About user ratings and reviews - For patients
Your reviews are some of the most important content on WhatClinic.com. Each one is seen by thousands of other patients looking to make up their mind about which clinics to contact.
To be fair to everyone we need to adhere to some simple guidelines, and we need to adhere to publishing and defamation laws under Irish law as this is the juristiction WhatClinic.com operates from.
Types of customer reviews
1. Full review
Submitted by a patient AFTER they receive treatment from a clinic.
2. Review with unpublished text
A clinic occasionally requests the text of a review to be unpublished. We make note of the review and the score is still included in the overall clinic ratings.
3. Customer service feedback
When a patient first contacts a clinic we ask them to review the initial customer service.
4. Clinic testimonial
A clinic can collect reviews from their existing patients and submit them as clinic testimonials. The clinic must provide patient contact details so the review can be verified.
Do you publish every review?
No.
The most common reasons for not publishing a review are as follows:
- Reviewer was not a patient of the clinic being reviewed.
- Review does not meet our legal, privacy or family friendly guidelines below.
The clinic can request we do not publish the text in a review.
In this case your name and rating remains and is included in the clinic’s overall score. The review shows the text “Clinic has chosen not to publish this review text”.
Remember: This is a family friendly website. Please be reasonable, fair and polite in your review. Reviews, ratings and comments that you submit through the website become part of a clinic’s profile and can be accessed and read by other users of the website. |
Review & feedback guidelines:
Legal - We can not publish claims about the accuracy of a clinic’s treatment and diagnosis. Those are factual matters, and to verify them would require extensive medical studies.
- The review cannot be libellous or defamatory in any way under Irish Law.
- Allegations of criminal activity or medical negligence should be reported to the proper authorities.
- If there are any current legal proceedings between the reviewer and clinic we will not publish the review as this can interfere with those proceedings.
- The review & feedback must relate to treatment you have had at the clinic in question.
- You cannot write reviews on behalf of someone else or based on hearsay. You must have been a patient at the clinic yourself and undergone the treatment being reviewed yourself.
- You must be over 18 years old to leave a review.
- A legal guardian may leave a review on behalf of a patient however no personal information about the patient that could lead to them being identified, either directly or indirectly, can be included in the review.
- You are publishing a review and it is your responsibility to ensure that it is accurate and not misleading as posting false information can have legal ramifications, whether the review is positive or negative in tone.
- You are reviewing your treatment at the clinic in question, not any individual at the clinic. Specifically, there should be no personal insults or accusations in your review.
Privacy - The review should not include any contact information.
- The review cannot mention staff members by name, only the business.
False reviews - No false reviews.
If you are a clinic owner you are not allowed to write or encourage any associates to write a review of your clinic. You should not review a clinic at which you have been or are currently employed. False reviews will be deleted and the clinic in question may be penalized or removed from WhatClinic.com's listings. We have numerous automated and manual security features such as IP tracking and geo-coding that helps us find false reviews. Instead of writing your own reviews encourage your customers to review your clinic.
Helpful & family friendly - The review should be family friendly.
- Even if the review is negative, you should remain polite and refrain from using profanity.
- Your review should adhere to normal email etiquette and not be written mostly in CAPS, or include HTML including links, styling or images.
- The review should help other patients make their own decision.
- We want you to share your experience with other patients so they can make better informed decisions. Stick to the facts and avoid opinions.
- Your review should speak for itself and not require further communication. You are not allowed to include phone numbers, email addresses, website addresses or postal addresses in your review, whether your own, the clinic’s, or a rival clinic’s.
- Reviews of treatments on WhatClinic.com should be unique.
Please do not publish a review of a treatment that you have already published elsewhere. Any review which is found to be similar to or directly copied from a review which appears on another website may be removed at the discretion of WhatClinic.com.
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Unfortunately, if your review breaks any of these guidelines it will not be published. WhatClinic.com reserves the right not to publish any review.
In the event that your headline is unsuitable we reserve the right to replace it with a piece of text from the body of your review.
A real, live person moderates all reviews. This process can take a few days depending on the number of reviews in the queue. We will email you when your review is published or declined.
The final publishing decision for any review remains with the clinic.
However, in the case that a review is valid and a clinic chooses not to publish it, the scores contained in the review are still taken into account for the clinic’s overall review rating. It is also noted on the clinic’s page that they have decided not to publish the review.
Your Privacy
Your full name, email, phone number and country are stored safely and securely and will not be displayed to the public. We will display only your first name and city.
If requested we will give your contact details to the clinic being reviewed. You will not receive spam from us or any other company.
We may try to contact you to verify that your review is real, and we may reject reviews where we cannot make contact with the reviewer.
For Clinics and their Staff
We want to publish as many reviews and testimonials as we can for your clinic. Each and every one helps new and returning patients make up their mind about whether or not to contact your clinic. You should encourage your own patients to submit reviews on WhatClinic.com. Following these guidelines will help you get your testimonials and reviews published.
Testimonial And Review Guidelines for Clinics
- Testimonials will be highlighted as such on your brochure.
- Testimonials must be from treated patients.
Testimonials may only be submitted on behalf of patients who have been treated at your clinic. You may be required to provide proof that the patient attended your clinic and / or contact details for the patient in question in order for us to verify that they exist. - A testimonial may be submitted by a client who engaged your clinic on behalf of a patient. No personal information about the patient that could lead to them being identified, either directly or indirectly, can be included in the review.
- You may not review your own clinic(s) or rivals’ clinics.
No member of staff or anyone associated with them is permitted to submit a review of their own clinic or any rival clinic even if they have undergone treatment at the clinic in question. - Fake testimonials and reviews will be deleted.
Any testimonial or review that we identify as being suspicious will be removed and if found to be false will be deleted permanently, and your clinic may be penalized or removed from the search results on WhatClinic.com. We store the IP address of all reviews and testimonials submitted, allowing us to track any suspicious patterns of behaviour. - In the rare case that you decide to suppress a valid review on your profile, the scores contained within the review will still be used to calculate your overall review score.
The review will be labeled as ‘Text not published’ on your brochure. - You have the right of reply.
In the case that your clinic receives a negative review, you have the right to have your own reply appended to the review. We encourage clinics to do this rather than suppress reviews as greater transparency not only serves patients’ interests, it also builds trust in your own clinic.
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WhatClinic.com Liability
All reviews and ratings are subjective opinions of visitors to WhatClinic.com and not of WhatClinic.com and we never comment on those opinions.
WhatClinic.com will take all reasonable steps necessary to ensure that all reviews published on the Site meet our Review Guidelines. WhatClinic.com reserves the right to not publish any review or remove a review if we believe it violates our Review Guidelines.
WhatClinic.com treats review content equally for all businesses, with no connection between subscription and reviews.
WhatClinic.com makes no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, legality or safety of any of the Site content, including reviews, ratings and comments. WhatClinic.com disclaims all liability for any indirect, special, incidental, reliance, or consequential damage to reputation, business interruption, or loss of profits caused by the Site content.