Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the Doctor responded directly to my review, calling me out by name and essentially calling me a liar (I wasn't) That seems likely it would violate HIPAA in some way...
We have a plastic surgeon, in in my county, that pissed off a lot of patients. She must have over 50 negative reviews. Well she sued most of them. I think the lawyer sued 45 of them. The judge ruled against all the lawsuits. All thrown out of court. Now, the physician resorts to describing what was physically wrong with the patient online in a rebuttal. For instance, "Susan--you seemed happy when we removed those ugl…
Providing care is finding the delicate balance among sciences and arts, inevitably there are ambiguous tests, marginally effective treatments, rare/impossible to predict side-effects and frequent backtracking to try yet another option. Some patients will misconstrue this less than ideal algorithm as mistreatment even when informed it represents the imperfect state of the art.
Certain perfectionistic individuals make unrealistic demands of care providers and may complain bitterly about less than optimum outcomes. Most patients aren't like that, but a few are. The notion that patients are "treated like dirt" these days is an unreasonably broad assertion that shouldn't be accepted without substantial evidence.
No doubt there are occasional providers who are less than competent, notably unempathetic, mean-spirited, etc. There are ways to complain if it's warranted, medical societies and licensing bodies take these complaints very seriously. But by all means such instances deserve fair and dispassionate investigation.
It may be hard to tell which Yelp "reviews" are authentic, and which may be authored by family members or friends just to rack up bad opinion about the doctor, or against any other service for that matter.
OTOH it is unethical for a doctor to reveal anything about the patient without specific permission. I suppose write a review of the doctor's work is a tacit permission to respond, but it is always the patient's right to reveal info, but the doctor is limited in what can be said.
That may be a reason health care providers are skittish about Yelp and the like. Because of confidentiality rules, ethical practitioners can't defend themselves against exaggerated, erroneous or even false claims made in a public listing. Anyone taking Yelp "reviews" seriously is probably accepting bad advice especially when it comes to seeking services as complex and nuanced as medical care.
The arena of "reviews" by disgruntled customers seems like it's just starting to be explored by the courts. Physicians' organizations and licensing boards haven't yet addressed the questions about responding to unfair or inaccurate statements about physician or health care services. I imagine those discussions will indeed be lively.