What are the Reputational Damage Control Measures at 'Hospital Job Change Lab'?

When medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, and medical office staff are job hunting or considering a career change, hospitals and clinics are typically not listed on general job search websites. This is where specialized job search websites come into play, providing invaluable support for these individuals. Hospital Job Change Lab is one such specialized job search website, focusing on medical professionals. Here, you can read workplace reviews and comments about hospitals nationwide. Hospital Job Change Lab allows users to view real reviews from actual employees, ranging from positive to negative. This provides a platform for users to share real experiences, which can be very helpful. However, on the flip side, if negative reviews spread, it could potentially have a detrimental impact on the hospital’s recruitment activities and overall management. In this article, we will discuss measures to manage reputational damage in the event of defamatory comments being posted on Hospital Job Change Lab.

Explanation about Hospital Job Change Lab

Hospital Job Change Lab is a workplace review media for users, operated by WILLCO Corporation, which provides human resources services in the medical and legal industries. At Hospital Job Change Lab, you can read real reviews that are not available on other hospital review sites, such as the work content and salary level of the hospital you are interested in, human relationships, and the ease of working for women. This becomes a strong ally for knowing the information inside the hospital. In addition, the information collected is aggregated by the site, and the hospital is independently scored and ranked with a full five-star rating, which is also a feature that makes it easy to see and search.

Since this site mainly focuses on reviews from people who are actually working or have worked in the past, it is expected that negative information and complaints will be written. The feature of Hospital Job Change Lab is that you can read such honest reviews, which is beneficial for users, but for hospitals, if defamation and other negative comments are written, it could cause significant damage such as adversely affecting recruitment activities and giving a bad impression to hospital users (patients). In this article, we will explain what kind of negative reviews can be written on Hospital Job Change Lab and how to deal with them when they are written.

What Kind of Reputational Damage Exists on Hospital Job Change Lab?

Hospital Job Change Lab is a review site centered on user comments, so it is possible that negative reviews may be posted. The main place where reviews are used on Hospital Job Change Lab is on the “Reviews & Ratings” page for each hospital. Below, we introduce the content of negative reviews and reputational damage that can be expected there.

Reviews that Expose Harassment and Legal Violations

Hospital Job Change Lab is a platform that publishes the raw voices of people who have actually worked there, so the focus is on what they felt during their employment. It is conceivable that seniors who have suffered harassment at work and had a hard time may post their experiences in reviews, hoping that no one else will have to go through the same thing. Not only reports of harassment, but also allegations about working conditions such as long overtime hours and salary issues can be considered. However, for the hospital, such posts can negatively affect recruitment, preventing them from conducting desirable hiring activities. Especially if the hospital is taking measures to improve working conditions, punishing employees who have committed harassment, etc., it is undesirable for such posts to continue to remain, as they do not reflect the actual situation and can be considered unfavorable reviews.

Reviews that Use Definitive Expressions, Differ from Facts, or Are Malicious

For example, reviews that include definitive expressions such as “This hospital is running a deficit and has no future prospects, it will go bankrupt within a year!” or “The hygiene conditions here are poor.” Despite the lack of evidence, such definitive expressions stir up user anxiety and significantly lower the image of the hospital, making them undesirable for the hospital. Unfortunately, there seem to be actual cases where former employees who left the hospital with grievances post reviews with the intention of attacking and obstructing the hospital. Such reviews are unclear as to what extent they are factual, and they use definitive expressions to lower the social evaluation of the hospital, causing significant harm. They should be considered for deletion.

Reviews that Write About Trouble

These are reviews that indicate trouble, such as “The other day, there was a patient with XX disease, but a doctor named Ata made an obvious misdiagnosis. It seems that the patient’s condition got worse because of that…” Such interpersonal troubles are difficult to judge for their truthfulness and vary from case to case, so they are not beneficial for users in terms of job hunting. Furthermore, depending on the case, it could even be a violation of confidentiality. For people such as doctors and patients who may suffer damage to their reputation due to such posts, it is desirable to have them deleted as soon as possible.

How to Request Removal for Violation of Terms of Use

Terms of Use for “Hospital Job Change Lab”

The prohibited actions section of the terms of use for Hospital Job Change Lab lists various prohibitions. If the review you wish to remove falls under any of these prohibitions, it may be eligible for removal.

How to Request Removal

Hospital Job Change Lab does not have a dedicated form or button for reporting violations. Therefore, you will need to report the violation through the general inquiry form. Once you submit a report, you should receive a response via email within three business days.

Example of Requesting Removal for Violation of Terms of Use

Follow the instructions on the inquiry form. First, enter your name and email address. In the inquiry content field, indicate that you are requesting removal and provide the URL of the post you want to remove. Also, specify which part of the post is problematic and why. Make sure to make it easy for the Hospital Job Change Lab team to identify the post. It’s also more likely to be removed if you can demonstrate that it violates the terms of use, so carefully check whether the post violates the terms and provide a detailed explanation.

For example, let’s consider a review that includes slanderous comments that are not based on fact, such as “This hospital is running at a loss and has no future prospects. It will go bankrupt within a year!” You could write the explanation field as follows:

Thank you for your attention. I am △△, the public relations officer of the medical affairs department at ○○ Hospital.
I would like to request the removal of this review.
URL: https://byoutenlab.com/abc
In the third line of this review, it is stated that “This hospital is running at a loss,” but this is completely untrue. This falls under the prohibited action in the terms of use of “providing or publishing false information about oneself, other users, or third parties.”
Furthermore, the comment about the hospital having no future prospects and going bankrupt could significantly lower our social reputation, and we believe it falls under the prohibited action of “slandering other users or third parties.”
For these reasons, this series of posts violating the terms of use do not provide useful information to users and negatively affect our hospital’s social reputation, recruitment activities, and hospital management. Therefore, we would like to request their removal. Thank you for your understanding.

