Bert,
There is such a thing as slander. If a patient/person says something untrue and damaging to our reputation or practice, that is not protected by the constitution. We need to take action against these websites. I am surprised we allow these things to happen! Oh well, guess I am on some major rants lately, and I am just back from vacation!!!
I agree - and we had a recent victory against a libelous posting. Last month we fired an employee. During the 2 months she had worked for us, she had stolen hours (we have cameras with timestamps and she was warned), exhibited chronic absenteeism and tardiness, and was caught faking sick (for an entire week!) via her facebook posts (a staff member alerted us to it). The day we fired her (the Monday after the latest incident), she posted an anonymous review of our practice on several sites. We knew it was her - the content was malicious, defamatory, and false. We drafted a letter and had our attorney sign it and send it to her. She removed the reviews the same day she received the certified, return receipt letter from our attorney. A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.
It is a shame though that we had to expend so much time, energy, and money for something like this. The most sobering part is that she could have dragged the process out to the courts where we would have had to subpoena her ISP to prove it was actually her who wrote the review. We had luck on our side.
Like Bert, we too have had our share of negative reviews - all from discharged patients. I believe prospective patients can tell when somebody was in the wrong and they discount those reviews.
