Balens 2017 CPD Event Legal Update Social Media Cassandra Dighton - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Legal Update

Social Media – Cassandra Dighton BSG Solicitors

Balens 2017 CPD Event

Social Media in healthcare… Friend or Foe?

An overview of using social media in practice.

Introduction

• Cassandra Dighton
• Qualified as a solicitor in 2006
• Former General Medical Council Legal Adviser
• Now defends healthcare professionals before their

regulators (GMC, GDC, GoSC, GCC & HCPC)

By the end of this talk you:

• Will know the statistics for social media

users in the UK

• Be able to identify some of the

advantages of using social media as a marketing tool

• Be able to identify the codes set by your

regulator which may be applied to social media

• Have considered a case study on how to

handle friend requests from patients.

• Looked at most common mistakes made

by professionals on social media and know to avoid them!

Social Media Statistics…

• According to Rose McGrory,

Social Media Limited in the UK today there are…

• 18 million people on Instagram
• 33 million people on Facebook
• 19 million people on Twitter
• 21 million people on Linkedin
• 10 million on Pinterest

Social Media as a Marketing Tool…

• According to Jayson DeMers at

Forbes:

• In a recent survey 80% of the

participants indicates that using social media as part of their marketing strategy increased traffic to their website.

• This in turn increases brand

recognition, improves brand loyalty and creates opportunities for customers of other companies to convert to using your company….

And for healthcare practitioners…

• Social media has the additional benefits of:
• Engaging people in public health and policy discussions.
• Establishing national and international professional

networks.

• Facilitating patients’ access to information about

healthcare.

Social Media and Regulation

• Whether you are an osteopath, doctor, dentist, chiropractor, nurse or

healthcare practitioner regulated by the HCPC you are expected to

• bserve a code of conduct. Breaching that code can lead to regulatory

action.

• How does the code effect you when using social media?

If you are a Chiropractor…

• The General Chiropractic Council’s

code states that chiropractors must:

• “Strictly maintain patient

confidentiality when communicating publicly or privately, including in any form of social media or when speaking to or writing in the media”.

GCC Codes continued….

• B3

“Use only legal and verifiable information when publicising yourself as a chiropractor, advertising your work and/or your practice including on your

• website. The information must be honest and

comply with all advertising codes and standards”. And… B5 “Ensure your behaviour is professional at all times, including outside the workplace, thus upholding and protecting the reputation of, and confidence in, the profession and justifying patient trust”.

If you are an Osteopath…

• Standard D17 requires you to ‘uphold the reputation of the profession through your

conduct’. The accompanying guidance points out that this includes ‘maintaining the same standard of professional conduct in an online environment as would be expected elsewhere’. Other standards that are relevant to osteopaths’ use of social media are:

• C4 (Be polite and considerate with patients)
• C6 (Respect your patients’ dignity and modesty)
• D6 (Respect your patients’ right to privacy and confidentiality)
• D9 (Keep comments about colleagues or other healthcare professionals honest,
• accurate and valid)
• D11 (Be aware of your role as a healthcare provider to promote public health)
• D14 (Act with integrity in your professional practice)
• D16 (Do not abuse your professional standing)

In our experience:

Although this is not an exhaustive list common breaches of professional codes stemming from social media often relate to:

• Crossing professional boundaries.
• Breaching patient confidentiality.
• Failing to respect colleagues and patients.
• Providing clinical advice without carrying out an examination.

Maintaining professional boundaries case study

• Dr Sam Walker is a chiropractor.

A 15 year old patient comes in after school for an assessment. The patients parents are delayed and while Dr Walker waits for them to arrive the patient tells him about bullying at school. During the conversation the patient says… “you’re so kind, no one has understood me, please can we keep in touch on Facebook”

What should Dr Walker do?

• Say “yes” and accept the

patient’s friend request as he is confident that he doesn’t have any inappropriate content on his Facebook pages?

• Tell the patient that she can

send him a request, then accept it, but only allow her to see a limited version of his pages?

• Explain that it is important to

maintain professional boundaries between doctors and patients, and explain that he could not accept a friend request if the patient sent one.

The answer…

• C

Sensitively explain to the patient that its important to maintain professional boundaries between doctors and patients, and unfortunately because of this he could not accept a friend request.

Breaching confidentiality

• Individual pieces of information may not breach

confidentiality on their own however, the sum of published information could be enough to identify a patient or someone close to them…

• Jeremy Hunt posted this picture of himself visiting

University College London Hospital on Twitter. In the background was a patient board listing names of patients due to have surgery.

• Check, and check again before posting a picture. Breaching

patient confidentiality is a serious breach of code for all healthcare professionals.

Maintaining Professionalism…the mistakes people make.

• This picture posted on social

media by an air hostess posing in her uniform led to her being sacked as it was deemed inappropriate….

• The lesson for healthcare

professionals?

• Social media posts can go viral…
• Employment tribunals CAN take

action over social media posts.

• AND…
• So can your regulator.
• CHECK YOUR POSTS ARE

APPROPIATE.

Further mistakes people make on Social Media. Failing to respect colleagues, patients and clients.

• Another example from the airline

industry!

• This is Tatiana Kozlenko who

posted this picture of herself swearing at passengers on board a

• flight. The post quickly went viral

which led to her being sacked.

• The lesson for you?
• Be careful when posting on social

media.

• Ask yourself – does your post

breach any of your regulators code?

• Does it breach confidence? Is it

professional? Is it appropriate?

Giving advice

• ver social

media

• Be careful!
• In one of our cases, an Osteopath

was a member of a public Facebook Group.

• Another member complained of

lower back pain AND….

• The Osteopath made a number of

exercise suggestions to ease the pain and in doing so, made it clear that she is an Osteopath.

• A complaint was made to GOsC by

another Osteopath who saw the post…

• Action now being taken against our

client for giving advice without an assessment..

Final T Thou

• ught.