Negative reviews are part of running a medical practice. But how to remove a negative review that violates platform policies is a different question entirely.
Here’s exactly how to flag and remove reviews that violate platform policies, and what to do while you wait for a decision.
Appealing a Google Review
The best course of action to appeal a Google review is to report the review from the Google Listing or on your Google Business Profile Dashboard so that it is ultimately removed.
To do this, you’ll want to follow the instructions below:
- Find the review and select the three dots on the right-hand side. The “Report review” option will appear – select this.
- Choose the reason that makes the most sense based on the review:
Note: You can review Google’s policies to get a clearer understanding of what each of the above options means.
Fun tip: Having more than one person at your practice submitting an appeal request will increase the odds of Google removing the review. You could say the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Google doesn’t guarantee removal, and the process can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.
If the review isn’t removed after your initial report, submit a second request. Having multiple people at your practice report the same review increases the likelihood of removal — Google’s systems are more likely to flag a review when several people independently identify it as a policy violation.
Appealing a Healthgrades or Vitals Review
If a Healthgrades or Vitals review is grossly incorrect and/or breaks the community guidelines (which includes name-calling, personal attacks, racist comments, threats, obscenities, phone numbers, email addresses, or URLs), there is a good chance that Healthgrades/Vitals will remove the review if you flag or report it.
To flag a comment on Healthgrades, select the ellipsis in the top-right corner of the comment box. Healthgrades Support Inquires can be placed on their contact page. Healthgrades also provides a lengthy list of review guidelines. Not sure whether a negative review actually qualifies for removal? Read our breakdown of what Healthgrades will and won’t take down.
To report a comment on Vitals, select “Report Abuse” at the bottom-right of the review. Vitals support requests can be placed on their feedback page. Vitals reserves the right to remove any comments which may be deemed offensive, malicious, inappropriate, sexually explicit in nature, or not made in good faith. Additional Vitals policies and other related items are available on their FAQ page.
Neither Healthgrades nor Vitals will notify you of the outcome directly. Check back on the review after a week or two to see if it’s been removed. If it’s still there, you can submit a second request or contact their support teams directly. Keep in mind that both platforms have full discretion over what gets removed — if the review doesn’t clearly violate their guidelines, it will likely stay up.
