Vitals.com_Logo[1]Vitals.com is a web site that provides a directory of doctors by specialty and location. In addition to serving as a directory, Vitals.com also allows patients to post reviews about their experience with a physician.

How do I remove a review from Vitals.com?

 Update (2019/2020): Vitals was acquired from WebMD and has been going through some major changes. Due to this there have been instances of physicians not being able to claim or update their own listings, no way to report a disparaging and false review or even for patients to edit or remove reviews they’ve written. As a physician your best option is often to focus on getting more positive reviews to drowned out the occasional negative one. Contact us for any particular individual issues and we can let you know your options.

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Like other review sites, getting a review removed from Vitals is typically not possible. The physician or practice would have to prove that the information is grossly inaccurate and not opinion based and even then removal will probably not be possible. Only patients who post the review are able to remove the review in almost all but the most extreme cases. For a patient to remove a review they must be able to log in to edit or remove the review.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t do something about the review. Reducing the credibility, influence or visibility of a Vitals review is often your best course of action. The following strategies could be employed:

  1. Speak to the patient to solve or alleviate the complaint. In many cases talking to the patient about the issue and overcoming their concerns can go a long way in having them editing or removing their review on Vitals.com. Just make sure not to make the problem worse.
  2. For irrational reviews, in many cases your logical and well thought out reply can go a long way in diminishing the credibility of a review. In some cases patients do not make a very strong case and other prospective patients can see through their statements especially if a well crafted and patient friendly response and solution is floated by the physician or medical practice.
  3. Developing a customer review strategy is usually the best solution to minimize the value of a small number of negative reviews. Essentially this means making sure that the physician has a large number of positive reviews to counteract a few bad ones. Reputation Health has a solution that can help you generate new reviews for your practice. 
  4. Solving the problem that caused the review should always be top of mind. Sure, there are challenging patients or maybe the practice had a bad day and wait times and service were not up to snuff. But tackling these issues head on and solving the core issues will help your practice to obtain positive reviews on sites like Vitals.com, Healthgrades, Yelp and others.

What is the best way to deal with a negative Vitals.com review?

Monitoring new reviews is part of a good review strategy. Software tools like those provided by Reputation Health alert you to reviews on Vitals.com and other sites. Once you are aware of a negative review, the best thing to typically do is to reply to a review. Be sure that your reply is constructive and customer / patient friendly. Also be sure that HIPAA rules are followed when responding.

If you need assistance on how to best reply, our team at Reputation Health can assist you.