Social Media and Healthcare - Essay Example

SOCIAL MEDIA AND HEALTHCARE Introduction The usage of social media is something that exploded in the United s and other parts of the globe. The rise of the social media for the past few years has seen the innovation and business opportunity emerge. The form of communication has also changed in almost every industry and business, which has seen communication between peers, colleagues, family, friends and even potential customers simplified to an extent that would not have been thought for the past few years. The healthcare sector has been sluggish in adapting social media, but for the past three years the usage of social media in healthcare industry has witnessed an upsurge. The reason as to why there is a huge reluctance of adopting social media in the healthcare is because of the many risks that can accrue the organization. Though there is a possibility of those risk occurring, there are many benefits that can be experienced by health care industry by use of social media. The major risk that is prone to be experienced as a result of social media is the problem and security and privacy issue. Any healthcare organization will be required to adapt procedures and policies, as well as security and privacy protocols to cover the risks of sharing and communicating and sharing data on social media platforms. This paper will analyze the techniques that can be used to ensure the security of social media information that is aimed to be used by healthcare organizations. It is very easy to violate patient privacy, which can lead to the Health care organization to receive sanctions for desecrations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). The evolution of social media Most people spend their time on social media, social media usage can account for 25% of all internet logged in the USA (Nielsen Company, 2010). It is very amazing on how most people are on social media platform, Facebook and Twitter is estimated to have more than 1 Billion users. Another form of social media is YouTube which is estimated to have more than 2 Billion views per week. The video content that is uploaded in YouTube is much more compared to any American network such as ABC and NBC. The major reason as to why healthcare organizations and Hospitals begun using social media is to meet the demand from customers. Though hospitals are beginning to embrace the use of social media, they have not adapted the usage fully. The following chart indicate the use of social media in hospitals in the year 2011. (Bennett E. 2011) One of the challenges that is likely to be experienced by Health Organizations as a result of using social media, is the issue of ethics. Ethics are the reason as to why regulatory bodies such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-oxley Act (SOX) and World Health Organization Ethic and Health Initiative exists. Social media platform does not provide any restriction, since it is an open access. This will make it very possible for issues of ethics to arise when health organization use social media sites. There are various social media mistakes that can arise as a result of using social media such as; breaching clients’ confidentiality online, guiding a client on how to use social media, and getting into the unscrupulous trap of “Google-ing” clients. HIPAA Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was endorsed by the congress in 1996 so as to enhance the delivery of healthcare services in the United State. This was because the movement and exchange of electrical data could pose a threat to privacy. The Health and Human Services (HHS) was orders to formulate regulations that would help to protect and secure any transfer of electronically-transmitted health data. Privacy Rule was established by HHS to prevent information on personal health information, which is aimed to protect any sensitive personal information to that employs appropriate safeguards, patient’s authorizations, and uses and disclosures. Breach notification for unsecured protected health information The Breach notification rule requires those entities and their business associates that are enlisted in HIPAA, to provide a notification following a breach of unsecured protected health information. Any health information that is unsecured and protected is one that is considered unusable, indecipherable or unreadable to unauthorized through the use of a technology or approach stated by the Secretary in Guidance. A very important tool that can be used to protect very useful health information is the formulation and adaptation of social media policy. There are very few distinctive policies on how to protect sensitive information on the social media. It will be prudent if one of the policy would be centered on human behavioral characteristics, the other policy should be aimed to regulate how the Health organization are use the social media. Behavior policy should characterize what social media undertakings employees are forbidden to perform, which could include things such as chatting about a patient, or revealing confidential information over a social medium such as Facebook. Security incident response plan Security incident response plan will be a good strategy if it was assumed by healthcare organization, this will be implemented by Information Technology (IT) team of the health organization. It is a complex undertaking but will be worth the investment as there will be a very high possibility of assurance in regard to information protection. The concept of security incident response plan has been greatly accepted and used to protect various types of data. It is very possible to respond to a security incident systematically, prompting immediate action to be taken. It will also benefit any health organization to prevent information from getting to unauthorized persons. Managing Social media risks Regulations such as HIPAA and Security incident response plan are not enough to manage the information that is held by Healthcare organizations. This is because the nature of social media is interactive, and sharing of information is socially networked. The outline below will be very useful to mitigate the risks that are involved by social media in respect to health organization. 1. Social media risk assessment should be performed from time-to-time The organization should identify the risks that are likely to occur as a result of using the social media. Social media assessment can be made possible by ensuring that there activities such as meeting with the clients, regulatory meetings, and holding infrastructure related to IT workshops. 2. Delineate a strategy that is aimed to protect the organization’s reputation online Social media is very capable of influencing an organization as a brand. Ad hoc tactics to involve in social media and not including all appropriate stakeholders are a common risk. It would be therefore prudent to assign one employee to monitor the reputation of an organization. In additional to this health organizations should generate an internet reputation management plan. 3. Develop social media procedures and practices As time progresses there is a new trend technology that social media comes with, it will be therefore very important to make sure that each time the organization’s social media policy can accommodate any new trend that will come up. 4. Train employees and interns Health care organizations should be very keen to train and educate their employees on the consequences that will befall them if they violate the social media practices and policies employed by an institution. The training should be relevant to HIPAA and other related state and federal laws that has specific risks pertaining social media. Work Cited Nielsen Company. What Americans do online: social media and games dominate activity [online]. 2010 Aug 2 [cited2014 November24]. Available from Internet: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-americans-doonline-social-media-and games-dominate-activity Read More