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BUSINESS OF
MEDICINE
“Your primary audience will be new and existing patients,” he said. Kansas radiologist Milton Wolf, MD, a candidate for U.S. Senate
“But great website messaging speaks to all your audiences, including in 2014, got busted by The Topeka Capital-Journal for previously
referring physicians, spouses, staff, Google, etc. Perhaps consider ad- posting x-ray images of gunshot victims on his Facebook page,
dressing your charitable organizations and community outreach on “along with jokes about the deceased.” Dr. Wolf later apologized for
site. Figure out all of your audiences and then work backward to cre- the posts but lost in the primary to incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts (R-
ate a winning website experience for your website visitors.” Kan.).
What Not to Do Last August, Dr. Wolf claimed on his former campaign website
The Public Physician says two things define a doctor’s public pres- that the state Board of Healing Arts had ended an investigation into
the posts “without any findings of wrongdoing.” Confidentiality
ence: conversations and content. While “conversations are great,” prevented the ethics board from confirming to the Capital-
Dr. Vartabedian says, “content is better.” Journal whether it had exonerated Dr. Wolf, according to a story the
paper published later that month.
Get Social encourages physicians to join ongoing Twitter discus-
sions to express agreement or disagreement or to provide informa- Online reviews of physicians or practices on sites like Yelp or
tion that can add to the discussion, for example. Health Grades may tempt some physicians into negative online en-
“Be wary, though,” the book warns. “Far too many tweet- gagement. But Mr. Rach says one of the biggest mistakes
ers are hypersensitive to anyone who disagrees with physicians can make is to discount those reviews.
them, especially on controversial topics (and BrightLocal’s 2015 Local Consumer Review sur-
that can be anything from politics to college vey showed as many as 80 percent of re-
football). You’ll rarely win an argument spondents trust an online review as much
on Twitter.” as a personal recommendation.
“It can be easy for a doctor, espe-
Complaining about patients online cially an experienced one, to dismiss
is forbidden, and even mentioning reviews they don’t agree with. They
anything about a patient in an online may see an ill-informed review and
post is risky. In 2010, Westerly Hos- say something like ‘This isn’t the full
pital in Rhode Island fired Alexandra story’ or ‘This person doesn’t under-
Thran, MD, after she posted a com- stand the situation,’ or ‘This is unfair
ment online about an emergency de- and nobody should listen to this.’” Mr.
partment patient, according to a report Rach said. “To an extent, obviously, that’s
in The Boston Globe. Although Dr. Thran true, but that’s not the way it’s perceived in
didn’t mention the patient by name, patients’ minds.”
the Globe reported, the state medical board filing Instead of discounting a scathing online review, he
said her post contained enough identifying informa-
tion that others in the community could figure out the patient’s says, physicians should respond and do so apologetically. And
identity. The board reprimanded Dr. Thran and fined her $500. Get Social notes it’s a good idea for physicians to encourage satisfied
patients to post positive reviews online.
St. Louis obstetrician-gynecologist Amy Dunbar, MD, drew calls
for her firing from St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in early 2013 “If there is some kind of perceived grievance, no matter how vit-
after she vented on Facebook about an unnamed mother-to-be who riolic the comments get, no matter how viciously they come after
Dr. Dunbar said was three hours late for her induction. Dr. Dunbar you — respond. Respond courteously, and whatever you do, don’t
ended her post by asking Facebook readers, “May I show up late to retaliate,” he said. “Say something like, ‘I’m sorry you feel this way;
her delivery?” She later added a comment that she was tolerating the we’re doing everything we can to make [your] experience better.’
patient’s lateness because the patient had a “prior stillbirth.” And then say something specific, like ‘If you like, we’d love to try
and make this right. Here’s our number; please call us. We’ll do
Dr. Dunbar’s posts generated anger from other social media users, whatever we can.’”
some of whom argued her disclosure of a previous failed pregnancy
violated patient privacy. St. John’s Mercy condemned her comments Physicians also have to be aware of Texas Medical Board restric-
as “definitely inappropriate,” according to reports, but later released tions on advertising their practices. (See “TMB’s Advertising
a statement saying it had confirmed she hadn’t violated privacy laws. Rules.”)
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