Patient Reviews: How Healthcare Providers Can Manage Them

Patient reviews are the ratings and comments patients post about doctors, dentists, clinics and hospitals on sites such as Google, Healthgrades, Zocdoc, WebMD, Vitals, Yelp and Facebook. To manage them well, keep your profiles accurate, invite every patient to share honest feedback as part of routine follow-up, reply (if at all) without confirming that anyone is your patient, and report reviews that break a site’s rules. Under HIPAA, a reply that reveals someone’s patient status or health information can be a violation, even if the patient posted those details first.

This guide is for physicians, dentists, practice managers and marketing staff at healthcare organizations of any size.

Why patient reviews matter

Choosing a doctor feels high-stakes, and many patients look for reassurance online before booking, especially for a new specialist, a dentist after a move, or a procedure they’re anxious about. Your Google Business Profile and your listings on healthcare review sites are often the first things they see when they search your name or your practice.

Reviews also carry information that insurance directories don’t: whether the provider listens, how long the wait is, whether the front desk calls back, how billing questions are handled. Those details shape a patient’s choice as much as credentials do.

For a comparison of the main platforms, see our guide to doctor review sites. If Healthgrades is a priority, our Healthgrades reviews guide covers that site in detail.

Where patients leave reviews

Platform	What it’s used for	What you can do
Google	Often the most visible reviews, shown in search and Maps	Claim your Business Profile, reply, report policy violations
Healthgrades	Provider profiles built from public data, with patient ratings	Claim and correct your profile, report violations
Zocdoc	Booking platform with reviews from patients who booked through it	Manage your listing as a Zocdoc provider
WebMD and Vitals	Provider directories with ratings	Claim or correct listings where offered
Yelp and Facebook	General review sites, common for dentists, urgent care and clinics	Claim pages, reply, report violations

Features on each site change, so check each platform’s current provider tools. Start with the ones that rank for your name: search your own name and practice and note which sites appear on the first page.

Step 1: Claim and correct your profiles

Many provider profiles are created automatically from public data, which means errors are common: old addresses, retired colleagues listed at your practice, the wrong specialty or out-of-date insurance lists. Wrong information causes missed appointments and frustrated patients, which then turns into poor reviews.

1. List every profile for each provider and location, including duplicates.
2. Claim each one using the site’s provider or business option. Many verify you using professional details such as an NPI number.
3. Correct names, locations, phone numbers, hours, specialties, insurance and whether you’re accepting new patients.
4. Add a professional photo and a short, plain bio.
5. Give a practice manager access so updates don’t depend on physicians’ time.

Step 2: Ask every patient for honest feedback

A practice that sees many patients a week but has a handful of reviews is at the mercy of whoever is most upset. The fix is volume from routine asking, not selective asking.

• Make it routine. A line in the post-visit text or email, sent to all patients, with a direct link to your Google or preferred review profile.
• Don’t filter. Sending review links only to patients who scored you highly on a survey is review gating. Google’s policies prohibit it, and FTC guidance warns that selectively soliciting only positive reviews can mislead consumers.
• No incentives. The FTC’s 2024 rule on consumer reviews bans incentives conditioned on positive reviews, and most review sites don’t allow incentivized reviews at all.
• Keep requests free of clinical details. “Thanks for visiting” is fine; “We hope your knee surgery recovery is going well” in a text message is not.
• Use compliant channels. Check with your compliance lead that the tool you use to send review requests is set up appropriately for your HIPAA obligations.

Thank you for visiting Oak Street Dental. We’d welcome your honest feedback about your visit: [link]. If there’s anything we could have done better, please call our office manager directly.

For more wording ideas, see our review request text message templates.

Step 3: Respond to patient reviews within HIPAA

This is where healthcare differs most from other industries. The HIPAA Privacy Rule prohibits covered healthcare providers from disclosing protected health information without authorization, and that includes confirming that a person is or was your patient. The HHS Office for Civil Rights has taken enforcement action against practices whose replies to online reviews disclosed patient information.

