Treating Patients With The Use Of Social Media
When you think about how people express themselves in today’s society you can simply turn on your computer or pick up your phone and with few clicks, you are able to read multiple expresses details through the various social media sites available through the internet. The article “Should Social Media Be Used to Aid Clinial Treatment?” by Rick Nauert PhD http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/04/01/should-social-media-be-used-to-aid-clinical-treatment/83027.html discusses the lack of proper protocols, ethical and legal ramifications that the use of social media can present for healthcare providers when used as an aid for clinical treatment
With so many controversial issues in medical treatments already
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How information obtained is allowed to be used for possible treatment of patients. If a healthcare provider obtains information via social media there needs to be set guide lines in place for how that information may be used. Can they call the patient to come into the office to address the concerns that was discovered? Are they able to document in the patients chart their findings? All of this requires protocols that at this time are controversial. Patients need to sign consents in advance for providers to access information through social media. Just as a patient must sign a consent for providers to obtain medical records, should a patient sign a consent allowing provider’s to access their information through social media? With HIPPA laws and privacy acts there is a very fine line to consider when thinking about this subject. When looking up a patient through any social media site or even google you could potentially violate a patient’s privacy. Providers could open themselves up to potential lawsuits if a patient does not want a healthcare provider to know their personal information they share on their Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Vine, Instagram, etc. With so many ways to access individuals these days it makes it very easy to gain information, but it is unclear how that information can be