We Can Help You Navigate Negative and False Medical Reviews

At Minc Police, we are dedicated to removing false and defamatory online content. We know what information technology takes to remove negative and fake reviews from medical review websites and can help doctors navigate the legal and upstanding intricacies of responding publicly (or privately).

★★★★★

"I had an issue with someone posting very bad information nigh my company, perhaps a competitor or a troll. I would highly recommend this company they actually helped me out."

John Daniels, October 8, 2019

If you would like to talk over your options for dealing with negative online reviews, contact our office for a complimentary, no-obligation consultation. We can be reached at (216) 373-7706 or via our online contact course.

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