If you are a Healthcare Organization with a “Review” subsection on your Facebook Business Page then I strongly recommend you remove it
For some products – such as running shoes, camcorders, or new ipad – a Review Section can provide great feedback and demonstrate an organizational transparency.
However, for the highly emotional ecosystem dealing with people’s health this is a false narrative.
Let’s face it, your sick Grandma is not pair of tennis shoes.
Your spouse having a heart attack is not a camcorder purchase.
Your 2 year-old toddler with a 104 fever is not an iPad OS.
Healthcare service is highly charged emotionally, and the reviews will reflect that, generally being highly positive (5+) or highly negative (1+).
Although the administration leadership and and the marketing department will feel quite content looking at an average review of 4.3 stars, the physicians who are being defamed with the 1+ reviews won’t feel so great. (If you are a healthcare executive, then spend 10 minutes reviewing these 1+ reviews; you will be horrified).
Which begs the question: If a patient posts a legally defamatory comment on your Facebook review section, what is the organization’s liability for doing this?
Certainly this should be discussed with your attorneys; hopefully they will say you are covered legally by the The Community Decency Act, but that’s between you and them.
However ethically, you could well be an “Employee Defamation Enabler”.
Let’s face it, unless you are willing to take patients to court for libel, or are actively and aggressively pursuing Facebook’s defamation remedies (which may just aggravate the underlying patient situation even more), you are passively allowing your physicians to be defamed.
Hey, if you really want negative feedback to improve performance, then put a big button on your homepage and ask for it privately, but stop helping people attack your employees publicly on Facebook!
Anyway, save yourself legal and HR entanglements with patients AND physician employees and remove your Facebook Review section.
Addendum: A note to the inevitable “Transparency” adovocates. Real transparency is a two way street: it’s a window, not a one way mirror. HIPPA doesn’t allow for public transparency.