Athena Consulting: Dental Practice Solutions

As professionals, using a website to bring new patients to your practice can be a marvelous marketing tool as many of you know firsthand. Opening up your name to the internet can also open the potentiality for negative information as well.

Just recently, one of my client specialists (not in Colorado) called me regarding some very negative feedback she found on the internet when doing a Google search for her name. This information was found four pages in to the search and the headline was terrible! As I proceeded to check out this information for her, I was taken to a “blog” site written by the mother of one of my client’s parents.

The blog was written with the mother’s perception of the treatment her child received and how she was treated upon checking out after one of her appointments. She was presented with her portion of the day’s services and asked to pay them. She actually called the receptionist a bulldog! I say “kudos to you Ms. Front Desk Coordinator, for doing your job properly!” It seems the father first took the child to the dentist and he was the one who signed the Financial Policy, accepted treatment for his child and signed the informed consent as well as the treatment plan. The mother took the child in for delivery of an appliance and apparently the husband did not tell the wife she would need to pay their portion owed that day. This part was not too slanderous; it was her story of the doctor and what she did treatment – wise for the child, etc.

Apparently this child was referred to my client because he had some abscesses and needed some extractions and restorations. Obviously he was referred because he was a behavioral problem and the GP couldn’t complete the treatment. The mother posted on the blog how the dentist did all kinds of treatment without permission, claimed the dentist did not inform her of her financial responsibility for her child’s care, and proceeded to list UCR fees from her insurance company and the fees this specialist charged for the treatment rendered. She even used the ADA codes for the procedures and fees which I imagine she took from the insurance EOB.

Even though this mother is most assuredly ignorant to what the definition of UCR is, and apparently did not know her husband had given permission to do the treatment, that he knew the fees, etc., it didn’t stop her from writing a very damaging and inflammatory blog. I wasn’t worried too much about the blog content itself but the fact that the search engine picked up the title, which was slanderous. On first look, this could damage that doctor’s reputation within the community. I advised my client to call the child’s father, explain the situation with the blog and ask him to please ask his wife to remove it. This only fueled the fire and the wife/mother posted more incorrect information. My client now has no choice but to sue the mother of her patient to have the blog removed and the site removed from the search engines. It is sad that a professional has to go to these lengths to protect her good name because one parent is ignorant.

In no way am I suggesting you do not utilize the marketing benefits of the internet, but as professionals, I do think you should do a Google (or other) search at least twice per year on your own name and the practice name to see what comes up. Follow each link, check it out thoroughly and determine how it affects you and your business. If there is any slanderous information posted, I would advise you to get in touch with a business attorney and take whatever steps are necessary for removing such information. Not many people like or want to be involved in litigation but this is your business, your character and good name you must protect.