Online reputation management for hospitals and clinics

Before calling a hospital, many patients look at its star rating and read the most recent reviews. A hospital with excellent doctors but a handful of angry, unanswered reviews about billing or waiting times may lose that patient to a competitor down the road. Reviews that mention individual doctors on Google and Practo also shape first impressions, which is why hospitals monitor them.

Most patients never write a review, and those with a complaint are often the most motivated to, so a hospital's reviews can look worse than its care. Reputation management closes that gap by making it easy for every patient to share their experience, asked the same neutral way, and by showing everyone else that you listen.

• Reputation audit: ratings and reviews across Google, Practo, Justdial and Facebook, for the hospital, each branch and key doctors
• Review request system: a consent-based process, often a WhatsApp or SMS message after discharge or consultation with a direct link to your review page
• Front-desk and nursing training on when and how to ask for a review appropriately, with no review targets for staff and no pressure on patients
• Review replies: drafted by us in English or Malayalam, approved by you, and posted promptly
• Negative review protocol: escalation to the right department, a privacy-safe public reply and an offline resolution route
• Policy-violating reviews: identifying spam, fake or abusive reviews and flagging them through the platform's process
• Monitoring: alerts for new reviews and for mentions of your hospital or doctors in news and social media
• Insight reports: recurring themes in feedback, such as parking, billing clarity or waiting times, shared with management

1. 1
   Audit and baseline. We record your current ratings, review volume and recent themes on every platform.
2. 2
   Fix the foundations. Correct and claim listings, often alongside Google Business Profile management, so reviews go to the right place.
3. 3
   Design the request flow. We agree at which moment patients are asked, through which channel, and how consent to contact is captured.
4. 4
   Train staff. Short sessions for front desk, nursing and billing teams on asking for feedback without pressure, quotas or suggested review wording.
5. 5
   Reply routine. We draft replies to every new review, positive or negative, for quick approval.
6. 6
   Monthly insight. We report on rating trends, volume and the operational issues patients raise most often.

Get your free visibility audit on WhatsApp Call +91 90742 52889

A negative review is not always bad news. A thoughtful reply shows future patients how you treat people when things go wrong. Our approach:

• Never argue in public. Acknowledge the experience, apologise where appropriate and offer a direct contact.
• Never confirm or discuss treatment. Even if the reviewer shares details, a hospital's reply should not confirm they were a patient or mention clinical information.
• Fix the cause. Pass the complaint to the right department and follow up offline.
• Escalate serious allegations. Claims of negligence or legal threats go to management and your legal adviser before any public reply.
• Watch for patterns. A sudden burst of negative reviews may be a coordinated attack or a sign of a real operational failure. Both need a different response.

When an issue spreads to news or social media, our healthcare PR team can support with statements and media handling.

• Dental clinics, where patients compare ratings closely before choosing
• Eye hospitals that see many cataract patients each day
• Diagnostic centres where waiting time and report delivery drive reviews
• Multispecialty hospitals managing feedback across many departments and doctors
• Hospitals monitoring how their doctors appear on Google and Practo

• No fake or paid reviews. Writing reviews for yourself, buying them, or offering discounts in exchange for reviews breaks platform policies and can be treated as misleading under consumer-protection law. The Bureau of Indian Standards has also published a voluntary standard on online consumer reviews that discourages these practices.
• No selective gating. Asking only happy patients for reviews, or filtering out unhappy ones before they reach Google, is against Google's policies.
• No staff quotas or scripted reviews. Google's review policy does not allow businesses to ask staff to collect "a certain number of reviews", to ask for reviews that include specific content such as a staff member's name, or to pressure people to leave reviews while on the premises. Staff can ask every patient the same neutral way; they should not be set targets.
• NMC guidelines (October 2026). No doctor or hospital may solicit, buy or manipulate fake, paid or misleading reviews, ratings or testimonials, or manipulate search rankings to create a misleading impression (Explanation V and clause 8.1(xii)). A doctor must not request or share patient testimonials or reviews for professional promotion on social media, so we plan review requests from the institution about the institution, and agree with you and your legal adviser who sends them.
• Fees not tied to patients. Under clause 8.1(viii), agency arrangements must not link payment to the procurement of individual patients. We charge a monthly retainer, never per review, per lead or per patient. See how our pricing works.
• Patient privacy. Replies must not disclose health information. The DPDP Act 2023 and medical confidentiality both point the same way.
• Consent to contact. Review requests by WhatsApp or SMS should go only to patients who have agreed to be contacted.

These are general points; check specific situations with your legal adviser.

We do not promise a particular star rating. Ratings reflect patient experience, which we can help you hear and respond to but not manufacture.

Review replies for a hospital are a minefield of privacy, legal and emotional issues that general social-media agencies often underestimate. We work only in healthcare, so our reply templates are built around confidentiality from the start. Being based opposite Aster Medcity, we can train your front-desk and nursing teams in person. Our guide on how to get more Google reviews for a hospital explains the basics if you want to start in-house.

How can a hospital get more Google reviews?

Ask everyone at the same point, usually after a consultation, once an inpatient is home after discharge, or at the last visit if a course of treatment stops early, and make it easy with a direct link sent by WhatsApp or SMS to patients who have agreed to be contacted. Train staff to ask every patient the same polite way, without pressure, targets or suggested wording, and never offer incentives.

Can our doctors ask patients for reviews?

The NMC's October 2026 guidelines say a doctor must not request or share patient testimonials or reviews for professional promotion on social media. It is safer for the hospital to ask patients about their experience of the hospital, through a neutral message from the institution, than for individual doctors to ask for reviews of themselves. Check your own process with a legal adviser.

Can you delete bad reviews about our hospital?

No one except the platform can delete reviews, and platforms remove only those that break their policies, such as spam, hate speech or conflicts of interest. We flag those through the proper process and help you reply professionally to genuine criticism.

Should a hospital reply to every review?

Replying to every review, positive and negative, shows that you listen. Replies should be short, personal in tone and free of any medical detail. We draft them for your approval.

What should a doctor do about a false review on Practo or Google?

Do not respond angrily or reveal patient information. Report the review through the platform's process with any evidence that it breaks the rules, and post a calm reply inviting the reviewer to get in touch directly. Seek legal advice if the review is defamatory.

Is it legal to send review requests on WhatsApp?

It is generally acceptable to contact patients who have consented to receive messages from you. Consent and purpose matter under the IT Act's data rules today and under the DPDP Act 2023 as its Rules are phased in, so we build consent capture into the process. Check your specific arrangements with your legal adviser.

See how we work with hospitals and clinics in Kannur, Kochi, Kollam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad, Thiruvananthapuram and Thrissur, or browse all 49 Kerala towns we serve.