Handling negative online comments and reviews

The increasing use of social media and prevalence of online review or comparison sites has provided patients with a number of platforms to comment on the care or treatment they have received at a private clinic. We like to see positive comments from patients, but negative comments can be challenging. Dr Bobby Nicholas, Medicolegal Consultant at Medical Protection, discusses how best to handle these.

Feedback in general – good and bad – can be useful in helping a doctor make improvements to the service they provide. However, receiving negative comments can be challenging and even more so if unfair criticism has been published online, in view of colleagues, patients and friends. It can also be particularly frustrating if it is felt that there is no right of reply.

The language used on social media and review sites can often be emotive and confrontational and is not what we usually expect in the course of spoken dialogue. This, together with the fact that there are limited safeguards to prevent patients from making unpleasant or factually inaccurate posts, makes it understandable that private practitioners are concerned.

Medical Protection is often asked to provide support and advice for private doctors who feel that they are being unfairly portrayed in online comments.

How a doctor responds to negative feedback can be an important factor in whether matters escalate. Some types of comments may warrant reporting to the website, although this does not prevent the person from simply posting the comments elsewhere.

Doctors sometimes feel that negative feedback amounts to defamation. However, taking legal action over a comment needs to be considered very carefully, as this can risk inviting more attention and publicity around the comments or issue.

When receiving such negative feedback, it is tempting to defend one’s reputation by engaging in a war of words with the patient via the social media platform or website. However, doctors need to be mindful of their duty of confidentiality when responding to feedback on public forums. When writing in haste, in particular, it is possible that comments may inadvertently breach doctor-patient confidentiality.

It can also be tempting to become defensive and respond by saying that many other patients are happy with the service provided, or to try and provide a more balanced picture through evidencing positive feedback. Becoming aggressive or defensive is, however, generally an unhelpful approach as it can often lead to more confrontation. Attempting to evidence positive comments or feedback may also backfire and instead engage other patients who were unhappy with some aspect of the service they received.

Doctors and clinic staff need to be ready to deal with online criticism and should use it as an opportunity to demonstrate that they take concerns seriously and want to improve the care they provide patients. A good response will reflect well on the practice and will help to counterbalance the negative remarks that have been made.