Patient Reviews & Privacy: Getting Fans and Making Friends Online

Presented by: ettins’ Law, LLC 513-400-3598 mbgettins@gettinslaw.com

Absent a proper patient authorization, you may not post about patient treatment online.

What should a Social Media Patient Authorization Include?

• Identify what information is to be disclosed

• Identify purpose of disclosure

• Identify how the disclosure is to be used i.e. Facebook post

• Expressly state the right to revoke and limitations to revocation

• Follow other standard authorization requirements

What do you do about a bad review?

• Review for inaccuracies and misstatements

• Reply privately

• Reply publically

• Nothing

• Provide a internal avenue for complaints

Inaccuracies and Misstatements

There are risks of ‘fake’ reviews or publishing of inaccurate statements.

What can you do about fake reviews and misstatements ?

• Report, hide, or flag fake posts

• Consult legal counsel

Reply Privately

Check for ways to respond to reviewers privately

However, contacting reviewers should be approached with care; internet

messaging is a blunt tool and sometimes good intentions come across

badly. We've [Yelp] put together some examples to help you get this

balance right. Keep these three things in mind as you're crafting a

message to your customer:

1.Your reviewers are your paying customers

2.Your reviewers are human beings with (sometimes unpredictable)

feelings and sensitivities

3.Your reviewers are vocal and opinionated (otherwise they would not

be writing reviews!)

Yelphttps://biz.yelp.com/support/responding_to_reviews

Reply Publically

Consider responding to reviews publically

Yelphttps://biz.yelp.com/support/responding_to_reviews

Getting Started Go to the "Reviews" tab after logging into your business account. From there you'll be able to add a public comment to any review of your business.

Where your Public Comment will appear Your comment will appear directly following the review that you've commented on.

What should I say in a public comment? Just keep it simple and polite. Yelpers appreciate honesty and like to know when businesses are making changes based on their feedback.

Are there times when it's better not to comment? Yes, sometimes it's to your advantage not to comment at all.

If you're upset, you might write something that will reflect poorly on your business. Wait until you've had some time to think about a review; there may be legitimate concerns brought up in the review that you can address in a constructive way.

If you want to thank someone for a positive review, send a private message instead. Comments that simply thank users without providing new information can be perceived as overbearing.

Post Leads to Protesthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/06/amy-dunbar-obgyn_n_2630823.html

What can be included in public posts?

1. General medical explanations

2. Statistics and general potential outcomes

3. Possible generally accepted courses of treatment

4. Resource for further information and education

Formula for Response

1. Let the reviewer know he/she is heard

2. Provide resources or make a commitment

3. Close with a call to action

Do Nothing

• Negative comments can be diluted by positive reviews.

• If not responded to, negative comments will sink in SEO ranking making them less visible on search results.

• Negative comments will drop to the bottom of Facebook feeds over time.

Provide an avenue for complaints

Create a path on your website for complaints.

Presented by:

Offering Privacy and Security

• Standards Manuals,

• Training,

• Analysis/Assessments,

• Tracking/Monitoring

www.gettinslaw.com 513-400-3895 mbgettins@gettinslaw.com