From restaurants to hotels there are reviews for just about everything and doctors are no exception. There are millions of critics eager to post their last night experience about a chicken dish or grumble about a lethargic service and they will find a place to post them. Similarly websites like ratemd.com or angislist.com is a place where users post comments about their physicians. A Doctor will have hundreds of happy patients, but it only takes one bad review to trash a Doctor’s online reputation.
These review websites are good tool for patients searching the best care, and brings in more business to doctors. But a bad review can mean empty waiting room. To avoid getting beaten online, doctors sometimes make their patient sign legal agreements or gag orders asking them not to post any comments online. These doctors say they have no option due to privacy policy they are forced to keep silent when patient bad mouth them.
Reputation Management For.com realizes it’s a matter of survival and how important a doctor’s reputation is. A survey undertaken in Texas where patients were asked ‘who do you trust the most when it comes to health hosting- Doctors, Politicians, Media, or health policy experts’ and well the answer was doctors.
It’s widely accepted that 70 percent of today’s users search for your name on Google before they decide to do business with you. Obviously when it comes to deal with medical professionals, prospective patients will tend to check a doctor’s online reputation and testimonial by just typing their name. A clean online reputation helps in obtaining new patients and maintaining trust with existing patients.
So the best way to balance the doctor’s right to fair evaluation and patient’s right to quality health care is to have a third-party review those comments. This will protect the rights of a doctor from an unfair online trial. Doctors may not agree on how to reform health system, but the bottom line is that patients trust their doctors and want to hear what they have to say.
