How a psychiatrist gets a Google review removed

HHS’s Office for Civil Rights reached a settlement with a psychiatric practice in New Jersey that disclosed the health information of four patients while responding to their Google reviews. The practice agreed to a corrective action plan. HHS treats a name linked to treatment at a clinic as protected health information, so even a reply that defends your care with a single fact about the visit can be a disclosure.

Psychiatry adds its own pressure. Reviews here often concern medication, holds and diagnoses, and the urge to correct them is strong. A reply that says the practice follows safe prescribing standards for every patient and invites a call is the most you can say. It reads as calm to other patients, and it confirms nothing.

• A patient angry that a controlled prescription was tapered, stopped or not started.
• A family member writing after a hospital hold the practice had no part in arranging.
• A complaint that a pharmacy would not fill a prescription, or an insurer refused prior authorization.
• Threats aimed at a named psychiatrist or nurse practitioner.
• The doctor’s home address, personal phone or family details posted in a review.
• A telehealth platform complaint left on the practice’s own listing.

A patient who disagrees with a prescribing decision is describing a real experience, and Google keeps it. The other patterns differ. A threat meets harassment, which Google defines as a specific threat of harm that would make a reasonable person fear for their safety. Posting your home address or private phone meets personal information and, where it is meant to expose you, the doxxing part of harassment.

A refusal by a pharmacy or an insurer, or a hold arranged by a hospital, is a decision made by a business you do not run, which is the off topic clause. A relative who was never seen meets fake engagement. Google allows your professional name in a review, since doctors do business under their names, so the name alone is not the problem. What surrounds it can be.

Treat a threat as a safety matter first and a review second. Tell your staff, note the date and the exact words, and decide with your security or local police what to do. Then report the review. The case rests on the threat as written, so it can be filed without any record about the writer.

Note. Do not reply to a threat on Google. A reply keeps the thread alive and can reveal that the writer is a patient.

• Screenshots of the review, the reviewer’s profile and the date.
• For an outside decision: a plain statement of which business made it, such as the pharmacy or the hospital.
• For a never seen writer: a search of your patient list with no match, given as a result only.
• For a threat: your incident note and any police report number.

1. 01

   Report it in Google

   From your Business Profile, open Read reviews, select the Report icon next to the review, choose the reason and select Send report.

2. 02

   Run the audit

   The free audit marks each low review with the clause it meets and its fee class, or No rule broken.

3. 03

   Accept the sheet

   Read the reasoning and the fee on the case sheet. It is filed only after you accept, and billed only after Google removes the review.

Google’s Reviews Management Tool shows the status of each report. Decision pending means it has not been evaluated. Report reviewed - no policy violation means Google kept it, and the tool then offers a one time appeal under Appeal eligible reviews, where up to ten reviews can be selected at once. For a case opened here, a decline sends the case to a second filing at the same fee, and a case Google declines twice is closed without a bill.