Social Media and the Modern Impact of Informatics

This paper discusses the complications that come with the use of social media, especially in our workplaces. It also addresses the potential ethical and legal liabilities for hospitals and employees, and the relationship between accreditation decisions, reimbursement, quality of care, and informatics.

Running Head: Social Media and the Modern Impact of Informatics 1
Social Media and the Modern Impact of Informatics
Name
University Affiliation

Running Head: Social Media and the Modern Impact of Informatics 2
Introduction
Social media is an important aspect of our lifestyles. Technological innovations have brought
gadgets at our exposure that have access to the internet which makes social media easy to access.
Social media has been used to keep tabs on each other. This has also come with its shortcomings
as people have violated the freedom that has come with social media (Edosomwan et al. 2017).
This paper will address the complications that come with the use of social media, especially in
our workplaces.
If you were writing a hospital policy on smartphone and social media usage, what should be
included in the policy?
A hospital smart phone policy is a policy that gives rules and guidelines of how both the staff
and patients in a hospital setting are expected to use their smartphones. While setting up a
hospital smartphone policy, it is essential to have a policy that balances the freedom of both the
staff and the patients while also not ruining the reputation of the hospital or infringing the rights
of those in the hospital. The policy should include the pillar of personal posts on personal social
media feeds. It means that as long as every individual has a right to post on their own space, they
should keep off posting anything related to their workplace. For example, ranting about their
bosses online is not accepted. Twitting about patients who have come for services at the hospital
should be completely avoided. The policy should include workplace conflicts which should stay
offline. The hospital as a working place should be respected. In the case of workplace conflicts
which may or may not involve the patient, should not be taken to social media (Thomas and
Akdere, 2013). They should be solved by the precise conflict-resolution mechanisms in the
workplace which is the hospital. The policy should include an off-limits for propriety
information in hospitals. It means that the code of doctor-patient confidentiality should not be

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breached. Patients who have come to the hospital with rare cases should not be a museum for
parading on social media. Their privacy should be respected. The hospital may also require that
it's plans and prospects are a kept a secret due to privacy policies and the staff should make sure
that they adhere to this.
What potential are ethical and legal liabilities there for the hospital and employees in the case
presented above?
The state laws and regulations govern every individual. The patients have a right to their privacy,
and any instances of the use of cameras to share pictures without consent of the owner are
against the rights of privacy of any individual. It is also against the law to release any identifiable
health information of a patient without their consent. It may lead to a litigation battle by the
patient. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act(HIPAA) of 1996 was legislated
to ensure that there are rules and guidelines for security, data privacy and the safeguarding of
medical information. It provides that there is privacy in necessary procedures taken by the
patients in hospitals (Shepherd, 2014). Images which are stored in the hospital electronically
should be safeguarded for them not to find their way in social media. It may lead to a lawsuit by
the affected, and it is also not ethical.
Do you feel potential employers, current employers, and colleges have the right to access your
social media post? Do you think employers and universities should make decisions based on
your post?
It is important to note that there are social media spaces like linked in which are used by
professionals to set their level of education and apply for work. These spaces are also linked to
their Twitter and Facebook accounts which are not professional spaces as compared to connected

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in. They are mostly private, and most individuals use them to post private information about
them which include their family, where they went, their feelings and emotions. Linking of these
spaces means that if the human resource found your curriculum vitae online, then your privacy is
also available to them. Basing on your employment or university acceptance scenario, this
information may lead to your admission or rejection. According to me, I don't think that social
media posts should be a judge of character for any individual unless it is against laid out rules
and laws (Vaast and Kaganer, 2013). Using an example an individual may post issues related to
their religion and culture. The recruiting organization may be biased against the religion or
culture of the individual seeking the job. It means that the company already has a perception
which is mostly a stereotype of the interviewee. It may lead to his lack of the position due to
biases caused by opinions from social media. The selection process of a student or new employee
should be strictly relevant to the job or education that one is going to pursue. Current employers
in some organizations have terminated the contracts of their employees due to their social media
posts.
States like California, Colorado, New York, Nevada, and North Dakota have formulated state
laws that have been used to regulate their staff behavior when they are off duty. It means that a
breach of these laws leads to suspension or even termination of their contracts. An example is
when an employee tweets about a major deal he/she signed for the company which was
confidential. The employer may not take that very lightly. It is also important to note that
employers have a right to discipline their employees in cases of misconduct that affects the
company's profile. There are also employees who use social media in their workplaces.
Workplaces with computers or Wi-Fi can be used by employees especially when the employer or
supervisor is not around. Employees should respect their workplaces and should only use their

