Reputation Management - Medical Justice

Paid Reviews Cost Companies $175,000 Enforcement Action

August 15, 2024March 29, 2017 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Two companies have settled with the New York Attorney General’s Office after being accused of paying consumers for positive reviews by agreeing to increase their transparency and pay a total of $175,000. MedRite Care, LLC, a medical emergency care service, paid thousands of dollars to Internet advertising companies and freelance writers over a two-year period … Read more

The “Disruptive” Physician and the New Political Correctness

August 15, 2024September 26, 2014 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Guest post by Dr. Michael Rosenblatt. Dr. Rosenblatt is a retired podiatrist on the west coast.

Those older physicians reading this certainly know the World has changed, perhaps some of it for the better. If you served your residency years ago you will remember “disruptive” attendings. Sometimes our own student egos were publicly trashed with snide, cruel comments. You remember these people angrily react with RN and hospital employee staff. An incorrect instrument pass ended in the instrument flying through the air and smashing against the OR wall.

Times have changed for “disruptive” doctors. They more typically face the brunt of angry and anonymous complaints from nursing and hospital staff. These can lead to peer-review and even board actions against you. I think it’s labeled “toxic work environment.” Professional peer review is an onslaught you must avoid. There are no published rules for professional peer review. There are no safeguards for doctors on the wrong side. The only protections are for those who sit on the board.

Major Development at Google Places and Handling of Patient Reviews

August 15, 2024July 29, 2011 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Tom Seery, CEO, RealSelf

First announced in the technology blog techcrunch, Google made a significant change this week to the way patient reviews of doctors (and all local businesses) get displayed in Google Places. This has important implications for online doctor reputations.

Prior to this week, reviews from 3rd party sites were used to develop an aggregate number of postings and star rating for a doctor. Ratings were pulled in from services like Vitals, RateMD, HealthGrades, Yelp and dozens of others. Most SEO experts had posited that the reviews aggregated in a Google Places listing impacted a doctor’s ranking in Google search results. Hence, many doctors instituted programs where they asked patients to add reviews to these rating sites.

Rating Sites and the Worst Possible Interpretation Part II

August 15, 2024January 21, 2011 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

This is part II of Rating Sites Sometimes Err on the Side of the Worst Possible Interpretation Jeff Segal, MD, JD, FACS Doctor B.’s record was blemished on a separate rating site. The blemish: “Doctor B. was sanctioned in the past”; sanction being defined as actions taken to punish or restrict physicians who have demonstrated … Read more

Rating Sites Sometimes Err on the Side of the Worst Possible Interpretation

August 15, 2024January 19, 2011 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Doctor Rating Sites Sometimes Err on the Side of the Worst Possible Interpretation Jeff Segal, MD, JD, FACS These two vignettes involve real Medical Justice plan members; both talented physicians. Rating sites tarred these innocent bystanders, courtesy of their respective licensing Board of Medicines. Medical Justice helped set the record straight. Doctor A. is an … Read more

Recent Case Highlights the Importance of Protecting Your On-Line Reputation

August 15, 2024October 28, 2010 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Michael J. Sacopulos, Esq. Last month, a trial was conducted in Queens, NY. The facts of the case are not particularly unique and it was the type of trial that could be conducted in most courtrooms across our country on any given day. The judge instructed the jurors before the start of the civil trial … Read more

Three Things Every Doctor MUST Know About Medical Malpractice

August 15, 2024October 7, 2010 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Everyone knows that physicians are much more educated than most, knowledgeable of all the complex systems of the human body, how they work together, and what to do when those systems fail. But today’s doctor needs to know a lot more than that. He or she must also be a bit of an entrepreneur and manager, familiar with many aspects of business. Perhaps the most important non-medical aspect for a physician to become well versed in is risk management.

Here are three things that every doctor must know about medical malpractice:

Hey, Doc! Here’s The Cure For What Ails Ya!

August 15, 2024September 28, 2010 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

When people ask how things are going, it’s most often a polite habit, a rhetorical question. When a physician asks a patient that same question, they really do want and need to know. After all, how can a doctor diagnose and treat and cure anyone if they don’t know what’s wrong? It’s generally easier, more accurate and more efficient for the patient to provide the complaint. How can the doctor know what to fix if the patient doesn’t say what’s bothering?

It’s said that the doctor who treats himself has a fool for a patient. In this circumstance, though, we really don’t have much of a choice. But that doesn’t change the diagnostic method a bit. We still have to know what’s wrong with our healthcare system before we can fix it. “Fool for a patient” or not, we’re still the only ones that can do the job. So let’s go ahead and ask the question. How are you doing? What are your complaints? What ails ya?

Flawed Malpractice Insurance Profiling Affects 22% of Physicians

August 15, 2024September 12, 2010 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Medical Malpractice Insurance companies, employing a two-tier system to pigeonhole doctors by costs, have been demonstrated to inaccurately classify those physicians 22% of the time. (Rand Corp. Report, New England Journal of Medicine.)

“Consumers, physicians, and purchasers are all at risk of being misled by the results produced by these tools,” concluded the researchers who analyzed aggregated claims data for 2004 and 2005 from four Massachusetts insurance companies. Using “commercial software,” they looked at data from 12,789 physicians in 10 specialties and constructed “homogeneous episodes of care” to create cost profiles for healthcare episodes such as treatments for diabetes, heart attack or urinary tract infection.

Think Online Rep Doesn’t Matter? Think Again!

August 15, 2024July 27, 2010 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Most of us who live and work in the Real World barely have time to read email, let alone think of the Internet as having any serious impact on us. After all, that’s all just electronic, virtual reality. We operate in the tangible, corporeal world, right? Don’t be too sure about that. Many aspects of a physician’s career are intangible. The education, for example, is just represented by that piece of paper on the wall. The education itself is an intangible. One’s reputation is another essential, intangible asset. But with the Internet, your reputation (far more so than an education) has the potential to be in a constant state of flux. Even if you have 20 people saying how wonderful you are for every one person who claims you’re a quack, it’s still that one bad comment that is going to get the attention and ruin your reputation. It really should be expected, because the content patient doesn’t make it their life’s work to discredit you with their allegations. Remember, an allegation is all it takes. People think “Where there’s smoke, there must be some sort of fire,” so they move on a physician who may be nowhere near as highly experienced as you, but who also hasn’t had the chance to rack up any bad feedback yet. So you get the bad rep, and the new guy gets the patient.

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