How to deal with bad online reviews

[LUCPM]

How do you all deal with bad online reviews? I have been told it's best to ignore but I feel some of these reviews are unwarranted/ unfair, which makes me feel pretty resentful. These bad reviews were from someone who I refused to fill narcotics for, someone who made a verbal threat towards my staff and got dismissed from practice, or someone who never mentioned anything during office visit, then complains about being "forced" to come in to get a referral.

I am finding out it's almost impossible to please everyone and I can't read everyone's mind but I sometimes wonder if it's something I do/say. I am relatively new in practice and would like to know how you guys mentally deal with such reviews (so that you don't become resentful) and how to prevent accruing such reviews.

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[Sardonix]

How do you all deal with bad online reviews? I have been told it's best to ignore but I feel some of these reviews are unwarranted/ unfair, which makes me feel pretty resentful. These bad reviews were from someone who I refused to fill narcotics for, someone who made a verbal threat towards my staff and got dismissed from practice, or someone who never mentioned anything during office visit, then complains about being "forced" to come in to get a referral.

I am finding out it's almost impossible to please everyone and I can't read everyone's mind but I sometimes wonder if it's something I do/say. I am relatively new in practice and would like to know how you guys mentally deal with such reviews (so that you don't become resentful) and how to prevent accruing such reviews.

Look, I think I get what's going on here. I obsess over feedback. During residency I was one of the few people who read our attendings' reivews from various rotations, which was honestly arbitrary and rarely helpful and I would obsess over little comments that ultimately had nothing to do with my patient care or success.

Fastforward to right now. You are, understandably, but mistakenly, reading online reviews. Allow me to point some things out (understanding I too am a new FM AND it is much easier for me to say these things to someone else, as I too clearly have my own insecurities):

1. Negative reviews online outnumber the positive, as do insane people with major grudges and personality disorders.
2. Related to #1, these reviews WILL be unfair and unwarranted. Some of shadier review sites demand bribes to take down such reviews or even post fake reviews themselves to trigger doctors into doing so.
3. Related to #2, google "Fake Dr Reviews" and there are several dozen articles about physicians/groups paying firms to write fake glowing reviews about them. If you see someone you know is a terrible doctor but they are 5/5 stars, maybe its fake.
4. Unless your Press Ganey scores are an abnormally large influence over your pay, you will be fine. Most of your income should come from salary or RVU production. If that is not the case, the bigger problem is you accepted a crappy contract allowing for this kind of exploitation.
5. You are FM. There is literally no where in the country where patients will not line out to door to see a PCP they can get in with.
6. Spoilers, some patients DO secretly hate you no matter what you do. You could be a 100% free doctor providing world-class care and resource access and someone would still complain your tie was wrong or you knock on the door too loud or don't smile enough as a woman.
7. The only real feedback you should care about includes things like:
   1. Input from mentors, colleagues, and direct clinical superiors
   2. Management/admin bringing you consistent patient complaints that are not insane or indicate a trend
   3. Specialists or ED/hospitalists routing you their notes with concerns or to simply keep you in the loop
   4. Peer review committee findings -- this is an obvious one, but your medical system should have some sort of review group that looks at procedural issues, patient complaints, safety concerns, legal threats etc. They will let you know if you are being looked at for something and they will alert you to findings.
8. Learning, CME, and studying is also obvious. But it's also a great way to compensate for knowledge insecurities if you're not letting it take over your life.
9. Remember that actually trying, caring/listening/validating your patients' concerns will make you already good enough for 90% of your patients.
10. For the patients that cannot be satisfied by #9, see #6.

 

[Ironheme]

How do you all deal with bad online reviews? I have been told it's best to ignore but I feel some of these reviews are unwarranted/ unfair, which makes me feel pretty resentful. These bad reviews were from someone who I refused to fill narcotics for, someone who made a verbal threat towards my staff and got dismissed from practice, or someone who never mentioned anything during office visit, then complains about being "forced" to come in to get a referral.

I am finding out it's almost impossible to please everyone and I can't read everyone's mind but I sometimes wonder if it's something I do/say. I am relatively new in practice and would like to know how you guys mentally deal with such reviews (so that you don't become resentful) and how to prevent accruing such reviews.

I can't really top Sardonix's advice, which is A+.

Usually takes about 2-3 years to filter out the truly unhappy patients, which will lead to less negative reviews. Trying to be a patient-pleaser can lead to being a worse physician. So you have to decide - do you take the bad reviews or being a bad doctor? I know which one I'd choose.

I typically try to limit negative feelings to 48 hours - I think about whether if it 1. was my fault 2. if I did my best. That usually helps.

Also, the nice Christmas/thank you cards I get from my grateful patients can significantly outweigh the negatives. These too will increase in 2-3 years for you if you're halfway decent. I keep those in a stack that I reread if I'm having a bad day.