Social Media Impact On Health Care

Communication has been permanently changed by social media. A wide conceptual definition of social media, as cited in Ressler & Glazer (2010), is “The online and mobile accessible services that enable individuals to connect, collaborate, and share with others in real time.” Social media has an obvious influence on informal communication style and represents both possibility and liability for healthcare institutions. As cited in Bernhardt, Alber, & Gold (2014), “Social media provide healthcare professionals with tools to share information, to debate health care policy and practice issues, to promote health behaviors, to engage with the public, and to educate and interact with patients, caregivers, students, and colleagues.” It also presents challenges, including risks to information accuracy, organizational reputation, and individual privacy. Social media can be a very helpful in communicating among nurses and other healthcare providers while creating professional connections, and sharing experiences, but guidelines for appropriate use by healthcare providers are essential. Whether or not certain healthcare organization decides to use social media as a communications tool - social media policy still need to be implemented. Policies help establish an organization 's rules and expectations around social media.

We Can But Dare We: A Look into the Use of Social Media in Healthcare

Social media in hospitals can affect the patient as well as the nurse and the nursing student. Westrick states: “Nurses must find a balance between taking advantage of the benefits social media use

The objective of this study is to examine the importance of not sharing patient information through social media. According to the work of Adler (2011) many physicians are violating HIPAA and do not know it. Dimick (2010) writes that nurses at the Fargo, ND-based healthcare system in 2008 were using Facebook to "provide unauthorized shift change updates to their co-workers. What once would have been a conversation became an update on their personal Facebook pages. It was a convenient tool, because the nurses had "friended" each other through Facebook and thus could quickly read what each other wrote on their pages. They did not use patient names, but they did post enough specifics about patients so that the incoming nurses could prepare for their shift. The problem was that everyone else "friended" to their Facebook pages could also read the information." (p.1) The use of social media to talk about work "sharing sensitive patient or proprietary business information that same easy use and powerful reach broadcasts guarded information to large numbers of people." (Dimick, 2010, p.1) Release of information that is sensitive over social media can result in great harm to the reputation of an organization, violations of HIPAWA and ultimately result in "breach notifications and hefty fines." (Dimick, 2010, p.2) Dimick writes that Kaiser Permanente published "an organization-wide social media policy that explains appropriate staff

In the present culture of the United States, social media has had a major impact in American society. It has a profound influence and intertwined itself in almost every aspect of the average American’s life. It ranges from providing updates of location of a person(s), events, and sharing personal moments. Even different industries are utilizing social media as a platform for communication, information, and sales mediums. One industry, the health care field has seen a rise in the utilization of social media. For instance, an emerging population of physicians are using social media apps such as Snap Chat, Facebook, and YouTube to educate, display surgical, and medical procedures while being performed. In contrast, as there are positive aspects of utilizing social media, a negative trait of social media is invading and exposing individual’s privacy. As of recent, a New York licensed nurse had to surrender her nursing license and sentenced to 3 years of probation for “moral unfitness in the practice (Bowerman, 2016).” She took photos with her phone of two unconscious male patient’s genitalia and shared them with coworkers. This has become an increasing issue and as the utilization of social media in healthcare is increasing, many ethical issues are developing. For instance, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was passed for the adoption of a national standard for electronic health care transactions and code sets, unique health identifiers,

With the advancement of modern technology, social media is increasingly finding use in healthcare delivery and management. Health professionals including doctors, nurses and therapists have adopted social media to communicate with their patients and for health sensitization. Social media can benefit healthcare delivery in a variety of ways including fostering professional connections, patient and community education and promoting communication with patients and families. On the other hand, use of social media in healthcare exposes patients’ data to breaches and leakages creating confidentiality issues. Misuse of patient data results in serious career penalties for negligent medical professionals. Protocols have been established to oversee the use of social medial by health practitioners. The paper seeks to explore the recognized rules that regulate the use of social media, and its risks and benefits. Health professionals should utilize benefits of social media while adhering to confidentiality, privacy, and ethical guidelines for private or professional communications with respect to patient data.

