Introduction
While social media (SM) is a highly efficient and popular tool to connect and exchange information, it can lead to a severe privacy breach if misused. To avoid negative consequences, the employees should familiarize themselves with the institution’s social media policy, designed to navigate staff social media activity. It should be noted that using social media channels for professional communication is highly welcomed. However, multiple threats arise from its improper use. Healthcare professionals deal with issues of privacy, security, and confidentiality, as part of providing care to patients (Wexner, et al., 2017). The meaning of privacy in context of SM is intertwined with security and confidentiality. While privacy relates to the question of access to personal information, confidentiality highlights the necessity to secure this information. All three terms are essential part of healthcare practice. This pamphlet informs personnel about appropriate and inappropriate ways to use SM and potential risks to healthcare professionals arising from the wrong handling of sensitive personal information.
SM as a Tool for Professional Communication
Social media channels and platforms are very popular instruments to exchange news and information with your family, friends, and colleagues. In the past decade, social media’s popularity is growing among health care professionals as a tool to enhance interprofessional communication (Moran, 2018). While it is hard to overestimate the positive impact of technology on health care, medical personnel are accountable for using their patients’ protected private health information. The hospital’s social media policy explicitly forbids sharing sensitive data about patients’ conditions via digital channels. Unethical SM postings can lead to serious consequences for doctors, nurses, and students. As our dependence on technology is growing, healthcare providers have to navigate electronic channels professionally and ethically.
Risks of SM to Healthcare Professionals
To avoid misuse of SM in professional digital communication, health care providers need to distinguish public from private. The US law strictly prohibits public sharing of information about health status, treatment, or payment for health services of any individual that can be linked to their identity (Niles, 2021). When dealing with protected health information (PHI), healthcare professionals have to remember it only can be shared with those directly providing care or who have permission to receive such information. Any social media post about a patient’s health status is a severe violation of the hospital’s privacy policy.
Violations of patient confidentiality, intentional or unintentional, can lead to very serious negative consequences for a healthcare provider, from a reprimand to fines, loss of license, and even to criminal court in the most serious cases. Simultaneously, a basic lack of knowledge of SM mechanisms, such as wrong beliefs that the content was not shared publically or that was unavailable, account for many cases of unethical or inappropriate postings (Menvielle et al., 2017). For example, friends, family members, colleagues, and even other unaffiliated users can see an Instagram or Facebook post. To prevent the mishandling of PHI, all healthcare providers at the facility are obliged to complete annual training. Also, following basic rules, such as not posting patients’ images, removing inappropriate pictures and comments, and promptly reporting any privacy breaches, significantly reduce risks for healthcare employees.
Conclusion
Social media channels and platforms are becoming more and more popular among healthcare professionals. The usage of digital tools has changed communication in many spheres, including healthcare, in the past decade. While SM can enhance interprofessional communication among healthcare providers, it also challenges patients’ and doctors’ communication in private and public dimensions. A lack of knowledge of SM algorithms can lead to serious privacy violations via digital channels. Patient health information is protected by US law and cannot be shared with anyone who does not have permission to receive it. A simple awareness of the facility’s social media policy and following basic rules of SM behavior reduces confidentiality risks for healthcare employees.
References
Menvielle, L., Audrain-Pontevia, A. -F., & Menvielle, W. (2017). The Digitization of Healthcare New Challenges and Opportunities. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Moran, J. W. (2018). Transforming Community Health through Leadership. Taylor and Francis.
Niles, N. J. (2021). Basics of the U.S. health care system (Fourth edition). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Wexner, S. D., Petrucci, A. M., Brady, R. R., Ennis‐o’connor, M., Fitzgerald, J. E., & Mayol, J. (2017). Social media in colorectal surgery.Colorectal disease, 19(2), 105-114.