All the buzz about Facebook and privacy issues further reinforces the need for social media policies and procedures in the healthcare industry according to a recent article in InformationWeek Healthcare.
“… with health CIOs thinking about electronic medical record implementations, preparations for meeting the requirements of meaningful use of health IT, virtualization projects, HIPAA regulations, and the explosion of patient data and how to store it securely, social networking guidelines may not be getting the attention it deserves.”
While some healthcare organizations choose to avoid social media altogether either in the name of avoiding industry regulatory issues or to ban workplace social media access as a simple solution, neither approach is anything more than an ostrich sticking its head in the sand. Any organization operating any part of its business online is affected by the social web. Implementing and enforcing social media policies is certainly something that CIOs will be tasked with, but an effective social media policy requires interaction between legal, HR, marketing, public relations and business managers, not just IT.
Social media is gaining so much momentum that so it’s becoming a if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em scenario. Not to mention there are more benefits from using social networking sites showing every day. Employees are going to find a way around the policy and CIOs should try to find a happy medium where some social media apps will be blocked and some left accessible.