Social Media Review thread

[Cideous]

Oh yes, social media reviews.  Google, Yelp...you know the ones.  Every practice gets them.  I was wondering just how much importance your company/practice gives to them?  I get a "social media update" every week that reads like a horror show blasting the providers for not "meeting the expectations of the patients needs....".  

 

Anyone else?  Oh...and our productivity bonus is now tied directly to the number of stars given on social media reviews.  So....yea.

[thinkertdm]

What the administration doesn't realize is that, unlike the service desk at Walmart, our job many times conflicts with what the patient wants.  We want to practice medicine, backed up by science, research and facts.  They want stars posted by idiots who think a sore throat is cured by a zpack, will post bad reviews if they don't get what they want, and will sue when they get c diff.  These are people who can't use a "temperature taking thing", want prescriptions for ibuprofen, and don't give their kids medicine for their 103F fever because they think the clinic will do it.  

I have reached my breaking point, both with my "guests" and the administration who makes me grovel for their happiness.  To prospective applicants: if you think you are getting into this to make a difference, wait until your first Yelp review.  

On the shelf behind me is a bottle whisky, I don't know how old but I assume it's good because there's no e.  It was given to me by a guy I found a testicular cancer in, he had surgery in two days.  That's the only star I need, knowing that a life was made better because I was there.  So suck it, administration.

[sas5814]

^^This!

 

It has reached the point that I told my medical director I wouldn't respond to any more patient complaints unless it alleged improper medical care. "I'm not happy" doesn't make the cut. He says if I don't reply then it stays unresolved in the system eternally and admin becomes a big PIA about it so I just write "sorry" and send it back. I'm not wasting my time answering stupid complaints. They are patients not customers. I'm going to take my satisfaction from the 99.9% that go home happy and educated about their ills and not lose any sleep over fools and morons.

Just this morning we got a complaint. A patient claimed to have lost consciousness for an unknown amount of time. She called her NP/PCP who told her to go to the UC. When she arrived the nurse, following a script I wrote and we all now use, told her we will be happy to see her but there is a high probability we will send her to the ER because we don't have the tools to do the workup she needs.(This doesn't apply to anyone with urgent or emergent problems). Pt states "I'm not going to the ER!" and leaves. Then she calls her buddy the NP and tells this long lie about us refusing to see her and refusing to let her talk to the doctor.. The NP then sends a blistering email to our admin because she is shocked! and outraged! that this patient was refused care without so much as an evaluation. So patient is a moron. The NP is a moron. 10 people have to take time out of their busy days to deal with this nonsense. My reply? "It didn't happen." Asked  if I am calling the patient a liar I answer "yes". End of conversation....other than the one I'll be having with the NP that was too busy to see her own patient, doesn't know the difference between an urgent care and an ER, and think escalation of unfounded patient complaints is a great way to do business.

 

So do you want to work in a place where your pay and continued employment is determined by YELP reviews from people like this?

[Cideous]

Yea the place I work would have fired you on the spot.  Every patient must be brought back, charged an office visit and THEN sent to the ER.  The pound of flesh must come first.  What's written above is my everyday.  Not some days....everyday.  Practice by YELP.  To some who might not believe the above posts including mine, work in a corp UC and see.  It is exactly as described and yes....referring to patients as "guests" is just flat out wrong.

[EMEDPA]

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1108766

bottom line: patients who always get what they want die sooner than those who do not...

[mgriffiths]

There's another thread on here regarding salary and in reviewing it I was a bit disappointed (in myself) that my salary seems to be a bit lower on the spectrum.  After reading this and thinking through what a lot of medicine has become I'm not as down.  I work in a physician owned primary care clinic (mostly FM, but we do have a few IM docs and 1 peds), and it is so refreshing to have support.  I started a thread a few months ago after one of the NPs (not a comment about NPs in general, she just is/was an NP) was fired for ridiculous controlled substance prescribing and downright malpractice (i.e. telling patients to take their percocet and xanax together and chase with a shot of whiskey - at least 5 patients have told me this).  Since taking over her patient panel I have fired 86...yes, that is 86, patients.  That is in just under 4 months, and these are all controlled substance patients.  Our clinic policy is to see any patient prescribed controlled substances every 3 months without exception...86 patients, that's a lot of revenue - especially when controlled substance patients end up being seen much more often than every 3 months on top of it.  The result - I'm actually getting a bonus and several attaboys from the providers and clinic coordinators for cleaning up her mess.  I could only imagine how corporate medicine would handle that situation...I pray that I never end up in corporate medicine and thank my lucky stars that I make a decent salary in a job I don't hate.  Yeah, it sucks sometimes, but overall is good.

