Medical treatment, hipaa guidelines & the truth about yelp
Many patients are taking to Yelp to post reviews on their experience with their treatment from many types of Doctors. Many are positive, many are negative and many are flat out lies from disgruntled patients who aim to harm the Doctor based on their experience. It's very easy to slander someone behind the safety of a computer monitor.
The problem with those reviews is that they are usually fabricated and/or embellished. If bad or false reviews were made about any other type of business, they could publicly explain their side of the story and many times, better their business based upon that critique. But because of HIPAA laws and regulations, Medical Service Providers' hands are tied behind their backs. They are not allowed to publicly discuss the patients complaints and the false reviews can damage their reputations. Don't get me wrong, if a patient complains about the cleanliness of the restroom or an unfriendly staff member, that is one thing. But to discuss treatment processes and outcomes publicly, when the doctor cannot discuss the details of the patient, that should not be allowed.
Yelp understands this and has petitions against them for allowing detailed reviews about Medical Providers but they refuse to make any changes. Yelp was designed with algorithms that determine whether a review gets posted or not. Part of the algorithm is based on whether they feel the reviewer is active on Yelp enough to be considered a trusted source for the review. This means, is the reviewer actively posting reviews on many other businesses or are they simply creating an account to write one review (which seems solicited).
Yelp was designed for businesses that constantly have new/repeat customers, can educate the public about their services and receive critique from the review process. Yelp can be great for restaurants and single service providers such as plumbers, electricians & mechanics. But it is near impossible to be objective about medical complications because the majority of medical services also have a necessary patient compliance portion that goes along with the medical services being provided.
Next time you want to go to a restaurant, enjoy the reviews from Yelp and the lovely pictures they provide. Next time you want to go to a dentist, use your judgement as read through the reviews. Next time you want to treat a chronic viral infection like Candida or a chronic Thyroid problem or gut issues, take the majority of negative reviews with a grain of salt. These professionals make a living helping their patients get better. Not by taking a patients money and intentionally sabotaging them. You can only lead a horse to water, you can't force it to drink. Same thing with these patients, you can educate and provide all of the proper treatment but if the patient doesn't follow directions and communicate with the doctor the way they are supposed to, it is their fault for lack of results, not the doctor!
The problem with those reviews is that they are usually fabricated and/or embellished. If bad or false reviews were made about any other type of business, they could publicly explain their side of the story and many times, better their business based upon that critique. But because of HIPAA laws and regulations, Medical Service Providers' hands are tied behind their backs. They are not allowed to publicly discuss the patients complaints and the false reviews can damage their reputations. Don't get me wrong, if a patient complains about the cleanliness of the restroom or an unfriendly staff member, that is one thing. But to discuss treatment processes and outcomes publicly, when the doctor cannot discuss the details of the patient, that should not be allowed.
Yelp understands this and has petitions against them for allowing detailed reviews about Medical Providers but they refuse to make any changes. Yelp was designed with algorithms that determine whether a review gets posted or not. Part of the algorithm is based on whether they feel the reviewer is active on Yelp enough to be considered a trusted source for the review. This means, is the reviewer actively posting reviews on many other businesses or are they simply creating an account to write one review (which seems solicited).
Yelp was designed for businesses that constantly have new/repeat customers, can educate the public about their services and receive critique from the review process. Yelp can be great for restaurants and single service providers such as plumbers, electricians & mechanics. But it is near impossible to be objective about medical complications because the majority of medical services also have a necessary patient compliance portion that goes along with the medical services being provided.
Next time you want to go to a restaurant, enjoy the reviews from Yelp and the lovely pictures they provide. Next time you want to go to a dentist, use your judgement as read through the reviews. Next time you want to treat a chronic viral infection like Candida or a chronic Thyroid problem or gut issues, take the majority of negative reviews with a grain of salt. These professionals make a living helping their patients get better. Not by taking a patients money and intentionally sabotaging them. You can only lead a horse to water, you can't force it to drink. Same thing with these patients, you can educate and provide all of the proper treatment but if the patient doesn't follow directions and communicate with the doctor the way they are supposed to, it is their fault for lack of results, not the doctor!