What are the Reputational Damage Control Measures at MyClinic?

Are you familiar with a hospital search site called MyClinic? On MyClinic, you can view reviews of the listed hospitals provided by their users. As you may well know, online reviews can sometimes lead to negative or discriminatory comments due to their anonymous nature. In this article, we will discuss the content of defamation and reputational damage caused by reviews posted on MyClinic, and provide guidance on appropriate measures to take if a local hospital suffers such damage.

What is MyClinic?

MyClinic is a website that allows you to search for hospitals nationwide in Japan. Not only can you search by specifying prefectures, cities, towns, and stations, but by clicking the detailed search button, you can also select medical departments, consultation days, and times. Furthermore, free word searches are also possible. In addition, we also support services for creating medical institution websites, and from the top page, you can view updates and new creation information for websites. We also provide useful medical information content, allowing you to obtain information about concerning symptoms related to dentistry and internal medicine. The operating philosophy of MyClinic is to provide decision-making materials to users who are looking for hospitals. We believe that sharing patient experiences is also important, so we also post reviews from people who have used the hospital. As long as you register your email address, anyone who uses the hospital can post a review for free.

Potential Reputational Damage at MyClinic

At MyClinic, we have a policy of not deliberately publishing negative feedback. Negative posts, due to their intensity, have a high potential to cause unnecessary friction, exaggerate a small sample size, and make it difficult for users to obtain accurate information. Therefore, all reviews posted on the site are pre-checked by Empower Healthcare Corporation, which operates the site. Considering these circumstances, the risk of defamatory reviews being published on MyClinic is almost non-existent. Although there is a non-zero chance of a negative post being accidentally exposed due to human checking, it is almost zero. For reference, we will introduce the types of reviews that could potentially cause reputational damage to medical institutions.

“The doctor didn’t examine me properly” “The doctor’s response was poor”

It seems that more than half of the posts about medical institutions are criticisms of doctors. Posts that can identify individual doctors can affect the operation of the hospital and the doctor’s future career, so the number of medical institutions consulting about deletion is increasing.

“The waiting time was long”

In the case of medical institutions, there are many posts pointing out the length of waiting time. Many medical institutions are chronically understaffed, so it is inevitable that waiting times will be long. However, if patients hear that the waiting time is long, they may feel like they don’t want to go, which could potentially lead to a decrease in the number of patients visiting. Such negative content will not be published due to the pre-check by the management.

However, it doesn’t end with just deletion. Negative content is fed back to the medical institutions listed on the site. In order to provide better medical services, the site conveys candid opinions from users to the hospital, encouraging improvements in the quality of medical services. When posting a review, there is a section for “Points you want the medical institution to improve”, which is not made public, but you can enter any complaints or improvements for the medical institution. The specific posting criteria are not disclosed, so it is not clear to what extent they will be subject to publication. As the name “Recommended Reviews” suggests, it is safe to assume that only the recommended points will be published. By the way, the posted reviews are published after correcting any typos or omissions, so the content may be changed from what was posted.

How to Request the Removal of Defamatory Reviews from a Site

While the risk of defamatory reviews being published on MyClinic is low, it’s important to know how to request their removal from the site in case of any unforeseen circumstances. Naturally, there is no removal request form provided on the site. The only contact information provided is the email address of the support center, so you will need to send a removal request to this address. When doing so, make sure to specify which review you want to be removed. You can do this by attaching a screenshot of the review, or by providing the name of your clinic and the title of the review, to make it easier for the site to identify the review in question. However, just because you’ve requested removal doesn’t guarantee that the site will comply. The site also checks the content before publishing, so unless there’s a serious issue, the chances of successful removal are low. Prohibited actions are listed in Article 9 of the MyClinic Terms of Use. When making an inquiry, using these terms and specifying which part is violated in the body of the email may increase the chances of successful removal.

Request for Removal Due to Illegality

If a request for removal to the site fails, one possible course of action is to claim illegality and obtain a removal order from the court to the site. When claiming illegality, it is common to use defamation. To be recognized as defamation, it is necessary to prove that the social reputation of the hospital has fallen due to the presentation of false facts. For example, if there is a review saying “The director of this hospital has made a medical error in the past and covered it up” even though there is no such fact, there is a high possibility that it constitutes defamation. On the other hand, content such as “The waiting time was long” or “The doctor did not listen to me” is largely based on personal subjectivity, and it is difficult to judge whether it constitutes slander, so the possibility of constituting defamation is low. Also, defamation does not occur if the presented fact is true or if it is recognized that there is a case where it is unavoidable to believe it is true. It is limited to false facts. If you want to know more about the requirements for defamation, please see the article below.

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

And to convince the court, it is necessary to make a legal claim as to what rights were infringed and why it can be said that they were infringed. Such claims are difficult for amateurs, so if you want to claim the illegality of slanderous reviews, we recommend hiring a lawyer.

Request for Deletion by Provisional Disposition

When making a deletion request, it is possible to initiate a civil lawsuit. However, lawsuits take time and are not suitable for online defamation cases that require immediate action. Therefore, when claiming illegality and requesting deletion, it is common to take provisional disposition procedures. Provisional disposition is the realization of a state similar to winning a lawsuit without going through a trial. Even if it’s a provisional disposition order, if you receive an order from the court, it is expected that you will comply with the deletion with a high probability. Normally, it takes about 1 to 2 months from the application to the issuance. In order for a provisional disposition order to be issued, the existence of a non-preservation right (a right that needs to be preserved) must be recognized. As with a lawsuit, legal arguments are required, so it is recommended to consult a lawyer even in the case of provisional disposition.

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

Identifying the Poster through Provisional Disposition

When a hospital suffers economic damage or mental distress due to defamation, there may be cases where you want to claim damages from the person who made the post. The party who can be claimed for damages is the perpetrator themselves, so first, it is necessary to identify the other party. The procedure for identifying the poster is a bit complicated.

First, a request is made to the site for the disclosure of sender information (IP address). The site does not hold the personal information of the poster, so the request to the site is only for the disclosure of the IP address. Once the request is approved and the IP address is obtained, the Internet provider that provided the net environment where the user made the post is identified based on it. Then, based on the Japanese Provider Liability Law, a request is made to the provider for the disclosure of personal information such as the poster’s address and name.

In other words, a two-step procedure is necessary to identify the poster. In the request for disclosure of sender information, non-preservation rights are difficult to be granted, so a lawsuit will be initiated. It takes at least half a year from the request for disclosure of the IP address to obtaining the personal information of the poster. It will be a long battle, but if you want to receive a fair retribution for the damage you have suffered, it may be worth going through the procedure. In that case, it is recommended to consult a lawyer who is familiar with Internet troubles.

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

Summary

We have explained the measures against defamation and reputational damage caused by reviews submitted to MyClinic. The reviews posted on MyClinic are pre-screened by the site to eliminate negative content, so there is almost no risk of defamatory content being posted against the hospital. However, it cannot be said that there is no risk of malicious posts due to oversights or other reasons. If you find any derogatory comments about the hospital or doctor you belong to, you should first request removal through the inquiry form. If the site does not respond, consider claiming illegality and considering procedures such as removal by provisional disposition and identification of the poster. When claiming illegality, it is difficult to convince the court with arguments made by amateurs alone, so it is better to use a lawyer.