Judged by a reviewer who admitted they were never in the room
This account was submitted by a healthcare provider and de-identified before publication. Details that could identify a patient or practice have been removed, and it is shared with the provider’s consent.
The reviewer stated plainly at the start that they had "never met this doctor" and were writing about a relative's experience, then proceeded to give a confident, authoritative account that was secondhand and wrong on several key points.
I had no standing whatsoever to correct a story told by someone who was not in the exam room and was not my patient. What lingers is the unfairness of being evaluated by a narrator who openly admits they were not there.
Rheumatology runs almost entirely on referrals, so my reputation among fellow physicians is my livelihood, and in the weeks after the post I felt a distinct cooling from one referring office that had been reliable for years. I found myself rehearsing explanations I would never actually be allowed to give.
Reporting it to Healthgrades produced the familiar answer that they do not mediate factual disputes. There was nothing further I could do.