Drs. & Lawyers Need to Use Facebook Cautiously

This article outlines the rules doctors and other healthcare professionals have using social media which are similar to those for lawyers but are event stricter.  Take for example the doctor who posted information about a trauma patient and ended up getting fired from the hospital and disciplined by her medical board.  She hadn’t even posted the patient’s name but enough information to make the disclosure a violation under HIPAA, the (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).

Other issues a doctor faces is displaying themselves drinking wine in a Facebook photo or engaging other behavior that might make a patient think twice about having this person operate on them.  I don’t think lawyers have to worry about that – clients aren’t as worried about the precision of their lawyers language in the courtroom as potential patients are with a surgeon with the scalpel!

Tags: Facebook, Linkedin, physicians