Social media platforms including Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram allow healthcare companies to easily promote their services and earn new clients. Healthcare companies could utilize social media platforms to connect with patients, give announcements about their services, and get patients to take on a more dynamic part in their medical care.
Although there are a lot of advantages that may result from using social media in medical care, lots of healthcare providers correctly view social media sites as places of HIPAA violations. This isn’t just true for the business accounts of healthcare companies. It is likewise true for individual social media accounts of their staff.
An employee communicating on social media following a notably tough day can readily disclose facts that may infringe patient privacy. A lot of cases have been reported of healthcare workers speaking on social media sites, such as in private Facebook groups, and revealing sensitive data concerning patients which violates the HIPAA Law.
Essentially all healthcare workers have mobile phones, and it is usual for them to use social media applications and instantly connect with big numbers of men and women. It is not surprising that social media networks now have more privacy violations occurring than at any time.
Healthcare organizations can definitely use social media sites successfully. However, there are a lot of misunderstandings regarding how these websites could be employed in a HIPAA-compliant way. It is of course necessary to particularly include the use of social media sites in training instructions for healthcare workers to ensure employees know how HIPAA should be applied to social media sites. Without teaching the employees, HIPAA-covered entities are going to deal with a high risk of regulatory penalties and legal cases.
To make it simpler for you to educate your workers and show them to use social media sites responsibly in relation to their personal and professional lives, it is helpful to have them attend webinars where participants will receive indispensable information on social media and HIPAA compliance.
Pick a webinar that includes lessons on how your company and workers can utilize social media sites ethically without breaking the HIPAA Law and patient privacy. The webinar can help you come up with effective policies that address the usage of personal and company-owned mobile phones and social media at work. Learning about real-life examples of several HIPAA breaches resulting from improper social media applications can help make sure your company and employees don’t make the same mistakes.