[CAdamsPAC]

12 hours ago, sas5814 said:

^^This!

 

It has reached the point that I told my medical director I wouldn't respond to any more patient complaints unless it alleged improper medical care. "I'm not happy" doesn't make the cut. He says if I don't reply then it stays unresolved in the system eternally and admin becomes a big PIA about it so I just write "sorry" and send it back. I'm not wasting my time answering stupid complaints. They are patients not customers. I'm going to take my satisfaction from the 99.9% that go home happy and educated about their ills and not lose any sleep over fools and morons.

Just this morning we got a complaint. A patient claimed to have lost consciousness for an unknown amount of time. She called her NP/PCP who told her to go to the UC. When she arrived the nurse, following a script I wrote and we all now use, told her we will be happy to see her but there is a high probability we will send her to the ER because we don't have the tools to do the workup she needs.(This doesn't apply to anyone with urgent or emergent problems). Pt states "I'm not going to the ER!" and leaves. Then she calls her buddy the NP and tells this long lie about us refusing to see her and refusing to let her talk to the doctor.. The NP then sends a blistering email to our admin because she is shocked! and outraged! that this patient was refused care without so much as an evaluation. So patient is a moron. The NP is a moron. 10 people have to take time out of their busy days to deal with this nonsense. My reply? "It didn't happen." Asked  if I am calling the patient a liar I answer "yes". End of conversation....other than the one I'll be having with the NP that was too busy to see her own patient, doesn't know the difference between an urgent care and an ER, and think escalation of unfounded patient complaints is a great way to do business.

 

So do you want to work in a place where your pay and continued employment is determined by YELP reviews from people like this?

I'm here to practice good medicine. If a patient is unhappy with good medicine, they shouldn't come see me. If they want feel good, happy faced, touchy feely care,topped off with inappropriate ABX or controlled substance scripts, they will be very disappointed. Yes the "Suits" don't like me and I don't care, because they won't be in front of the State Medical Board telling them that making patients happy is what really matters!!

[CAAdmission]

9 hours ago, EMEDPA said:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/1108766

bottom line: patients who always get what they want die sooner than those who do not...

Good! Hopefully we can get rid of most of them before they reproduce. 

Our society is collapsing due to the all the specialization. By this I mean everyone being brought up being told they are "special," their opinion matters to everyone, they have a right to live a life free from ever being offended, etc. 

[MCHAD]

This makes me grateful for good administrators!  We have started doing satisfaction surveys on every patient and this was a concern from all of our providers when it was introduced.  Our executive director said basically “when we get good feedback from 99% of our patients I feel like the 1% that aren’t happy are welcome to go somewhere else”

[mmiller3]

24 minutes ago, MCHAD said:

This makes me grateful for good administrators!  We have started doing satisfaction surveys on every patient and this was a concern from all of our providers when it was introduced.  Our executive director said basically “when we get good feedback from 99% of our patients I feel like the 1% that aren’t happy are welcome to go somewhere else”

This must be nice. Administration here is...interesting. Our Press-Ganey scores are posted under our online profiles and updated every month. We have to fight tooth and nail to get any ridiculous reviews taken off, which rarely happens. I received a negative review last month by a patient who alleged that I worsened their knee pain as a result of examining their knee, and that a real doctor would have known what was wrong without making it worse. Yep, that little gem is on my permanent review page.

The constant struggle to see as many patients as you can (RVU-based salary, of course), coupled with fighting the local HMO for approval for everything, and then factoring in that part of my "bonus" (i.e. money they don't take from me) is derived from Press-Ganey scores, is why I f*&*ing hate medicine these days.

[Cideous]

11 hours ago, mmiller3 said:

This must be nice. Administration here is...interesting. Our Press-Ganey scores are posted under our online profiles and updated every month. We have to fight tooth and nail to get any ridiculous reviews taken off, which rarely happens. I received a negative review last month by a patient who alleged that I worsened their knee pain as a result of examining their knee, and that a real doctor would have known what was wrong without making it worse. Yep, that little gem is on my permanent review page.

