How to respond to bad online reviews

In the age of online reviews, medical professionals have been accused of violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) for how they responded to negative online reviews from patients. To avoid that pitfall and other missteps, here are some do ' s and don ’ts for responding to online critics.The pitfalls AProPublica investigation earlier this year, co-published with theThe Washington Post,combed through more than 1.7 million patient Yelp public reviews and found dozens of instances where medical professionals ’ responses to complaints led to disputes over patient privacy. In one case, a patient filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights within the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, the office that enforces HIPAA. The patient claimed the dentist posted her personal information in response to a Yelp review, according to the investigation. In a 2013 California case, a hospital was fined $275,000 for disclosing patient information to the media without permission, “allegedly in retaliation for the patient complaining to the media about the hospital,” the article noted. These online reviews are going to happen because that is the nature of the internet ’s presence in the modern medical landscape. So how do you handle them?The do ' s and don ’ts of responding With these pitfalls in mind, here are some dos and don ’ts for physicians to consider when a patient posts a negative review. What to do:Consider taking the response ...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news