Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram make it easy for healthcare organizations to advertise their services and win new business. Healthcare providers can use social media sites to communicate with patients, provide updates on their services, and engage patients and get them to take a more active role in their healthcare.
While there are many benefits that can come from social media in healthcare, many healthcare organizations rightly see social media networks as minefield of HIPAA violations. This is not only true for the corporate accounts of healthcare providers, but also the personal social media accounts of their employees.
An employee communicating on social media after a particularly difficult day could easily divulge information that could violate patient privacy. There have been many cases of healthcare employees communicating on social media networks, including private Facebook groups, and sharing sensitive information about patients in violation of the HIPAA Rules.
Virtually all healthcare employees have smartphones, and it is common for them to have social media apps on their devices that make it possible to instantly communicate with large numbers of people. It is no surprise that privacy violations on social media networks are now occurring more frequently than ever before.
Social media networks can certainly be used effectively by healthcare organizations, but there are many misunderstandings about how these platforms can be used in a HIPAA compliant manner. It is naturally important to specifically cover the use of social media platforms in training sessions for healthcare employees to make it clear to employees how HIPAA applies to social media networks and what is and is not allowed. Without training for the workforce, HIPAA-covered entities will face a high risk of regulatory fines and lawsuits.
To make it easier for you to train your employees and teach them how they can use social media networks responsibly in their professional and personal lives, HIPAA Journal has teamed up with Compliancy Group for a webinar where attendees will be provided with invaluable advice on social media and HIPAA compliance.
At the webinar you will learn how your practice and employees can use social media networks ethically without violating the HIPAA Rules and patient privacy, as you will discover how you can protect your practice from HIPAA violations.
By the end of the webinar you will have instructions on how to create effective policies covering the use of personal and corporate-owned mobile phones and social media in the office. You will also be provided with real life examples of some of the HIPAA breaches that have occurred as a result of improper social media usage to help ensure similar mistakes are not made by your practice and employees.
Webinar Details:
Social Media & HIPAA Compliance: Simple Ways to Protect Your Business
Date: Wednesday June 16, 2021
Time: 2:00 pm ET / 11 am PT
The post Webinar 06/16/21: Social Media and HIPAA Compliance appeared first on HIPAA Journal.