However, the terms of use state:

Please note that we do not take any responsibility for the measures taken against violations of these terms of use, and we do not accept any questions or complaints about these measures.
In difficult cases, we will make a judgment each time by comparing it with our operational standards and consulting with multiple staff members. In such cases, we may not be able to respond promptly to reports from our users.

This means that whether or not to remove a post is at the discretion of Hospital Job Change Lab, and they are not obligated to remove it. If your removal request is not granted, you may need to request a transmission prevention measure against Hospital Job Change Lab or consider filing a lawsuit. These are legal matters, so you should handle them yourself or consult with a lawyer. Be careful when hiring a removal agency other than a lawyer, as it may lead to legal violations.

Requesting Removal on the Grounds of Illegality

Legal Measures Available

If the content infringes on rights or violates the law, you can dispute its removal through a lawyer in court. The legal measures that can be taken in relation to managing online reputational damage can be broadly divided into:

• Request for voluntary removal through transmission prevention measures
• Request for removal of posted articles and application for provisional disposition
• Request for disclosure of sender information (Disclosure of IP address, name and address)
• Claim for damages (Claim for damages after identifying the poster)

Among these, the requests directly related to removal are the request for transmission prevention measures, the request for removal of posted articles, and the application for provisional disposition.

What to Assert Legally

When making a legal request for removal, the first thing to consider is to assert “defamation.”

Defamation is established when all of the following apply:

• “Publicly”
• “Indicating a fact”
• “Damaging a person’s reputation”

For example, if a review based on untrue content such as “This hospital doesn’t clean much and has poor hygiene” is posted, let’s look at whether it meets the requirements 1 to 3.

First, posts on review sites like Hospital Job Lab, although membership-based, can be viewed by an unspecified number of people on the internet, so it can be said to be “public.”

Next, “indicating a fact” means stating a specific fact that is sufficient to lower a person’s social evaluation, regardless of whether it is true or false. In this case, the content that the hospital doesn’t clean much and has poor hygiene can significantly lower the social evaluation of the hospital, where hygiene is of utmost importance.

Finally, to “damage,” it is sufficient if there is an abstract risk of social evaluation being harmed, and it is not necessary for the reputation to be actually infringed. It is not necessary to prove that the post in question was viewed by an unspecified number of people on internet news and social media, and that criticism and protests flooded the hospital. It is enough to say that there is an objective risk.

Please refer to the following article for detailed explanations of the requirements for defamation and other details.

https://monolith.law/reputation/defamation[ja]

Removal through the Courts (Litigation and Provisional Measures)

When seeking removal due to legal violations such as defamation, the usual first step is to request a transmission prevention measure. However, this method does not involve the courts and relies on the voluntary removal by the site administrator or operating hospital (provider). As this is a voluntary measure, removal may not be carried out depending on their judgement. In contrast, if removal is approved in court, the provider is legally bound to comply due to the binding power of the judgement. Therefore, if a transmission prevention measure is not granted, it is effective to transition to legal proceedings.

Provisional measures, as defined in the Japanese Civil Preservation Law, are sought when an immediate resolution is required, before a final judgement is obtained through formal litigation. In cases like defamation or slanderous reviews, once the information spreads, it can cause irreparable damage. Therefore, it is effective to use the provisional measures system to seek immediate removal of the information. Once a provisional measures order is issued, the court orders the other party to remove the post, and they must comply.

In the case of provisional measures, consulting with a lawyer experienced in reputational damage measures can often result in removal within 2-3 months from the time of request. This makes it an effective method. For more detailed explanations about the removal of articles in cases of defamation or reputational damage, and the process of provisional measures, please refer to the article below.

https://monolith.law/reputation/provisional-disposition[ja]

Identifying the Poster through Provisional Disposition

In order to take the legal measures mentioned above, it is necessary to identify who made the post, including their name and address. However, most defamation on the internet is done anonymously, making it difficult to identify the person (sender) who made the post. Therefore, it is necessary to request the provider to disclose the personal information of the person who made the post, in order to identify the poster. This is what is referred to as identifying the poster through provisional disposition. A request for sender disclosure is a request for information disclosure to identify the poster, as stipulated by Article 4, Paragraph 1 of the “Japanese Provider Liability Limitation Act”. If you request a lawyer, there is a possibility that the poster’s information, such as their IP address, can be disclosed through this sender information disclosure request, and the poster can be identified. Once the poster is identified, it becomes possible to take legal measures such as making the person pledge not to defame in the future due to the damage caused by the defamatory post, claim for damages, or file a criminal complaint. The flow of these procedures is explained in detail in the article below.

https://monolith.law/reputation/disclosure-of-the-senders-information[ja]

Summary

Hospital Job Change Lab is a site where you can learn about the real conditions of hospitals based on reviews from users who have actually worked there. On the other hand, it can also be said that it is a site where negative posts are widely accepted, as even critical posts can provide important information for deciding on a job change. In fact, many negative reviews are displayed right from the top page. However, even if reputational damage occurs due to malicious reviews, legal measures may be able to resolve the issue, such as deleting the post. However, the method and argument to be used, and whether deletion is allowed, varies depending on the individual case.

In any case, claiming illegality involves specialized content and methods, making it difficult for individuals to handle, and it also involves legal actions, so the help of a lawyer is necessary. First, consult with a lawyer to determine whether the review in question infringes on rights or violates the law.