Social Media and Social Networking in Medical Practices
What healthcare providers should do
- Use separate personal and professional social networking sites. For example, use a personal rather than professional e-mail address for logging on to social networking websites for personal use.
- Always adhere to the same principles of professionalism online as you would offline.
- Refer, as appropriate, to your employer’s social media or social networking policy for direction on the proper use of social media and social networking in relation to your employment.
- Report any unprofessional behavior to supervisory and/or regulatory authorities.
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What we do
The Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline authority to discipline physicians for unprofessional behavior relating to the inappropriate use of social networking media, such as:
- Inappropriate communication with patients online;
- Use of the Internet for unprofessional behavior;
- Online misrepresentation of credentials;
- Online violations of patient confidentiality;
- Failure to reveal conflicts of interest online;
- Online derogatory remarks regarding a patient;
- Online depiction of intoxication;
- Discriminatory language or practices online.
Rhode Island Department of Health