obesity<\/a> medicine and family medicine, and provides services through MyObesityTeam while seeing patients remotely through Amwell. She said clinicians take patient relationships seriously, and that\u2019s why it hits hard.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s very disheartening to see negative reviews,\u201d she said. \u201cMost healthcare providers want to do their best for patients and put in extra effort to ensure patients feel well cared for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenneth W. Kooser, MD, a family medicine specialist with Providence Medical Group in Lacey, Washington, said negative comments can feel intensely personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhysicians are humans, too, and I think my response when I read a negative review is probably similar to many,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is easy to take negative reviews personally and feel hurt or despondent or misunderstood. In primary care, we try to really connect with our patients, and reading a negative review can feel like a personal attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown said that she does try to consider the context of a negative review when she receives one.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome patients are unhappy no matter what we do,\u201d Brown said. \u201cIf the patient has a legitimate issue with me or my office, it\u2019s best to reach out and discuss the problem with the patient. Typically, patients who give negative reviews have expectations that aren\u2019t met, such as receiving a prescription for an antibiotic for a viral illness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kooser said it\u2019s common for clinicians to give disproportionate weight to negative comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is easy to focus on the one or two negative reviews and overlook the dozens or hundreds of positive reviews many of us receive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Systems, Structures, and the Challenges of Fixing Mistakes<\/p>\n
Jesse P. Houghton, MD, senior medical director of Gastroenterology at Southern Ohio Medical Center Gastroenterology Associates in Portsmouth, Ohio, said his practice has made changes in response to patient reviews \u2014 perhaps not even consciously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say this occurs without us even realizing it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut yes, if there are changes that can be made based upon alerts from patient feedback, then we should do our best to initiate these changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ht-251211-kenneth-w-120x156.jpg\")
Kenneth W. Kooser, MD<\/p>\n
Kooser said that inaccurate reviews have been a challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had one online review that was factually inaccurate and painted my practice in a bad light,\u201d he said. \u201cTrying to get this addressed or removed turned out to be almost impossible, which honestly discouraged me from trying in the future. We are fortunate that we have public affairs experts who collate our online reviews and provide them on our Providence website.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kooser said that he does not check his online reviews regularly, nor does his staff, but said that feedback is reviewed internally. Brown said she keeps tabs on her own reviews, as \u201cstaff is overburdened as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Best Practices: Managing Reviews Without Burning Out<\/p>\n
Based on Tebra\u2019s findings, Marasco recommended a structured but manageable approach to online feedback. He said practices should start by claiming and updating their profiles on the platforms patients actually use.<\/p>\n
He encouraged requesting reviews consistently through automated prompts, such as post-visit texts or emails. He said responses should rely on safe, empathetic language that acknowledges concerns without defensiveness. Rather than reacting to every comment, he said practices should track patterns in feedback and use those trends to guide operational improvements. He also advised using technology that automates monitoring and sentiment analysis to help protect staff workload and reduce burnout.<\/p>\n
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ht-251211-jesse-p-houghton-120x156.jpg\")
Jesse P. Houghton, MD<\/p>\n
Kooser encouraged clinicians to remember that positive feedback matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the vast majority of providers, the positive reviews far outweigh the negative ones,\u201d he said. \u201cI would encourage my fellow providers to not just brush over the positive ones but to take them to heart and realize that your patients appreciate what you are doing for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said negative reviews should be met with reflection rather than self-blame.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would try to minimize my emotional response but instead focus on actionable corrections such as improving workflows or reevaluating communication techniques,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Brown offered similar advice.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as I feel like I am practicing quality medicine in accordance with established standards of care, I try not to worry too much about bad reviews,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Bottom Line<\/p>\n
The Tebra study confirmed that reviews are now a central part of medical practice \u2014 influencing access, trust, workflow, well-being, and financial health.<\/p>\n
Indeed, Houghton said reviews are inevitable.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in a digital world, and so any business is going to have to deal with online reviews, so we cannot fight this \u2014 we need to first accept this fact,\u201d he said. \u201cI would also say that it is okay to be concerned about our online reputation; in fact, we should be somewhat stressed about it, it\u2019s what keeps us on our toes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a patient leaves a review, it\u2019s easy to think of it as digital noise \u2014 a single…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[102659,102660,102657,21390,102658,103,397,396,61,60,102656,102669,102661,102663,102666,102667,102662,102664,102668,102665,18416],"class_list":["post-191126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-balancing-career-and-personal-life","tag-balancing-personal-and-professional-life","tag-burn-out","tag-burnout","tag-clinician-health-and-well-being","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-physician-burnout","tag-physician-happiness","tag-physician-health","tag-physician-mental-health","tag-physician-relationships","tag-physician-resilience","tag-physician-well-being","tag-physician-wellness","tag-resilience-for-medical-professionals","tag-well-being-for-physicians","tag-work-life-balance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ht-251211-kevin-marasco-120x156.jpg\")
Kevin Marasco<\/p>\n![\"photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/ht-251211-jennifer-brown-120x156.jpg\")
Jennifer Brown, MD<\/p>\n