In today’s digital era, online reviews have become a significant influence on consumer decision-making, including when it comes to selecting healthcare providers. With platforms like Yelp, Google, and specialized medical review sites such as WedMD, RealSelf, and Vitals.com, patients now have the ability to share their experiences and opinions with the world.
For doctors, navigating this new landscape presents numerous challenges, including in relation to the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA). In this article from Buckingham, we will explore the importance of doctor reputation management, responding to online reviews, and provide guidance on how to navigate this ever changing landscape of the world of online reviews.
Importance of Online Reviews for Doctors
Online reviews have transformed just about every industry in the country, including the healthcare industry. Patients can now share their experience with every aspect of their healthcare experience, including a doctor’s expertise, bedside manner, and overall performance. While general review platforms like Google and Yelp allow patients to leave reviews, there are numerous healthcare specific sites that have grown in recent years, including WebMD, Vitals.com, and RealSelf. These online doctor review sites provide consumers looking for healthcare options a more targeted platform to use.
Positive reviews can attract new patients and bolster a doctor’s reputation. 71% of patients in a survey from Software Advice say they use online reviews as a first step in evaluating a new doctor or medical professional. Acknowledging the influence of online reviews is crucial for medical professionals to maintain a positive online presence and reputation.
Many of these platforms can, and will, maintain a page for your practice without your permission, which makes monitoring, and managing, your online profiles all the more important. However, there are a number of considerations that healthcare professionals have to consider when maintaining their online reputation.
How HIPAA Influences Online Reviews of Doctors
The Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was first enacted in August of 1996. There was a long list of goals that Congress hoped to accomplish when passing HIPAA, including better access to health insurance for individuals and limiting the cost increases for employers. These regulations drastically changed the medical profession, and led to an increase in the sharing of private medical information for patients. As a result, Congress also enacted strict privacy rules regarding the sharing and transmission of sensitive medical information. These rules were officially enacted in 2002 and 2003, and placed strict requirements on all healthcare providers and medical professionals to guard against the disclosure of sensitive medical information of patients.
The main issues medical professionals face in responding to online reviews is HIPAA and ensuring that you do not disclose any sensitive medical information of the patient. If there is one thing to take from this article it is this: regardless of what a patient says in a review, the patient has not waived their rights under HIPAA, and medical professionals are not able to publicly disclose any private medical information about the patient.
The restrictions put on medical professionals by HIPAA make it difficult to provide adequate responses to online reviews left by patients, and especially reviews that discuss in great detail the treatment they received. While medical professionals need to be especially mindful of these restrictions, it is not impossible to respond to online reviews.
Best Practices for Medical Professionals When Managing Reviews
While medical professionals must be ever aware of HIPAA restrictions, there are certain best practices in responding to online reviews. Many of the best practices for responding to reviews in other professions are still applicable for medical professionals.
- Claim and Monitor Your Profiles
Make sure that you know exactly what platforms you and your practice are listed on, and, where possible, claim those profiles. This will allow you to make sure that the information being presented is accurate, and will also, in most cases, ensure that you get prompt notice of any online reviews. Once you are able to monitor your online presence, you will be able to respond promptly to any reviews that come up, and could help in diffusing any potentially harmful situations.
- Carefully Respond to Reviews
Once you are notified of a review, you should aim to respond as quickly as possible. Any response to a positive review should be short and sweet, along the lines of “Thank you for the positive feedback.” This helps avoid any of the disclosure concerns discussed earlier.
When responding to negative reviews, it’s important to acknowledge the patient’s concerns and offer to discuss with them offline, where you can engage in a more thorough conversation with the patient without risking disclosing any medical information. A response such as “Thank you for your feedback and for bringing this to our attention.” Then, follow up with a request for a call, or reach out directly to the patient to discuss further.
If you believe that a review was left by someone, or a group of people, who were not actually patients, you should consult with an attorney before responding to the review. That way you can ensure that you are not running afoul of HIPAA and are responding in a way that will make you look the best to any potential patients reading the reviews.
- Encourage Patients to Leave Reviews
Once you have identified the platforms where you and your practice are listed, make sure your patients know, too. After all, online reputation for businesses and medical professionals is important!
While this might be hard to do at first, it is important to encourage positive reviews from patients for a few reasons. We know that online reviews are important, and are being used by potential patients, so you should be encouraging patients to share their experience with your practice to ensure that those potential new patients are seeing the full picture. Additionally, the more positive reviews you have, the less impact a negative review will have on your overall rating.
Things to Avoid in When Responding to Reviews
This has been covered numerous times in this article, but bears repeating again – when responding to a patient review, do not reveal any information about their treatment, including that they were even a patient. Keeping this standard in mind will help keep you in compliance with HIPAA and avoid any additional pitfalls that might be associated with an online review.
It’s still important to be professional in any response, and to avoid prolonged back and forths with individuals through these platforms, which will only increase the possibility of an inadvertent disclosure of medical information. If at all possible, take the conversation offline as quickly as possible. This will allow for a more frank discussion with the patient and hopefully will result in the negative review being removed.
Responding to online reviews is an important part of managing your reputation as a medical professional. While there are additional concerns you have to consider before responding, there are clear best practices for engaging with former, current and potential patients on these review platforms. Embracing online reviews can help you boost your online presence and increase your visibility to potential new patients.
