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HELP! ... I’M ON YELP
As a subspecialty trainee, you may be faced with online patient reviews. CONSIDER THESE TIPS:
KEEP OPEN COMMUNICATION
The biggest pitfall for physicians leading to poor patient satisfaction is ineffective communication. Do your best to spend time with your patients during initial visits and in subsequent encounters, developing a rapport and fostering trust. Follow up with your patients via phone while the treatment plan is implemented and be open to hearing their concerns. Patients are much more likely to respond favorably if they feel you are invested in their care.
ENCOURAGE SECOND OPINIONS
If you have reached a road block in care, discuss your case with other providers. A fresh set of eyes may identify something that was not initially considered. Just as importantly, tell your patient that you are doing those things. Patients like to know you are going the extra mile to help them, and sometimes that means swallowing your pride and asking for help.
IF YOU RECEIVE A BAD ONLINE REVIEW, LET IT GO
A bad review is bound to happen no matter how vigilant you are. The key is to not respond negatively to a negative review. You could risk exposing key HIPAA information, inciting more ill will from the patient or, worse, instigating a lawsuit. Keep your chin up, learn from any mistakes, and work hard to minimize the risk of a future negative review.
TREAT EVERY PATIENT LIKE FAMILY
The Golden Rule has never been more applicable. You may not always like your patients, but you should still work hard to hear their concerns and help them get better. Your “crazy Aunt” may get on your nerves, but she is still your Aunt, and you still love her. Take this practice into your clinic, and your risk of a bad review will drop.
We must adapt in this era of online reviews with a focus placed on patient satisfaction, quality, and outcomes. Trainees starting into gastroenterology should commit to strong communication, empathy and high-value patient care.
MANAGING ONLINE PATIENT REVIEWS
By William Palmer, MD, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL
THE ERA OF ONLINE PATIENT REVIEWS HAS ARRIVED. A shift toward value-based care for outcomes and reimbursement has placed an increased emphasis on patient satisfaction, and has opened the floodgates for online reviews of physicians. Physicians are faced with answering for online evaluations submitted to sites such as Vitals, RateMDs, Doximity and Healthgrades. Institutional pressures may be present for physicians to be graded well due to the importance placed on U.S. News and World Report rankings. Doximity is closely tied to the U.S. News rankings; the two have significant financial and corporate ties.
Despite the growth of several online rating websites, Yelp has emerged as a titan of physician reviews. Yelp currently holds more than 100 million reviews of everything from restaurants to auto mechanics, with 6% of those falling in the health care category. A study published in Health Affairs in 2016 used natural language processing to evaluate 17,000 Yelp reviews of 1,352 hospitals, and demonstrated similar patient satisfaction scores to those found in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey, including key categories such as scheduling efficiency, billing and overall cost.1 Yelp recently announced a partnership with ProPublica to expand available ratings to include quality metrics.
Several large U.S. health care systems have launched their own online patient review portals to promote transparency. Most sites use the “star rating” adopted by other social media rating platforms. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has also launched its own Hospital Quality Star Rating.
Negative reviews may have an extended impact if the physician becomes engaged in the online discussion. Multiple reports have described providers firing back at disgruntled patients in an online forum, which has led to blatant violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and erosion of patientprovider trust.2
1. Raynard BL, Werner RM, Antanavicius T, et al. Yelp reviews of hospital care can supplement and inform traditional surveys of the patient experience of care. Health Aff 2016; 35: 679-705. 2. Ornstein C. Doctors fire back at bad Yelp reviews – and reveal patients’ information online. The Washington Post. May 27, 2016.
