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Five years ago, Kay Dean was based at Yale! And Google will rate it on your local doctor search. After finding a doctor with very high reviews, Dean is shocked to find that her personal experience is far worse than that of patients on review forums.
Kay Dean
Drawing on her experience, Dean, a former federal government investigator, became a skeptic and applied her skills to all aspects of the investigation. She said the practice had a review from an individual who participated in Facebook’s review business group, where companies publicly sell their services through fake positive reviews.
“I’ve discovered that the online review world is full of fake reviews, more than I think most people realize…and law enforcement regulators are doing nothing to address the problem,” Dean said. “In this online space, it’s the wild west; cheating is rewarded.”
Dean decides to take matters into her own hands. She created a fake review YouTube channel where she exposes real businesses and their attempts to trick consumers with fake positive reviews.
For example, one video analyzes several five-star reviews of an orthopedic surgeon in Manhattan. Through her detailed analysis, Dean created a spreadsheet of 26 orthopedic surgeon patients who provided glowing reviews. She looked at other businesses the individuals had left reviews for and found a significant amount of overlap.
According to the video, 19 of the doctor’s reviewers left high reviews for the same moving company in Las Vegas and 18 reviewed the same locksmith in Texas. In total, eight of the patients reviewed the same mover, lock and hotel in New Zealand.
A matter of trust
Dean noted the severity of this phenomenon, especially in healthcare, as patients often go online first when looking for care options. According to a Software Advice study, 84% of patients use online reviews to evaluate a doctor and 77% use review sites as the first step in finding a doctor.
In recent years, especially following the pandemic, patient trust has been on the decline. In the year In terms of health care worldwide in 2021 by country, the US health care system ranks 19th, far below that of many developing countries.
Due to the rise of fake patient reviews and their unverifiable nature, Dean recommends avoiding online review forums. Instead, she suggests following the old method of getting recommendations from friends and relatives, not imaginary people.
Dean explained a few indicators to look for when trying to spot a fake review.
“The business has all five-star reviews, negative reviews are followed by five-star reviews, or the business has an odd number of positive reviews in a short period of time,” she said. “Some businesses try to bury legitimate negative reviews by finding very recent, fake, positive ones. Recent reviews contradict specific criticisms in a negative review.”
She cautions consumers not to trust reviews just because the reviewer is labeled “Elite” or Google Local Guide, as she has seen many individuals post fake reviews.
Unfortunately, review forums aren’t doing much self-policing. Google and HealthGrades have consistent policies against false engagement, impersonation, misrepresentation, and misrepresentation. However, the only consequence of these violations is the removal of assessment.
Both Yelp! And Google claims they have automated software that can distinguish between real and fake reviews. When Yelp! It will flag users who engaged in compensatory review activity, remove their reviews, close their accounts, and block those users from creating future Yelp! Accounts.
According to doctors
Moreover, physicians who purchase fake reviews create an unfair environment for physicians who choose to be ethical and honest with patients.
“I think there’s an erosion of business ethics because fraud is rewarded. You can’t compete in an environment where your competition is allowed to accumulate so many fake reviews while still trying to fill seats in your business,” Dean said. Your competition is getting the business because tech companies allow this fraud.
Family physician and practice owner Mike Woo-Ming, MD, MPH, provides professional training for physicians, including reputation maintenance – in person and online. He’s seen doctors personally blurt out their own five-star reviews as well as post negative reviews of their competition.
“I can see where a lot of practices are going to lose business because they’ve been affected by Covid,” he said. “Business owners can get discouraged and decide to start posting or buying reviews because they know people are choosing certain services based on reviews these days.”
Wo-Ming expresses his dismay at doctors who buy fake reviews.
To encourage genuine positive reviews, Woo-Ming’s practice uses a third-party app that sends patients a series of emails or texts asking about their experience with links to review sites.
“Honest reviews are a reflection of what I can do to improve my business. At the end of the day, if you are really providing good service and helping people by providing high quality medical care, those will win,” he said. “As a responsible practice owner, I choose to improve the patient experience and outcomes.”
Frankie Rowland is a freelance writer based in Atlanta.
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