How to respond to a negative Google review without breaching patient confidentiality
A bad review stings, and the instinct is to set the record straight. In a practice, that instinct is exactly what gets you into trouble. Here's what to do instead.
Sooner or later every practice gets one: a one-star review that feels unfair, incomplete or simply wrong. The natural response is to explain what really happened. But once your reply says “we saw you on the 14th” or “your treatment plan was explained to you”, you've confirmed that the reviewer is your patient and discussed their care in public. That's a confidentiality problem, whatever they wrote first.
Why you can't “just explain”
The HPCSA's ethical rules only allow you to share information about a patient with their express consent, when the law requires it, or where it's justified in the public interest (Rule 13). A patient posting about their own visit hasn't consented to you discussing it. POPIA adds another layer: health information is “special personal information”, with stricter protection than ordinary personal data.
So the golden rule is simple: your reply should read the same whether or not the reviewer was ever your patient.
The same thinking applies if you're an attorney, accountant, therapist or vet. Client confidentiality doesn't switch off because the client went public first.
A reply that works
Keep it short, calm and general. Something like:
That reply is polite, shows you take concerns seriously, explains why you won't go into detail and moves the conversation somewhere private. It's written for the prospective patients reading it later, and they'll see a calm, professional practice.
What not to do
- Don't confirm they're a patient. No dates, treatments, names of practitioners they saw or anything from their file.
- Don't argue the facts. Even if the review is inaccurate, correcting it in public means disclosing information.
- Don't reply angry. Wait a day. Draft it, sleep on it and have someone else read it before it goes up.
- Don't make a refund conditional on removing the review. If that message is ever screenshotted, you have a much bigger problem than one review.
- Don't bury it with fake five-star reviews. Google treats fake reviews as a policy violation, and patients can often tell.
When you can ask Google to remove a review
Google won't remove a review because it's negative or because you disagree with it. It will consider removing reviews that break its content policies, for example:
- Fake or spam reviews that don't reflect a genuine experience.
- Reviews from a competitor, a former employee or anyone else with a conflict of interest.
- Offensive, hateful or harassing content.
- Off-topic content that isn't about an experience with your practice.
You can report a review from your Google Business Profile by opening your reviews, choosing the review and selecting the option to report it. If a review makes serious allegations, don't respond publicly until you've spoken to your professional indemnity provider or an attorney.
The real fix: more good reviews
One negative review among five carries a lot of weight. One among eighty barely registers. The practices that shrug off a bad review are the ones that ask every happy patient for an honest one, consistently. If you're not doing that yet, start with how to ask patients for Google reviews, and read what the HPCSA advertising rules say about reviews and testimonials.
This is practical guidance, not legal advice. If you're unsure how to handle a specific review, speak to your professional body or indemnity provider.