One news segment, then a wave of reviews from other states
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After a local news segment briefly and inaccurately mentioned our emergency department, a wave of one star reviews rolled in over about forty eight hours, many from accounts several states away that had obviously never been patients, some using language lifted straight from the news comment section.
Emergency physicians do not choose our patients or our outcomes, and we absolutely cannot relitigate a resuscitation or a difficult night in a public reply. My individual profile fell from a 4.7 to a 3.1 almost overnight.
The rating never fully climbed back, and averages are sticky. A hospitalist group that sometimes steers outpatient follow ups our way asked about the score, which told me the reputational bleed had reached other clinicians.
I spent hours flagging the most obviously fake ones, submitting the same form dozens of times until my eyes blurred. Google eventually removed a handful as "suspicious activity," but there is no clinical skill that protects you from a coordinated pile-on.