There are 2 types of doctors—those who have a bad review online and those who have never checked.
We doctors have always had patients who were dissatisfied with our care. What is different now is that patients use online review sites to announce their complaints publicly. If this has happened to you, do not worry, there are steps you can take to remedy it. If it has not happened to you, do not worry, it will someday. So, just bookmark this article now.
Why are so many patients going online to review their doctors? Simply put, because they can. Patients have always talked about their experiences with their physicians to friends and family. After all, word-of-mouth is the undisputed heavyweight champion of marketing for health care. It is how most doctors build their practice, one patient recommendation at a time.
Now, instead of simply telling people about you, patients have access to mobile and online review sites such as Healthgrades, ZocDoc, and Yelp among others. Reviews are increasing in number because the more ratings a physician has, the more valuable that review site is to a potential patient. The more reviews a site has, the more potential value patients will get from it, and when patients feel a site is valuable they are more likely to contribute their own review.
“But reviewing doctors is not the same thing as reviewing a restaurant,” a mature, urbane dermatologist said after one of my talks about online physician reviews. “After all, patients can’t possibly understand the complexity and difficulty we undergo in treating them,” he added. This is a common sentiment and it misses the point. Patients do not have to know anything about medicine to render their opinion of their experience.
Indeed, most doctor reviews have nothing to do with the quality of medicine the doctor provided. Rather, patients overwhelmingly rate us and comment on their service experience. This is not fair to us, and yet it does not matter. In fact, it is partly our own fault. We doctors have gotten so good at diagnosing and treating medical ailments that patients “expect” we will provide good quality—we graduated from medical school, after all. What is salient to them is how they felt about the experience—Did they feel cared for? Respected? Were they treated with kindness and compassion? This is good news for us and news I hope you will help me spread.
Knowing that you will be reviewed at some point and that patients mostly care how they were treated, it is more important than ever that we provide the highest level of service we are able to deliver. For our customers, service equals quality. For them to understand how good we are, they have to be able to observe and quantify it.
Article continues on page 2
{{pagebreak}}
Dealing With a Bad Review
Let’s imagine that despite your best efforts, a disgruntled patient decides to rip into you and your practice as if they had a bad shrimp at a restaurant. What do you do now? Take the following 3 steps: reach out neutral, repair, or redact.
Some doctors believe the best action is no action. They think: Do not reply. Do not acknowledge. Do not look at it. I disagree. It is not a HIPAA violation to reply to a patient online review. It is a HIPAA violation to disclose any private information. That limits us mostly to short, neutral replies such as, “I’m sorry you had to wait” or “I’m sorry for your experience. Please contact our office so we can help you.”
This type of reply is called “reach out neutral” and demonstrates to the patient and to anyone reading that patient’s review, that you care. Notice we are not saying that you did anything wrong or acknowledging errors made. We are just saying that we are sorry that the patient was unhappy. And we are.
A second response to a bad review is to learn from it and repair it. There are patients with unrealistic expectations and there is nothing we can do about it. Most reviews, however, have a kernel of truth at their core. Maybe they did wait an hour in the waiting room. Maybe your nurse was discourteous. Maybe your hands were cold. In many instances, multiple patients cite the same complaint. This is good luck. It means they care enough to want you to know about it and are giving you the opportunity to make it right. If you wish to be successful in the service industry, you will have to fix or “repair” such lapses.
Last, you can request a review be redacted. Say, for example, that what appears to be a disgruntled patient is actually a nefarious competitor who is posting lies about you. I always thought this scenario unlikely, but at conference after conference, I have heard from many doctors confirming that this happens. In such an instance, when the rating and comment is libel, and you can somehow substantiate the facts, then you can ask for the review to be redacted. That is, you can write to sites, such as Yelp or Healthgrades, and tell them that a false, malicious, or harmful (particularly if harmful to a patient) review has been posted. These sites have the ability to remove the review. While every business wants all its bad reviews taken down, review sites would rather have none taken down. Therefore, review sites must adjudicate each request for removing a comment to determine its veracity. Because it is in their best interest to not remove reviews, the task of getting a bad rating redacted is a difficult one. But I have seen it firsthand and know that it is possible. Before embarking down this path, however, consider if it is worth your time and frustration.
In conclusion, online reviews are flourishing. Whether it will be on Yelp or some other review site, it is clear that we physicians must attend to them. I saved the best news for last. For the most part, patients do love us, and the majority of online and mobile reviews are positive. To ensure that you are doing all you can, remember to reach out neutral, repair, and redact when you see a review that makes your heart sink.
Dr. Benabio is physician director of healthcare transformation at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, CA. This article is based on a presentation by Dr. Benabio, given at the 2015 Fall Clinical Show, which was held in Las Vegas, NV.
Disclosure: The author reports no relevant financial relationships.
