A ProPublica/Washington Post story
last May detailed instances in which health care practices fought back against online reviews and appeared to violate HIPAA in doing so. Marisa Speed, the mother of a 3-year-old, posted a review of Phoenix’s North Valley Plastic Surgery several years ago after her son received stitches for a gash on his chin. Ms. Speed wrote that the physician “seemed flus- tered with my crying child” halfway through the procedure, then “ended up throwing the instruments on the floor. I understand that dealing with kids requires extra effort, but if you don’t like to do it, don’t even welcome them.” An employee for North Valley re- sponded online: “This patient pre- sented in an agitated and uncontrolla- ble state. Despite our best efforts, this patient was screaming, crying, incon- solable, and a danger to both himself and to our staff. As any parent that has raised a young boy knows, they have the strength to cause harm.” That response prompted Ms. Speed
to complain to the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The office declined to undertake a formal investigation but sent North Valley’s privacy officer a letter asking the practice to examine the situation and ensure compliance. OCR told the practice it “may wish to remove any specific information about current or former patients from your web-blog.” OCR told Ms. Speed if North Valley “fails or refuses to take steps to address this concern,” it may need to contact her as part of a formal investigation. Writing a quick online response to
a positive review is good practice, the Online Reputation book says, but to stay HIPAA-compliant, ask patients for their permission to respond be- fore posting. The book says physicians can re-
spond generally to negative reviews in a public forum without violating pa- tient privacy laws if they’re respond- ing to complaints about aspects of the visit, such as wait times or inadequate
March 2017 TEXAS MEDICINE 37
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