Online Patient reviews?

[Angry Birds]

Nothing we can do about these, can we?

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[VA Hopeful Dr]

You're EM, why would you even care?

But no, you usually can't do anything about them.

 

[Rekt]

You're EM, why would you even care?

But no, you usually can't do anything about them.

We have feelings too

 

[WilcoWorld]

Remember that Neurosurgeon who killed several people? He had great reviews.

You can ignore them.

 

[RustedFox]

Reason number 239989 why it's okay to hate the muggles.

They have no idea how to medicine; but know how we should medicine.

 

[alpinism]

Personally I take pride in my one star ratings.

 

[turkeyjerky]

I’ve successfully gotten one taken down by emailing the company. I don’t like having some ridiculous accusation the first listing about me on google.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

We have feelings too

Don't read them.

I joined my current office about a year and a half ago. Three or four months in the office manager showed me a negative review from a patient. She explained that I didn't have to respond to it she just wanted to make me aware of it.

I told her that unless the hospital required me to respond to it, to never show me another patient review ever again.

Hasn't come up since. Great for mental health.

 

[GeneralVeers]

I love reading them. The thought that I annoyed some medically ignorant Karen enough to have her take the time to post about me online is endlessly entertaining. The hyperbole, and insults they use always make me chuckle.

One suggestion though to everyone, make sure you google yourself and see if your business comes up as your home address and phone number. My address and phone number were coming up, so I was able to "claim" the business and change the address and phone number to a hospital in another state I worked at years ago.

 

[southerndoc]

Lawyer up and you can get them pulled. Probably not worth the expense though.

 

[Angry Birds]

Thanks -- I guess it doesn't matter for us. I have one 5-star and one 1-star review. Balance!

 

[southerndoc]

Thanks -- I guess it doesn't matter for us. I have one 5-star and one 1-star review. Balance!

Gotta balance your yin and yang!

 

[RustedFox]

Thanks -- I guess it doesn't matter for us. I have one 5-star and one 1-star review. Balance!

Further evidence of the general hyperreactivity of the general American public. Everything is sensationalized by them.

Muggles gonna muggle.

 

[Cinclus]

I have a single 5-star review in which the patient says that I was the best choice of doctor for them. Because they had so much choice in the doctor they saw in the ED.

 

[Angry Birds]

My own family picks doctors by looking at these ratings, haha.

 

[GeneralVeers]

I have a single 5-star review in which the patient says that I was the best choice of doctor for them. Because they had so much choice in the doctor they saw in the ED.

I'm not even sure why there are ratings for ED physicians as patients don't get a choice. How does this provide valuable information to anyone? If a patient says they refuse to see me due to a 1-star review on Google, you better believe they are going to wait in limbo indefinitely before anyone else goes in the room.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

My own family picks doctors by looking at these ratings, haha.

And that can be OK if you read the comments in the right way. My internist wife has lots of bad reviews because she refuses to write chronic narcotics or xanax. She's had several people comment that those reviews tells them she isn't just go to throw pills at them so they're stop complaining.

I have a few that talk about how little time I spent in the room with patients and have had people seek me out because they know that means I don't run very far behind and they don't have to block out 3 hours to see the doctor.

 

[Vandalia]

I'm not even sure why there are ratings for ED physicians as patients don't get a choice. How does this provide valuable information to anyone? If a patient says they refuse to see me due to a 1-star review on Google, you better believe they are going to wait in limbo indefinitely before anyone else goes in the room.

One of our local forensic pathologists is available for review.

 

[WilcoWorld]

One of our local forensic pathologists is available for review.

1 star - hands were too cold.

 

[Birdstrike]

Remember that Neurosurgeon who killed several people? He had great reviews.

You can ignore them.

Yep!

"...Christopher Duntsch, the disgraced Texas neurosurgeon who’s the focus of the Dr. Death podcast, touted 4 and 5-star reviews on Healthgrades and high praise on Facebook, all while killing or permanently injuring 33 of the 37 patients he operated on."

'Nuff said.

 

[BAM!]

if it really bothers you, you can alway write yourself a bunch of 5 star reviews.

 

[Birdstrike]

Nothing we can do about these, can we?

As an EM physician, the best response is probably to ignore them. But for someone who's outpatient that depends on referrals, or if as an ER doc you simply can't let go, here's something I do, which you can do, too.

Google your name. Write down the first 3 ratings websites that come up. Have a stack of pre-printed sheets at work that say, "Please, if you have the time, go to one or all of the following 3 websites and rate Dr. Birdstrike and staff...." and below listed are the web addresses to the above sites. The unhappy patients will find those sites on their own, do not give them the sheet. The happy patients will not go to the ratings sites on their own, because they're happy. You need to steer them there. The next time you have one of those patients singing your praises (quick-fix nursemaid's elbow; quickly seen patient that wanted a z-pack that got one) hand them a sheet. Not all will do it, but enough will that soon you have enough 4 and 5 star reviews, of real patients, to bury the bad ones to page two.

It's honest, easy, free and patches a flaw in the system of online reviews which heavily skew negative.

 

[southerndoc]

if it really bothers you, you can alway write yourself a bunch of 5 star reviews.

Perhaps we should start a group of EM docs that give other EM docs 5-star reviews!

 

[Apollyon]

Perhaps we should start a group of EM docs that give other EM docs 5-star reviews!

It's like the group of docs around here that were their own references for each other for the locums jobs!

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Perhaps we should start a group of EM docs that give other EM docs 5-star reviews!

There's a DPC Facebook group that does exactly that.