Some Doctors Trying to Silence Patient Feedback with Waivers
As online physician rating sites become more and more prevalent, some doctors are asking their patients to sign waivers (provided by a NC based company – Medical Justice) to prevent them from providing online feedback without prior consent from the physician.
change:healthcare CEO Christopher Parks, shared his opinion on the matter with Getahn Ward of the Tennessean. Here are some of the highlights:
Parks says, “”It’s never worked in our society to try to constrain or restrain perceptions or feedback,” he said. “The more you tell people to be quiet, the louder they want to yell.” He, however, believes that physicians should be allowed to offer their perspectives and that the ratings sites have a responsibility to filter out comments that are libelous.
Doctors, he added, should encourage all of their patients to rate their experiences. “As a general consumer, I won’t let one horrible rating sway my perception or cause me to devalue that provider,” he said. “It’s the trend — what’s the majority of the ratings.”
To view the complete article visit the Tennessean website or download the PDF here
This will be good for excellent doctors not trying to please anybody but the patient.
And how does Mr. Parks propose that ratings sites “filter out comments that are libelous”?
To do so would require investigation into the veracity of claims and at the very least suggest tacit validity to everything published at the ratings site.
I disagree with your assertion. It’s up to the consumers you advocate representing to investigate their healthcare provider, whether by rating site, word-of-mouth, or actual experience.
Bill – We are definitely in agreement that with enough comments by a community of users combined with mechanisms for users AND providers to participate in the conversation and easily mark comments as either ‘helpful’, ‘not helpful’, or ‘flag as inappropriate’ – the value of aforementioned tools are simply that: one of many decision-points that patients and consumers use to vet Providers that they want to establish a doctor/patient relationship with.
Quite frankly, transparency in healthcare is still in the Wild Wild West phase. But I also believe that there are some basic tenets that when adhered to, help to create constructive feedback for all patients and their providers:
1. No comment can be anonymous. Users must register and maintain some semblance of identity. I’m NOT saying that the person’s full name, address, picture, and astrological sign is known (just a touch of sarcastic humor there), just that there is some reasonable identity behind comments made by individuals. Yes – there are circumstances where anonymity does cause MORE comments to be made, but often (not always) the value of increased comments is offset by inappropriate or non-helpful comments. I suggest, no hiding behind anonymity.
2. Look at the TREND of comment themes, not a single (or handful) comment that is either highly positive or negative. Please do not make a decision on a Provider based solely on a single comment. However, if there are 10+ positive comments or comments voicing concern… then that points you toward a reasonable impression of that Provider’s bedside manner or patient experience.
3. Enable EASY mechanisms that let the public/users ‘police’ commentary. There are multitudes of case studies that validate the premise that a user community can and will elevate helpful/useful conversations and also the same community of users will ‘bury’ [aka flag as non-helpful or inappropriate] extremist, hyper-off-the-mark, over-the-top commentary. As long as the tools are in place and easy to use, then the community can/will leverage them.
It may be naive, but I trust our community of Users (which includes BOTH patients and Providers). One of our main goals over the coming month is to ensure that each user (again, both patient’s AND Providers) are effortlessly made aware WHEN and WHAT conversation is occurring about THEIR Providers, Rx, and health issues (or in a Provider’s case – commentary from patients) and enable that person to join the conversation and easily add their experience or viewpoint, if they so choose to.
Honestly, we don’t have THE silver bullet of ‘fair and balanced’ but we are making strides to constantly listen to our community of Users and Providers to try and find a reasonable yet very transparent means to help people make informed decisions about finding new Providers and conveying one’s current experience (both the good and bad) with existing Providers.
Any other constructive thoughts or advice is appreciated as we navigate this new land.
christopher