How to Protect and Fix a Physician’s Online Reputation

Executive Summary

As more people turn to online reviews and social media when choosing a physician or healthcare practice, it’s important that healthcare organizations prioritize and appropriately manage their online reputations. However, it is equally important that providers understand the risks accompanying social media, especially when it comes to the doctor-patient relationship.

Recommended Actions 

• Quickly acknowledge patient feedback posted online, both positive and negative.
• Address specific issues offline with the individual poster. If appropriate, ask the reviewer to contact the organization to address any concerns.
• Don’t delete negative reviews or comments unless the post contains inappropriate language or hate speech.

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel. ~Mark Twain

Sage advice. But what is a doctor to do in this digital age when every disgruntled patient has their own digital barrel of ink through physician review sites and social media platforms? We have found that patient complaints often share one common denominator: a breakdown in the physician-patient relationship. The best options, therefore, for protecting your online reputation should be directed at preserving, and when necessary, repairing, relationships with your patients.

When Life Hands You Lemons, Make Lemonade 

Ignoring a negative comment looks like you do not care or agree the comment is valid. Hiding or removing negative reviews is ineffective at best. The commenter may simply re-post the comment on multiple sites, pointing out your efforts to “hide the truth.” Attacking the commenter is equally dangerous and often results in additional malicious or derisive comments.

What should a doctor do, then? Recognize that you have an unhappy patient. Respond to the complaint in a positive manner. And react based on a full and objective assessment of the situation. 

Recognize

Recognizing that you have an unhappy patient can be difficult when the physician and staff are feeling attacked or criticized. Such negative comments can invoke defensive reactions and fears that the physician’s reputation and practice may be seriously harmed.

Despite those normal emotional reactions, the patient’s concerns must be addressed in a professional and appropriate manner. Whether the patient’s complaints are justified or not, the patient is unhappy enough to go to the effort to make his or her complaints known to the world at large. At the same time, the physician must recognize that this is only one of many patients in the practice. Most physicians have many patients who are very happy, and hopefully they post many positive reviews. While action is often prudent, it needs to be measured and appropriate to the context.

Respond Positively 

Acknowledge that the patient is not satisfied, that patient satisfaction is important, and ask to take the conversation offline to address the issue. The written response should be tailored to the specific complaint. If a patient is unhappy about waiting too long for an appointment, an appropriate response might be: “Thank you for taking the time to comment. While we try to respect each patient’s time, sometimes the number of people who need our help causes unexpected delays, especially when emergencies arise. If there is anything we can do, please give us a call at the office. Your satisfaction is important to us.”

If the patient does not call, we strongly suggest the practice contact him or her. In an online environment, people will often say things they would never say face-to-face. A phone call provides a better chance of connecting with the patient and solving the problem, or at least explaining it.
Before responding, cool off. Do not post your response immediately. Let it sit overnight. And ask a trusted colleague to review it before posting. Also, be careful about HIPAA. Do not include treatment or payment information or provide patient names or identifying information in your response comment. Take that part of the discussion offline.

React Appropriately 

Sometimes patients are right. Maybe the physician was called in to deal with an emergency and was short on sleep or just having a bad day. Perhaps the physician’s bedside manner was not as good as it usually is. An explanation and an apology are usually all that it takes to resolve this situation.

Maybe the payment policy for “no-shows” should not be absolute and waived for the mom who missed her appointment because she had to pick up her sick kid from school. Maybe the problem really is a rude front desk person and corrective action should be taken. Take this as an opportunity to evaluate the practice and improve it. If there is a real problem, the complaining patient might have prevented the loss of many other patients who did not complain, but just never returned.

Sometimes patients are wrong. Nevertheless, they are still patients. Maybe they were having a bad day. Maybe they no-showed and don’t have a good excuse, but didn’t understand they would be charged and cannot afford it. Maybe this patient is just not the right fit for your practice, and you can provide them with a referral to a colleague that might be a better fit. 

In resolving issues, communication with the patient is critical. Try to understand the situation from their perspective and consider whether you can live with a concession. Perhaps an explanation of how no shows affect the practice, a one-time waiver of the fee, and a clear communication that future no shows without a legitimate reason will be charged to the patient. A good, long-term patient might be saved for the price of an office visit. Patients who have been heard will sometimes remove their own negative comment or, better yet, post a positive one extolling how the doctor was willing to listen and address the problem and cares about patients.

Sometimes commenters aren’t patients. We have seen situations in which an ex-spouse or a competitor is suspected of posting false and defamatory information about a physician or a practice. Whether by a patient or not, these blatantly false and misleading statements may require more assertive action. Contact the site administrator, inform them that the post is false and defamatory, and request that it be taken down. Many reputable sites have content standards and may remove the comment if it is clearly false and defamatory, but be prepared to submit proof to support this request.

Rally the Troops 

As noted above, most patients are happy with their physicians. Build a following of good patients online. Post a short blog on the practice website on a health topic of interest on a regular basis and respond to questions posted by readers. Ask patients to post reviews and provide them instructions on how to post to review sites. By doing these activities, the physician can build a positive presence and reputation online. When a negative comment does appear, it will look like an outlier and will likely provoke multiple positive responses from your fans or followers.

Reputation Repair Companies

Some companies offer to protect a physician’s reputation by selling form contracts that prohibit negative comments by patients online. These contracts are probably not enforceable and are not the best way to develop a good physician-patient relationship or present the appropriate professional persona and could backfire.

Other companies tout their ability to bury bad reviews by controlling what comes up first on online searches. Precisely how this is done is not revealed. Proceed with caution and carefully weigh the risks and benefits against the cost of such services. Posting false reviews from dummy accounts is a risky move that if discovered could cause significant harm to the physician’s reputation. Still others offer advice on how to create your own web presence and reputation. Again, weigh the costs and benefits carefully before jumping in.  

  
Lessons Learned

• Explain practice policies, such as a no-show or cancellation fee, before booking a patient’s appointment to better set patient expectations and ultimately improve the practice’s reputation.
• Ensure that your practice has a social media policy addressing how your practice can respond to negative comments online. Train staff appropriately. 
• When responding to questions or posting blogs, make sure that you do not disclose any specific patient information.

Potential Damages

Healthcare organizations that use social media or have an online presence and inappropriately disclose or share patient information, even if by mistake, face the potential for HIPAA fines and costly financial penalties. Although the severity of such HIPAA violations can be serious, the frequency of violations is relatively low.