There are 2 types of doctors—those who have a bad review online and those who have never checked.
We doctors have always had patients who were dissatisfied with our care. What is different now is that patients use online review sites to announce their complaints publicly. If this has happened to you, do not worry, there are steps you can take to remedy it. If it has not happened to you, do not worry, it will someday. So, just bookmark this article now.
Why are so many patients going online to review their doctors? Simply put, because they can. Patients have always talked about their experiences with their physicians to friends and family. After all, word-of-mouth is the undisputed heavyweight champion of marketing for health care. It is how most doctors build their practice, one patient recommendation at a time.
Now, instead of simply telling people about you, patients have access to mobile and online review sites such as Healthgrades, ZocDoc, and Yelp among others. Reviews are increasing in number because the more ratings a physician has, the more valuable that review site is to a potential patient. The more reviews a site has, the more potential value patients will get from it, and when patients feel a site is valuable they are more likely to contribute their own review.
“But reviewing doctors is not the same thing as reviewing a restaurant,” a mature, urbane dermatologist said after one of my talks about online physician reviews. “After all, patients can’t possibly understand the complexity and difficulty we undergo in treating them,” he added. This is a common sentiment and it misses the point. Patients do not have to know anything about medicine to render their opinion of their experience.
Indeed, most doctor reviews have nothing to do with the quality of medicine the doctor provided. Rather, patients overwhelmingly rate us and comment on their service experience. This is not fair to us, and yet it does not matter. In fact, it is partly our own fault. We doctors have gotten so good at diagnosing and treating medical ailments that patients “expect” we will provide good quality—we graduated from medical school, after all. What is salient to them is how they felt about the experience—Did they feel cared for? Respected? Were they treated with kindness and compassion? This is good news for us and news I hope you will help me spread.
Knowing that you will be reviewed at some point and that patients mostly care how they were treated, it is more important than ever that we provide the highest level of service we are able to deliver. For our customers, service equals quality. For them to understand how good we are, they have to be able to observe and quantify it.
Article continues on page 2
{{pagebreak}}
Dealing With a Bad Review
Let’s imagine that despite your best efforts, a disgruntled patient decides to rip into you and your practice as if they had a bad shrimp at a restaurant. What do you do now? Take the following 3 steps: reach out neutral, repair, or redact.
Some doctors believe the best action is no action. They think: Do not reply. Do not acknowledge. Do not look at it. I disagree. It is not a HIPAA violation to reply to a patient online review. It is a HIPAA violation to disclose any private information. That limits us mostly to short, neutral replies such as, “I’m sorry you had to wait” or “I’m sorry for your experience. Please contact our office so we can help you.”
This type of reply is called “reach out neutral” and demonstrates to the patient and to anyone reading that patient’s review, that you care. Notice we are not saying that you did anything wrong or acknowledging errors made. We are just saying that we are sorry that the patient was unhappy. And we are.
A second response to a bad review is to learn from it and repair it. There are patients with unrealistic expectations and there is nothing we can do about it. Most reviews, however, have a kernel of truth at their core. Maybe they did wait an hour in the waiting room. Maybe your nurse was discourteous. Maybe your hands were cold. In many instances, multiple patients cite the same complaint. This is good luck. It means they care enough to want you to know about it and are giving you the opportunity to make it right. If you wish to be successful in the service industry, you will have to fix or “repair” such lapses.
Last, you can request a review be redacted. Say, for example, that what appears to be a disgruntled patient is actually a nefarious competitor who is posting lies about you. I always thought this scenario unlikely, but at conference after conference, I have heard from many doctors confirming that this happens. In such an instance, when the rating and comment is libel, and you can somehow substantiate the facts, then you can ask for the review to be redacted. That is, you can write to sites, such as Yelp or Healthgrades, and tell them that a false, malicious, or harmful (particularly if harmful to a patient) review has been posted. These sites have the ability to remove the review. While every business wants all its bad reviews taken down, review sites would rather have none taken down. Therefore, review sites must adjudicate each request for removing a comment to determine its veracity. Because it is in their best interest to not remove reviews, the task of getting a bad rating redacted is a difficult one. But I have seen it firsthand and know that it is possible. Before embarking down this path, however, consider if it is worth your time and frustration.
In conclusion, online reviews are flourishing. Whether it will be on Yelp or some other review site, it is clear that we physicians must attend to them. I saved the best news for last. For the most part, patients do love us, and the majority of online and mobile reviews are positive. To ensure that you are doing all you can, remember to reach out neutral, repair, and redact when you see a review that makes your heart sink.
Dr. Benabio is physician director of healthcare transformation at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, CA. This article is based on a presentation by Dr. Benabio, given at the 2015 Fall Clinical Show, which was held in Las Vegas, NV.
Disclosure: The author reports no relevant financial relationships.