That means a reply like “We’re sorry you were unhappy with your root canal on Tuesday” is risky, even if the reviewer described the root canal in their review. So is “We remember you” or “Our records show you missed two appointments”.

A safe reply to a negative review

We take all feedback seriously and are committed to respectful, timely care for everyone who contacts us. Privacy laws prevent us from discussing any individual’s care online. We’d welcome the chance to talk; please call our practice manager at the office.

A safe reply to a positive review

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We appreciate it.

Some practices post a general reply to the review describing their policies, such as how they handle wait times or billing questions, without referring to the reviewer at all. Others choose not to reply publicly and instead address recurring themes in the practice itself. Either approach can be sensible. What matters is that nothing in the reply confirms the relationship.

Step 4: Handle unfair or fake patient reviews

You can’t delete reviews, but you can report ones that break a platform’s rules. Reviews that commonly qualify include those with threats, hate speech or profanity, personal information about staff or other patients, clear conflicts of interest (such as a competitor or former employee posing as a patient), spam, and reviews about a different provider.

When you report, don’t disclose health information in your explanation. Stick to the policy the review appears to break. For Google, our guide on removing fake Google reviews covers the reporting process.

A review you believe is false and damaging may raise a defamation question. Talk to a lawyer before doing anything, and be aware that suing a patient over a review can draw far more attention than the review did. Section 230 generally shields review sites from liability for what users post, which is why platforms rarely remove content just because a provider objects.

Using patient testimonials in marketing

Featuring patient reviews or stories on your website, in ads or on social media is different from receiving reviews on a third-party site. Using a patient’s identity or health information in your own marketing generally requires the patient’s written HIPAA authorization, and state rules and professional boards may add further limits. Talk to your compliance lead before republishing any patient review, even a glowing public one. Our guide to displaying reviews on your website covers the practical side.

A worked example: a two-location family practice

This is an illustrative scenario. A family practice with two locations has strong reviews at one office and poor reviews at the other, mostly about phones not being answered. The office manager has been replying to each negative review with an explanation of the patient’s visit.

1. The practice stops the detailed replies immediately and reviews past replies with its compliance lead, editing any that reference visits or treatment.
2. It claims and corrects every profile for both locations and removes a retired physician still listed at the second office.
3. It adds a review link to the standard post-visit text sent to all patients at both locations.
4. It fixes the underlying problem, adding a call-back system at the busy location, and uses a general, policy-based reply for new reviews that mention phones.

Over several months, the busier location’s reviews become more mixed and more recent, and fewer mention the phones. Nothing was removed; the profile simply started reflecting more patients.

Common mistakes

• Explaining the clinical side in a reply. Well-meant, but a potential HIPAA violation.
• Asking only after good visits. That’s review gating.
• Having staff or family post reviews. These are fake reviews under the FTC rule.
• Threatening reviewers. It rarely works and often becomes a bigger story.
• Ignoring recurring themes. If several reviews mention billing surprises, the fix is in the billing process.

For practices and health systems that want help, our healthcare reputation management page explains how we work within HIPAA, and our review management service covers compliant request systems and reply drafting.

Frequently asked questions

Can a doctor respond to a patient review?

Yes, but carefully. A reply must not confirm that the reviewer is a patient or mention any detail of their care. A general statement about your policies and an invitation to contact the office is the safe approach. Some practices choose not to reply publicly at all.

Is it a HIPAA violation to reply to a review?

Replying isn’t a violation in itself. Disclosing protected health information in the reply is, and that can include confirming the person was treated at your practice. HHS has taken enforcement action against providers over review replies, so keep replies general.

Can I remove a bad patient review?

Not if it’s a genuine opinion about a real experience. You can report reviews that break a site’s rules, such as fake reviews, conflicts of interest or reviews containing personal information, and the platform decides whether to remove them.

Can I put patient reviews on my website?

Using a patient’s identity or health information in your own marketing generally requires their written HIPAA authorization, and professional or state rules may add limits. Check with your compliance lead before republishing any review, including public ones.