Online rating sites protect physicians against malice
Online rating sites have become increasingly popular as consumers surf the web to find reviews of hotels, restaurants, electronics and almost everything else.
Healthcare is no exception. A plethora of sites are available for consumers who want to rate and review their doctors or find information when selecting a new provider.
Vitals.com offers information on 830,000 doctors nationwide, giving details in 13 categories, including awards, appointments, published articles, special committee memberships and patient reviews. The site receives upwards of 50,000 reviews per month, in addition to aggregating information from other websites such as Yelp.com.
“I say this sort of tongue-in-cheek, doctors do not mind being rated, they mind being rated badly,” said Mitch Rothschild, Vitals.com’s CEO. “What the ratings do is they give a certain transparency of patient opinion on medical care. For a group that has never had to be that transparent, it’s still a minor point of controversy, as it would be for any of us.”
To protect doctors who receive less-than-glowing comments, Vitals.com tracks IP addresses and uses software that detects similarities in writing patterns to identify postings that are not genuine.
“We take it into account if we believe the review is motivated by malice or things other than an honest review of the doctor,” said Rothschild.
Moreover, physicians are allowed to respond and refute reviews with which they do not agree. “We do allow providers to have feedback,” said Rothschild.
On HealthGrades.com, an independent healthcare ratings company where consumers can research doctors – in addition to hospitals, nursing homes and other organizations – consumer are required to certify that the doctor they are rating has recently treated them before they can complete a survey.
“HealthGrades does track patient survey activity and will flag and investigate any suspicious behavior,” said Arshad K Rahim, MD, the company’s vice president, accelerated clinical excellence.
“It is also important to note that open field comments are not allowed,” said Rahim. “HealthGrades encourages physicians to use the Physician Portal to post comments to their profiles in response to surveys.
Doctors may also encourage satisfied patients to go online and fill out surveys if they feel that the current survey results are not reflective of their overall quality of practice.”
While doctors can openly refute comments made about them online, they have little legal recourse to battle back against poor reviews.
“It’s not about issues of liable,” said Rothschild. “I am entitled to my opinion, you are entitled to your opinion, and we’re entitled to them in a public forum. One can sue anybody over anything, but the great weight of the law protects the freedom of speech for people to state their point of view.”
Sean Smith, an attorney with Atlanta-based law firm Taylor English, agrees.
“Opinion is more protected under the law than fact with the Supreme Court having said in general terms that there is no such thing as a wrong opinion,” he said.
Smith believes a physician’s best approach for combatting negative comments is to post a rebuttal.
“The best antidote to incorrect speech is, in fact, more speech. More speech is always the better solution,” said Smith, noting that doctors should be careful when defending themselves online so they do not run into concerns about patient privacy.
“If doctors try to respond too aggressively, they can run into to HIPAA problems if they divulge information that could identify a particular patient,” warned Smith. “This is one area where doctors do need to be careful.”
