How to Remove Your Name from Healthgrades
Doctors are busy. That’s why it comes as a surprise to many that they suddenly have a profile on a website called Healthgrades.
Since 1998, Healthgrades has been the top destination for patients looking for more information about providers. There are profiles for most doctors. HealthGrades also covers all specialties.
Many of the doctors on Healthgrades did not create a profile for themselves. For them, it can be difficult to understand how they ended up on the site in the first place.
How Healthgrades Creates Profiles
The first way that Healthgrades creates a profile for a medical provider is when the person themselves signs up. Doctors, nurse practitioners, and other providers can all sign up for their own profile. They can then control and upload information.
The second way that Healthgrades creates a profile is by pulling public information from the web. A quick Google search of any doctors name will likely bring up information about:
- when they started practicing
- where they are located
- where they went to medical school
So, this is the information that Healthgrades uses in automatically-generated profiles.
Third, Healthgrades allows patients to submit doctors to have a profile created for them. If they go on Healthgrades to search for their doctor, but don’t find a profile, the patient may think it’s a nice gesture to get the profile created. In these cases, Healthgrades will once again pull public information from the web!
“Can I Remove My Name From Healthgrades?”
Since Healthgrades creates profiles by using public information, there is no way to delete your profile or remove your name. Their goal is focused on helping patients connect with the right information about a provider. So, removing a provider’s profile could potentially block someone from getting contact information, reading reviews from real patients, and more.
The exceptions to this rule include doctors who:
- Are Deceased
- Retired
- No Longer Practicing
If you’d like more information, please contact the Healthgrades support team. For practitioners who retired or no longer practice, getting your profile removed should be a straight-forward process. If you want your profile removed for any other reason, there may not be a satisfactory resolution. However, you should always remember that you are free to claim your profile. This will allow you to manage the information on it and control your reputation!