The rise of online reviews has transformed how we rate everything from restaurants to service providers. While these systems are convenient and empowering for consumers, their application in healthcare raises unique challenges – especially for clinicians. Reviews on search engines—like Google, for example—seem to have inadvertently created a system that could harm patients and the professionals they rely on for care.
Doctors are one of the few professional groups subject to public evaluations on aspects of the service that often lie outside their control. While transparency and feedback are essential in any industry, the current model of online reviews does not account for the complexity of the healthcare experience. This results in a distorted portrayal of physician performance, undermines trust, sacrifices reputation, and contributes to burnout.
The main challenges that doctors face with online reviews
There are several healthcare-specific issues when it comes to online reviews:
- Unfair accountability: Doctors are often held accountable for systemic issues such as long wait times, administrative inefficiency, or billing errors – factors over which we have no control. However, these factors strongly influence patient reviews.
- Lack of context and verification: Many online search engines and other platforms do not check whether the reviewer has actually interacted with the doctor. Patients often confuse dissatisfaction with administrative processes or facility conditions with the care they received, leading to unfair criticism.
- Reputation damage: One negative review, regardless of its validity, can have a significant impact on a doctor’s reputation. In a field where trust is crucial, this damage is difficult to repair.
- Emotional toll: Constant exposure to public criticism—much of it irrelevant, misleading, or lacking context—takes a significant emotional toll on physicians, contributing to burnout in a profession already stressed by high demands.
Opportunities to improve the review system
Many leading platforms already implement systems to ensure feedback is meaningful and fair. Facebook, for example, allows business pages to disable or limit reviews, recognizing the need for moderation. However, search engines often fail to offer businesses this option, and may not increase reviews closely.
Reference validation is another area for improvement. In industries like retail and hospitality, companies like Airbnb and TripAdvisor have implemented systems that require proof of purchase or reservation. These guarantees ensure that reviews reflect real interactions. Likewise, software companies often use verified surveys to solicit specific, actionable feedback from users. If search engines were to implement these checks for healthcare reviews, it would help ensure that reviews come from real patient experiences.
In addition, feedback systems designed to address the complexity of the health care experience can be adopted. For example, search engines can allow patients to provide separate ratings for clinical care, administrative efficiency, and facility cleanliness. This segmentation will provide a more precise and accurate assessment of the overall patient experience.
What needs to change
Search engines have an opportunity to lead the way in creating a more balanced and fair review system for healthcare professionals. To start, implementing segmented feedback would allow patients to rate distinct aspects of their healthcare experience. The patient can evaluate the quality of medical care separately from the facility’s administrative competence, ensuring that doctors are not unfairly penalized for issues beyond their control.
Verification systems must also be introduced. Patients leaving reviews should be asked to confirm their interaction with the doctor through an appointment log or similar mechanism. This would prevent reviews by individuals who have no real basis for their comments.
Finally, improved moderation practices are essential. Search engines can develop stronger safeguards to identify and address reviews that are irrelevant, misleading, or abusive. For example, reviews that contain discriminatory language or irrelevant complaints about billing systems should be flagged and removed.
How hospitals and advocacy groups can help
Hospitals, professional organizations, and advocacy groups have a critical role to play in addressing the challenges posed by online reviews. Advocacy efforts should focus on working with search engines to implement fairer and more transparent review systems. By engaging directly with these companies, the healthcare community can push for changes such as segmented feedback and verification systems.
In addition to advocacy, hospitals and organizations should provide education and training to clinicians on how to address reviews constructively. This could include workshops on professional response to negative comments and using patient feedback to improve practice processes.
Finally, general or practice-based messaging campaigns can raise awareness about the unique challenges of reviewing health care providers. Patients should be encouraged to leave thoughtful and constructive reviews that focus on the quality of care received rather than irrelevant frustration.
A call for a balanced evaluation
Health care is deeply personal, and feedback is invaluable for improving care. However, the current review system risks distorting the reality of a physician’s dedication and expertise. By implementing thoughtful changes, search engines can ensure that reviews are not only fair and accurate, but also reflect the complex nature of healthcare delivery.
Doctors deserve a system that fairly evaluates their work. Patients deserve a system that educates them accurately. It’s time to work together to create one.
Adadan Edad Khan, MD, is a neurologist in New Hampshire.