The constant struggle to see as many patients as you can (RVU-based salary, of course), coupled with fighting the local HMO for approval for everything, and then factoring in that part of my "bonus" (i.e. money they don't take from me) is derived from Press-Ganey scores, is why I f*&*ing hate medicine these days.

Ya know, just when I think I've seen it all.  They actually post your NEG reviews under your profile???  Am I reading that right?  That can not be right.  If yes, then that is honestly one of the shittiest things I have ever read.....Mercy.

[mmiller3]

9 hours ago, Cideous said:

Ya know, just when I think I've seen it all.  They actually post your NEG reviews under your profile???  Am I reading that right?  That can not be right.  If yes, then that is honestly one of the shittiest things I have ever read.....Mercy.

Yep. They post every review.

[south]

21 hours ago, mmiller3 said:

The constant struggle to see as many patients as you can (RVU-based salary, of course), coupled with fighting the local HMO for approval for everything, and then factoring in that part of my "bonus" (i.e. money they don't take from me) is derived from Press-Ganey scores, is why I f*&*ing hate medicine these days.

Crikey.  Boogie shoes dusted off?

[Boatswain2PA]

On 1/26/2018 at 7:46 AM, mmiller3 said:

Yep. They post every review.

You should post your info here, we will all leave ridiculously good reviews for you!

[Miaow]

A patient called the other day to complain about me.

I think, "Okay, sure, I'm not perfect. What did I do to upset this person?"

As it turns out, I didn't wash my hands long enough. She timed me. I didn't scrub my hands for a full 2 minutes before touching her.

She told the nurse manager that she is going to post this on social media and let every one know how negligent I am.

This is the power she holds over me.

[mgriffiths]

11 hours ago, Miaow said:

I didn't scrub my hands for a full 2 minutes before touching her.

Good grief, if I washed my hands for a full 2 minutes before every patient I would literally have no skin left and slowly just be washing my bones clean!

[thinkertdm]

I see 36 patients a day, wash my hands 72 times.  If I washed for two minutes, that's two hours a day washing my hands.  Surgeons don't wash that much.  Just wipe your hands on your shirt.  

[Miaow]

Clearly this person was an outlier. Interestingly, she kept hammering on the fact that she is a nurse and knows the rules about hand washing (!!!) and that JCAHO was going to ding us on my unsanitary hand washing practices. So, maybe somewhere online she had devoted an entire rant to what a slovenly heathen I am, who knows. I try not to Google myself to read reviews, I'll save that for a day I'm feeling WAY too good about myself and need to be knocked down a few pegs. ?

[CAAdmission]

1 hour ago, Miaow said:

Clearly this person was an outlier. Interestingly, she kept hammering on the fact that she is a nurse

Oh good. One of them. Another know-it-all with an uncanny ability to second guess everyone else while not having the brass ovaries go into a profession which would require her to make decisions and live with the consequences.

Screw backseat drivers. Especially when they are OCD.

[Cideous]

Ridiculous....people like that I'd like to smack until they Yelp!

[mmiller3]

On 1/29/2018 at 8:21 PM, Boatswain2PA said:

You should post your info here, we will all leave ridiculously good reviews for you!

Lol. I appreciate it, but it is all based on anonymous surveys sent out to random patients after they have been seen. I would encourage all my friendly patients to leave reviews if it was simply patient-generated.

[akjean]

I so appreciate this thread!

Just had a practice admin want me to "call to put the touchy feel goods to it and just ask if there were any questions left unanswered" regarding a negative patient review. 

 

 Nope. Nope. NOPE. Complete nonsense. If I did something clinically that the patient had questions or concern about, that's one thing. My review was that the patient just didn't get a good vibe from me. Go figure. 

 

[Cideous]

4 hours ago, akjean said:

I so appreciate this thread!

Just had a practice admin want me to "call to put the touchy feel goods to it and just ask if there were any questions left unanswered" regarding a negative patient review. 

 

 Nope. Nope. NOPE. Complete nonsense. If I did something clinically that the patient had questions or concern about, that's one thing. My review was that the patient just didn't get a good vibe from me. Go figure. 

 

Your welcome!  :)

[benjaminhopper]

Well, there's nothing wrong in social media in particular, I think. To use or not - it's an individual issue. I find Instagram the most appropriate thing for me as it helps to promote any business or personality really fast. There are many tools for using along with Instagram, for example https://zen-promo.com/instagram_ghosts_cleaning this bot.