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In another example of people forgetting to apply common sense when using social media, employees of St. Joseph’s and Candler Hospitals, a health provider in Georgia USA were disciplined after digital images of a patient’s X-Ray were posted on Facebook – having previously been photographed on a mobile phone and shared via text message.

The employee who posted the image was initially disciplined but not dismissed though later left the organisation. The images were removed from Facebook. While no personal details were compromised on the Internet, the “digital image of a male patient’s pelvic region” was later received by the Savannah Morning News with an anonymous letter – providing evidence the image had been shared via phones – sparking a further investigation.

The final conclusions of the managers investigating were that there was no breach of federal patient privacy protection laws but the incident did represent a violation of hospital policies.

As a result of the new investigation, three employees were dismissed and subsequently the hospitals have issued reminders for employees about the need for care and attention to standards of behaviour when using social media.

Once again, the boundary between personal or private behaviour and individually professional responsibility and accountability has become blurred and social media technology has “trapped” people – with their inappropriate behaviour becoming all too public.

Photo: .mw, Flickr

Social networking platforms have taken off like rockets over the last 5 years. Millions of people are using them to keep in contact with friends and colleagues sharing thoughts, ideas, trivia, photos, jokes across the Internet. For the generation reaching adulthood and maturing with these tools, they are a natural way to keep in touch while for many, they are an alien virtual world.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, many traditional organisations are struggling to keep pace with the phenomenon. Many organisations are looking to develop and enforce “social media policies” and often look to the human resources team to establish the ground rules.

Significant potential benefits from social media are recognised – creating new business opportunities, communicating effectively with customers personally and increasing credibility.

They are also concerned about loss of productivity with employees “playing” with social media plus  with technology concerns including security and bandwidth pressures. On top of these concerns, organisations are recognising the pervasive nature of individuals online presence, torn between using them to find out more about job applicants and new talent, while worrying about the possibility of employees divulging corporate secrets or bringing the organisation into disrepute through “inappropriate” virtual behaviour. Read the rest of this entry →

The US Department of Defence has accepted the benefits of using social media now outweigh the risks to security.

The Pentagon has agreed to unblock access to sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

Using social media is considered to provide significant benefits in providing valuable communications between troops and their families.

Given the age profile of military units, many of the troops will have grown up with the internet and social media, viewing access to a range of online services as central to their social life. Read the rest of this entry →

Thames Valley police officers have been reprimanded after video of them playing in the snow appeared on YouTube.

The PCs were filmed using riot shields to slide down Boars Hill, Oxfordshire, being cheered on by colleagues and local residents. All seemed to be just innocent fun.

The video was taken by a civilian bystander and posted onto YouTube. Read the rest of this entry →

The curse of social networking in the workplace strikes again as postings emerged on Facebook showing three young women posing for photos wearing police hats, high-visibility jackets and boots … inside a police station.

With today’s modern technology, a camera in every phone plus immediate and widespread publication over the internet, the dangers inherant in relaxed and unguarded moments are greater than ever. Read the rest of this entry →

Social networking activity is in the dock once again with the Journal of the American Medical Association reporting the results of a study with US medical schools.

Apparently, more than half of US medical schools taking part in the study had reported students posting “unprofessional content” online – with 10% of these cases containing clear violations of patient confidentiality.

It is not clear, from news coverage, how frequently such cases are occurring.

The medical schools were reported to have insufficiently clear and strong policy frameworks in place for handling such cases though some incidents were serious enough to lead to dismissal from medical school.

Dr Katherine Chretien of Washington DC VA Medical Center, leading the study, suggests a worrying lack of awareness by students about the potential dangers and consequences of unguarded comments on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Confidentiality breaches, in some cases, were considered unintentional – though it is hard to see how the need for medical confidentiality could be understood to be anything less than paramount.

It seems employers are now as sensitive to “productivity risks” posed by social networking and online shopping as they have been about security risks and pornography.

Recently, social networking sites like Twitter, Myspace and Bebo, their multimedia equivalent such as Flickr and YouTube – and especially Facebook, have been in the news -

• Portsmouth City Council restricted staff from using Facebook during office hours after employees spent the equivalent of 71 working days on the site in a single month,
• NHS staff were suspended from duty after posting photos on the “Lying Down Game” on Facebook – with allegations of unprofessional behaviour and breaches of infection control policy,
• Argyll and Bute council banned teachers from Twitter after a secondary school teacher was found using the site 20 times a day – allegedly criticising management colleagues and making inappropriate comments about pupils,
• Employees working for the Dixons group faced disciplinary action when found making “insulting comments” about their customers.

There are certainly risks and problems with such technology and employees should be expected to understand the need for, and demonstrate, good judgement here, as in many other areas of working life. Established employment case law shows an employer can take a view about employees’ conduct outside the workplace.

Read the rest of this entry →