There are 2 types of doctors—those who have a bad review online and those who have never checked.
We doctors have always had patients who were dissatisfied with our care. What is different now is that patients use online review sites to announce their complaints publicly. If this has happened to you, do not worry, there are steps you can take to remedy it. If it has not happened to you, do not worry, it will someday. So, just bookmark this article now.
Why are so many patients going online to review their doctors? Simply put, because they can. Patients have always talked about their experiences with their physicians to friends and family. After all, word-of-mouth is the undisputed heavyweight champion of marketing for health care. It is how most doctors build their practice, one patient recommendation at a time.
Now, instead of simply telling people about you, patients have access to mobile and online review sites such as Healthgrades, ZocDoc, and Yelp among others. Reviews are increasing in number because the more ratings a physician has, the more valuable that review site is to a potential patient. The more reviews a site has, the more potential value patients will get from it, and when patients feel a site is valuable they are more likely to contribute their own review.
“But reviewing doctors is not the same thing as reviewing a restaurant,” a mature, urbane dermatologist said after one of my talks about online physician reviews. “After all, patients can’t possibly understand the complexity and difficulty we undergo in treating them,” he added. This is a common sentiment and it misses the point. Patients do not have to know anything about medicine to render their opinion of their experience.
Indeed, most doctor reviews have nothing to do with the quality of medicine the doctor provided. Rather, patients overwhelmingly rate us and comment on their service experience. This is not fair to us, and yet it does not matter. In fact, it is partly our own fault. We doctors have gotten so good at diagnosing and treating medical ailments that patients “expect” we will provide good quality—we graduated from medical school, after all. What is salient to them is how they felt about the experience—Did they feel cared for? Respected? Were they treated with kindness and compassion? This is good news for us and news I hope you will help me spread.
Knowing that you will be reviewed at some point and that patients mostly care how they were treated, it is more important than ever that we provide the highest level of service we are able to deliver. For our customers, service equals quality. For them to understand how good we are, they have to be able to observe and quantify it.
Article continues on page 2
{{pagebreak}}
Dealing With a Bad Review
Let’s imagine that despite your best efforts, a disgruntled patient decides to rip into you and your practice as if they had a bad shrimp at a restaurant. What do you do now? Take the following 3 steps: reach out neutral, repair, or redact.
Some doctors believe the best action is no action. They think: Do not reply. Do not acknowledge. Do not look at it. I disagree. It is not a HIPAA violation to reply to a patient online review. It is a HIPAA violation to disclose any private information. That limits us mostly to short, neutral replies such as, “I’m sorry you had to wait” or “I’m sorry for your experience. Please contact our office so we can help you.”
This type of reply is called “reach out neutral” and demonstrates to the patient and to anyone reading that patient’s review, that you care. Notice we are not saying that you did anything wrong or acknowledging errors made. We are just saying that we are sorry that the patient was unhappy. And we are.
A second response to a bad review is to learn from it and repair it. There are patients with unrealistic expectations and there is nothing we can do about it. Most reviews, however, have a kernel of truth at their core. Maybe they did wait an hour in the waiting room. Maybe your nurse was discourteous. Maybe your hands were cold. In many instances, multiple patients cite the same complaint. This is good luck. It means they care enough to want you to know about it and are giving you the opportunity to make it right. If you wish to be successful in the service industry, you will have to fix or “repair” such lapses.
Last, you can request a review be redacted. Say, for example, that what appears to be a disgruntled patient is actually a nefarious competitor who is posting lies about you. I always thought this scenario unlikely, but at conference after conference, I have heard from many doctors confirming that this happens. In such an instance, when the rating and comment is libel, and you can somehow substantiate the facts, then you can ask for the review to be redacted. That is, you can write to sites, such as Yelp or Healthgrades, and tell them that a false, malicious, or harmful (particularly if harmful to a patient) review has been posted. These sites have the ability to remove the review. While every business wants all its bad reviews taken down, review sites would rather have none taken down. Therefore, review sites must adjudicate each request for removing a comment to determine its veracity. Because it is in their best interest to not remove reviews, the task of getting a bad rating redacted is a difficult one. But I have seen it firsthand and know that it is possible. Before embarking down this path, however, consider if it is worth your time and frustration.
In conclusion, online reviews are flourishing. Whether it will be on Yelp or some other review site, it is clear that we physicians must attend to them. I saved the best news for last. For the most part, patients do love us, and the majority of online and mobile reviews are positive. To ensure that you are doing all you can, remember to reach out neutral, repair, and redact when you see a review that makes your heart sink.
Dr. Benabio is physician director of healthcare transformation at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, CA. This article is based on a presentation by Dr. Benabio, given at the 2015 Fall Clinical Show, which was held in Las Vegas, NV.
Disclosure: The author reports no relevant financial relationships.
