Doctors and dentists keep incredibly busy schedules. Combine that with arduous continuing education requirements, new technologies affecting their fields in unpredictable ways, and concerns about malpractice, and you have a perfect storm of professionals who can't be bothered with “trivial things” like SEO. But if you can educate your medical clients in how SEO works, you might actually save them some legal problems down the line.
A friend of mine recently linked to an Ars Technica story that drove this point home. The author of the piece was looking for a dentist, and found one through Yelp, said to be the best in his area. When he went in for his initial appointment, he was told he had to fill out a “'mutual privacy agreement' that asked me to transfer ownership of any public commentary I might right in the future” regarding the dentist. The dentist would not treat him unless he signed the agreement, so after a long discussion with the dentist's office manager, he walked out the door.
I am neither a lawyer nor a medical professional, but even I can see all sorts of problems with this kind of document. Arguably, a contract like this could be said to be signed under duress, and such contracts are not legally binding. Even without the “under duress” aspect, for various reasons, courts will likely rule that the transfer of copyright was not valid. And even if it was, an online review site might be entitled to publish the review under the fair use doctrine for copyright.
So one has to ask why a doctor or dentist would insist that their patients sign such a form before treating them. As it turns out, Medical Justice supplies templates for these forms. The goal, according to their site, is to protect the doctor's reputation. Emphasizing that “It only takes one negative Internet posting to impact your livelihood,” Medical Justice points out the harm that disgruntled patients can do to a doctor's “good name and practice.”
Certainly, this is an understandable problem. Have you ever read the HIPAA Privacy Rule? Short for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, HIPAA's privacy rule dictates exactly when, how, and under what circumstances medical professionals can share even the most minor medical information about a patient with anyone other than the patient. As you might expect, it is very strict, and certain revisions have even made it stricter over time. Thus, it limits the ways in which a medical professional can respond in public to criticism of the way they treated a patient.
Imagine seeing a negative, unjustified review of your company online, and not being able to answer it publicly except in the most general of terms (if at all), and you begin to get some idea of the frustration some doctors must feel. When you add in the fact that many patients actively seek out online reviews from patients before going to see a doctor, it's understandable that doctors – sometimes accused of playing god, after all – would like to get a little more control over the situation.
It's understandable, but addressing the issue in the way Medical Justice proposes with its form templates is a mistake. It's a very big mistake, in fact, and if one of your medical clients is considering this approach, you'll need to explain that to them.
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