The preceptor that I am with does not use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other Internet related sources in patient communication or anything that is related to their patients’ condition and might breach their privacy and confidentiality. Although the physician and NP mentioned that the clinic portal allows their patients to access their information, which they implemented fairly recent. However, again they expressed mixed feeling about it and possible violation of HIPAA. They agreed that it is the patient right to know everything about their condition but since they access it through the Internet there is no guarantee that is completely safe and cannot be accessed or hacked by someone else. Until this point the practice

Social media is useful to radiologists in and out of their work environments. They can be contacted by their patients outside of work if they are urgently needed, and they can also learn the most updated educational material by browsing it on social media. Social media and cell phones make contacting peers, clinicians, and patients much less

The health care community has come a long way with introducing technology in such a world that is to remain private. It has opened many doors of convenience for all health care employees. It allows easy access, legible readiness, fingertip readiness and more. Lots of providers and nurses rely on their cell phones and computers when doing patient care, especially at the bedside. You can calculate a quick formula, or look up a new medication and see how it can be added to the plan of care and more. Social media is also used in many ways, especially with advertising. Hospitals, clinics, and many stand alone healthcare facilities advertise through social media for new clientele, new products that they may be offering, or to simply get their business “out there”. But sometimes social media and cell phones can fail us when it is used for reasons other than benefiting the patient. There are laws in place that prohibit healthcare employees from sharing private and personal information that are identifying markers of the patient themselves. Their care and information is to be protected at all times. Here in the scenario a nurse missed a concert of her favorite band. Toward the end of her shift she receives a trauma patient who just so happens to be the lead singer of this band. She in turns takes pictures of him and his home address and other contact info and sends it to her friend who was able to make the show. There are so many things wrong with this scenario. My goal in further

The use of social media can be very beneficial to health care in different ways, including fostering professional connections, promoting timely communication with patients and family members, and educating and informing consumers and health care professionals. Social media is changing the way that health professionals and patients interact with each other. The use of social media and other electronic communication is expanding exponentially as the number of social media outlets, platforms and applications available continue to increase. Individuals use blogs, social networking sites, video sites, online chat rooms and forums to communicate both personally and professionally with others (NCSBN, 2011).

The role of media has had a longtime influence on health policy and politics. The use of traditional media such as radio, television, film, and newspapers were once a common method used in an attempt to reach as many audience members as possible. The most common method used currently is the internet or social media. Gardner, Glickstein, and Mason (2016) uses the presidential election of Borak Obama as an example; he took advantage of social media (i.e. Facebook) to gain followers and ultimately was able to win the election. These similar tactics can be used in influencing health care.

According to the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health “Many social media tools are available for health care professionals (HCPs), including social networking platforms, blogs, microblogs, wikis, media-sharing sites, and virtual reality and gaming environments.1–8 these tools can be used to improve or enhance professional networking and education, organizational promotion, patient care, patient education, and public health programs.3,5–10 However, they also present potential risks to patients and HCPs regarding the distribution of poor-quality information, damage to professional image, breaches of patient privacy, violation of personal–professional boundaries, and licensing or legal issues.2–4, 8, 10–17 many health care institutions and professional organizations have issued guidelines to prevent these risks”

Sometimes, a health worker does not give importance to the patient because the interest of social media. Health worker keeps on using social media websites while discussing the problem of a problem. The usage of social media websites for private purposes through working hours at emergency health services can have a negative impact on well-being and work performance of employees.

“Social media have invaded health care from at least three fronts: innovative startups, patient communities and medical centers” (John Sharp 2010). The Social Media arena helps the health care system for their planning strategy and their marketing. However, their use is very controversial. There is a discussion about the use of social media in the healthcare settings due to its vulnerability. Even though social media is important for the healthcare development, the security issues will remain big concerns for the healthcare system.

The revolution in the communication technology is leaving nothing to chance with the field of medicine having its fear share of the impacts. The cost of hospitalization is increasing at an increasing rate yet the health insurance is not comprehensive enough to take care of the many lifestyle diseases common in the modern population. The communication technology is here facilitating the cost cutting strategies in the field of medicine, from diagnosis to the final healing stages. It is not surprising to mention that the doctors and other medical practitioners today can diagnose and prescribe drugs through the social media like Facebook, Twitter and the rest. Facebook, in particular, is a highly developed social media that can enable face detection to facilitate the interaction between the medics and the clients interacting online.