Violating HIPAA by responding to Yelp

[RiskManager]

Stung by Yelp Reviews, Health Providers Spill Patient Secrets - ProPublica

This is interesting. I have seen negative Yelp reviews about us that are flatly untrue, or is a unique interpretation of events by the patient. However, you cannot cite the patient's clinical information in writing a rebuttal to the review. Unless of course you have the patient's permission, which I have never been able to obtain for this purpose.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

There are other ways to determine a practitioner's quality/credibility besides online patient reviews. I always use a variety of other methods, which I believe is only sensible, and would never suggest that anyone should rely only on online reviews.

What other methods do you suggest for the general public to use?

I guess people can try to find out from licensing boards and accreditation bodies. What others do you use?

I have learned in life generally that 1 person's experience with a doctor, hospital, or provider of any type of service (plumbing, electricians, concrete work, etc.) can be great and another person's experience with that same provider can be not so great, so what good, really, are reviews anyway?

As for health care providers being able to respond specifically to c/o after patients have, themselves, already revealed protected information, it would seem sensible to let the provider defend himself by also mentioning specific details, but I guess that is not the law. Very odd to me that HIPAA overseers don't impose those fines.

[cjcsoon2bnp, MSN, RN, NP]

This is a very interesting article, I never really considered that replying to a patient's negative comment/feedback by even acknowledging that they were a patient would be a privacy violation. I think the article provided some good ideas for responding without violating patient's privacy using general statements, I would probably use something like this...

"My staff and I remain committed to providing high-quality care and excellent customer service to all of our patients. In order to protect the privacy and confidentiality of sensitive healthcare information, I am unable to discuss specific details of any actual or potential patient in this forum. Patients may contact my office at (XXX) XXX-XXXX with any questions, concerns or feedback (positive or constructive) and my staff and I will be happy to address it in a timely manner."

I'm sure that an attorney well-versed in medical and HIPAA-related law would be able to pick apart my statement and tell me how it violates healthcare privacy statutes in some manner but I'm not sure any other way how you could professionally address negative or inflammatory postings other than to ignore them. This is definitely good food for thought and makes an interesting topic for discussion in terms of privacy, healthcare ethics and the use of technology.

!Chris