facebook in healthcare

http://www.hcca-info.org/Portals/0/PDFs/Resources/Compliance%20Today/0512/CT_0512_Entin.pdf The above link is a good article about what I am going to talk about. One of the social medias- facebook and the role it has played in the hospital/clinic setting. In this blog I will touch on venting and advertising/communication. Venting. One of the top uses of facebook. However, where is the line crossed. Can health care professionals vent about their patients, take pictures of interesting cases and post them online? These things have happened and unfortunately found their way back to the patient. One thing about facebook is that you are linked to other accounts. One story that happened in Kansas was when a nursing student posted pictures of a cadaver on facebook. She was suspended but the courts overruled it and allowed her back into school. In our hospital, our security currently prohibits the use of facebook. However, everyone has it on their cell phones, and a lot of people still talk about their day/patients about it. In the article above, if there is a group of people talking about their work situation that is okay, however in health care we still have to be aware of HIPPA. I agree that we need to be aware of what we say on facebook because it involves other people in very sensitive situations. However, I do think facebook is good for advertising and communication. Facebook is now like an email that multiple people have access too. For some people it is the first thing they check in the morning. I do think we need to incorporate a way to use this massive communication system in healthcare. If we advertise programs, events and services that are valuable to patients on facebook, then we may reach more people. Sending results to the message center may be too complicated, but we can continue/start with using emails. Right now, I think it would be cool to have a page on our training for EMR on the facebook. I will talk more about training in my next blog. But these are my thoughts on facebook and uses with healthcare.