Should private practices adopt their own social media guidelines?

Issue: June 2011

Depends on the practice

Cary M. Silverman

I do not think there needs to be a standard operating procedure for all medical practices and ophthalmology practices in regard to how they are going to use social media. Our protocol is that we do not break patient confidentiality, and we try to be non-controversial. However, we do not have anything written to say what my staff or I do as far as social media goes. You need to use common sense. We are still a medical practice, and we need to treat it as such. Personally, I do not think something needs to be in writing, but I think that will vary by practice. The practice needs to be comfortable with what it is posting. Some people may not be comfortable with what I am doing in my practice and vice versa, but I think it is going to be on an individual basis.

We use social media a lot in our practice for promotion and to talk about our LASIK and cataract practices. We have Facebook fan pages, we have a blog and I am involved on Twitter. But social media is an evolving process. Things I did 6 months ago I no longer do, and I am sure there are things I will be doing in 6 months that I am not doing now. Social media can also be important in taking an advocacy stance or to educate the public. If we see questions online, we try to answer them for the patients. We try to be an online source for patients who have eye care questions or even general health questions. It is just to keep awareness out there.

I have not had any negative experiences from using social media. I think the trick is to not offend anybody. Sometimes people will say something really ridiculous, and you just have to be careful not to make them feel foolish. Once it is out there, it is out there permanently. You cannot take it away. I guess if a mistake is made, the first thing you need to do is apologize for it, but we have not had that issue at this point.

Cary M. Silverman, MD, is Medical Director of EyeCare 20/20 in East Hanover, N.J., U.S.A., specializing in LASIK and refractive cataract surgery. Dr. Silverman has been actively involved in social media in his practice for the past 4 years. Known as @TheLASIKDoc, he has more than 4,700 followers on Twitter. Disclosure: Dr. Silverman has no financial disclosures related to this article.

Practices should have guidelines for online professionalism

Gisela Spallek

Every health care provider participating in social networks should examine how he or she uses social media professionally as well as personally, and be aware that sometimes the line between both may be clear to him or her but not to others. We therefore suggest that every private practice should adopt social media guidelines – even if not (yet) planning to set up a blog, share videos, or open a Facebook account. Why? Because most likely your employees (personal assistant, nurses, office staff) have already done so, and guidelines can provide rules and set expectations.

While it may not be feasible for a smaller practice to develop their own guidelines, they can rely and/or build on existing ones, such as AMA’s policy for “Professionalism in the Use of Social Media” which is very broad but covers all important aspects such as patient privacy, confidentiality, and professional boundaries. Bryan Vartabedian, MD, gave the following advice on his blog on May 8, 2011: “Never discuss patient-specific issues, never be anonymous, remember everyone’s watching and be nice. These four basic tips certainly sound more ‘hands-on’ and in a perfect world, doctors and employees should discuss the guidelines and their implications, e.g. what to do when a patient contacts you via Facebook with a personal health question or a reference to her last office visit.”

If the practice decides to engage in social networks, exhibiting online professionalism is even more important: To be successful, it is not enough to share knowledge and inform patients, but one should provide fresh and interesting content on an ongoing basis. The doctor also has to listen to his or her audience, respond and encourage broad participation. If done professionally, social media holds great promise for personal branding.

Gisela Spallek, MD, PhD, is a German-trained physician with an MSBA in Information Technology from Temple University, U.S.A. She recently published information concerning the impact of Web 2.0 in clinical practice and health care delivery. Disclosure: Dr. Spallek and her husband founded spallek.com, which provides Internet and social media consulting services to health care professionals.