We used to be deferent. Put us in a room with professionals or business leaders, and we were properly respectful, bowing and scraping for any crumbs falling from their buffet tables. It was socially acceptable to complain about the plumber. This was a working man and his reputation meant nothing. There were teams of high-powered attorneys lining up to threaten defamation actions if you were to suggest one of their high-status clients was anything less than perfect. Then along came the internet and, suddenly, there was an outpouring of complaints about everyone, regardless of their status. Although most people reserve their anger for the more popular services and products, an increasing number have been prepared to suggest equally poor standards from those offering more exclusive services.
This has produced a paranoia in health care industryand, when health professioanls work with attorneys to introduce legal practices to defend their interests. The Tufts University School of Medicine published an interesting research in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. The research examined 33 websites carrying reviews of doctors and dentists working in Boston. Almost 90% of the reviews have been found positive. Where there were complaints, they tended to be about the administrative side of the practice, e.g. difficult with parking. Many doctors have been complaining they cannot respond to user’s questions because of doctor/patient confidentiality. This is about medical privacy concern doesn’ touch the professional side. It seems the Boston medical establishment can sleep well. The reserach doesn’t help us to make an opinion about all the country, but it sugges the professional concerns are somehow childish as they seem to wish not to be criticized at all.
Anywau, it has been in free speech issues that some doctors have been insisting their patients sign agreements limiting the publication of any comments about their treatment online and by electronic devices. This is rather ineffective as no legal action is available against the ISPs or the webportals hosting the comments, which the most part ignore the doctors’s notices. So attorneys have been threatening individuals with actions for defamation and breach of contract where they have signed confidentiality agreements.
Having to sign such agreements when you come to a hospital is annoying unless you have specialized legal advice when the threats arrive. The intention, of course, is to deter as many people as possible from posting any reviews of doctors and dentists. In this, the companies providig your health insurance policy could play a significant role. As most customers sign non-disclosure agreements insurers threats-to-free-speech.html in investigations when dentists or doctors are proved not to deliver efficient service. The whole point of health insurance policy is to provide easy access to effective treatment, so the doctors in blame are to have legal proceedings with the insurers.
