Social Media and Healthcare Providers

An employee at a hospital in Michigan posts negative comments about a patient on Facebook. An ER nurse in a Los Angeles hospital posts pictures of a stabbing victim on Facebook.

How healthcare providers should leverage social media is a hot topic these days. This is my first Marketing Musing on this topic, and it discusses the issue of what healthcare provider employees should and should not do. My solution is simple. Employees of healthcare organizations, with few exceptions, should not use social media to communicate anything about their jobs, including their patients or their employers. Period. Break the rule; lose your job.

The attorneys can determine if the actions cited above constituted HIPAA violations. But common sense needs to rule here. You don’t post negative comments about your customers or your employer online. You have to assume the entire world will see your posts. I would not say any negative thing about my clients online; I can’t understand why employees of healthcare providers would post negative comments about patients or their employers.

So here are my thoughts on governing your employees’ social media behavior.

1. You need a comprehensive social media policy which all employees should sign. There are several examples you can access online simply by googling “social media policies for healthcare organizations.”
2. Any “official” organization pages on Facebook and any LinkedIn groups need to be controlled through the Marketing Department. I really do not see the need for nurses, residents, etc. to have their own official pages or groups (i.e., Sisters Hospital Nurses or Sisters Hospital ER). If a department has a party and wants to post photos, that can be coordinated through the Marketing Department. If a patient wants to have a photo (or video) taken with a member of the staff and permits the photo (or video) to be posted, that can also be run through the Marketing Department.
3. As mentioned before, no information about the organization or patients should be permitted on personal pages. There should be no tweets about the organization. This should be zero tolerance, with loss of job resulting from violations. Even if it is something as simple as saying you had a great day at work today. The problem is once you start, it is hard to determine where to draw the line.
4. There are some exceptions. One deals with LinkedIn. Employees should be allowed and even encouraged to have LinkedIn pages. They should be allowed to have profiles, post updates, join groups and join group discussions. They should be allowed to communicate job openings. There are a few exceptions.
1. No patient information
2. Nothing critical about the organization
3. Postings regarding organization sponsored research should be approved by the organization
5. One other exception is employees should be allowed and encouraged to share postings from the organization, including posts on the organization’s Facebook page, tweets, and information communicated through a LinkedIn page. This, of course, will leverage your organization’s ability to use social media and reach an exponentially greater number of people. However, these items should be shared without comment.

Interested in your thoughts, experiences