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social media spaces during their off-duty hours. Disloyal employees who go on social media to
complain about issues like their pay or how their hospital working environment is unsafe for
them may be deemed a liability to the organization (Leonardi, Huysman and Steinfield, 2013). It
is because the organization's reputation ends up getting tainted. There are channels and
mechanisms that every organization puts in place for employees to air out their grievances and
have their issues addressed and social media is not one of them. Harassment of co-workers on
social media may lead to the termination of a contract by the employer. Posting company details
that may put the employer at a legal risk may also lead to job termination due to the sensitivity if
the material posted.
Discuss the relationship between accreditation decisions, reimbursement, quality of care,
informatics
Accreditation decision is awarded to organizations once they comply with the Joint Commission
International (JCI) standards. It means that the organization has been vetted and inspected and
meets the JCI requirements and therefore awarded a certification decision of Certified or an
accreditation decision of Accredited. In the case of health facilities, the organization should be in
a position to comply with the standards of International Patient Safety Goals (IPSGs) that is
usually conducted triennially. A reimbursement is defined as the compensation of an individual
for an expense that they incurred. Institutions, governments, and non-profit organizations
typically give reimbursements to their employees for costs that are reasonable and necessary in
their line of duty (Sánchez Abril, Levin, and Del Riego, 2016). In the United States, the
reimbursements given to their employees are not taxable. Reasons for reimbursement may
include travel, cell-phone expenses, education, and subsistence. Quality of care is defined as the
extent to which services of health care offered to individuals are in a better position to give out

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desired health outcomes and are done in current professional knowledge. Medical practitioners
are best situated to provide quality of care to patients. Informatics is the study of natural and
engineered computational systems; how they behave and are structured. It gives information on
the representation, processing, and communication of information in physical and engineering
systems. The relationship between all of them while relating them to social media is that they
work simultaneously. In a hospital setting, the use of informatics in analyzing how the hospital
systems assist the patients and medics to aid them in providing quality healthcare to their patients
through record-keeping and biotechnology monitoring. Hospitals which have bio-metric sing in
and sign out details for employees may assist in their reimbursement for overtime or extra work
given to them.
Regarding accreditation, data stored in the hospital system of the employees and their
qualification for the job is vital during the triennial supervision from the accreditation body.
Every hospital should ensure that informatics in healthcare whereby the information of a patient
stored electronically is protected. Nurses who are given the mandate of managing, interpreting
and communicating collected data should make sure that it is accurate and correct. Software that
is used in hospitals should be continuously updated and protected against viruses and malware
that may corrupt the files. New technology has led to the easement of synchronization of services
in the hospital (Ravenscroft, Schmidt, Cook and Bradley, 2017). For example, a dentist or
surgeon may have the full history of a patient just by one click of the computer.
Conclusion
While the use of social media is a complicated but fundamental aspect of the workplace, rules,
and regulations governing its use should be applied. Employees should be able to find a balance
between the rights of every individual and the protection of their workplaces. Individuals who

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own social media accounts should practice decorum and moderation because their behavior
online may portray an image of their real-life behavior. In conclusion, technology will always
evolve with both positive and negative aspects. We should learn to embrace the positive while
shun the negative.

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References
Edosomwan, S., Prakasan, S. K., Kouame, D., Watson, J., & Seymour, T. (2017). The history of
social media and its impact on business. Journal of Applied Management and
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Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise social media: Definition,
history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of
Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(1), 1-19.
Ravenscroft, A., Schmidt, A., Cook, J., & Bradley, C. (2017). Designing social media for
informal learning and knowledge maturing in the digital workplace. Journal of Computer
Assisted Learning, 28(3), 235-249.
Sánchez Abril, P., Levin, A., & Del Riego, A. (2016). Blurred boundaries: Social media privacy
and the twenty‐first‐century employee. American Business Law Journal, 49(1), 63-124.
Shepherd, C. (2014). Does social media have a place in workplace learning?. Strategic direction,
27(2), 3-4.
Thomas, K. J., & Akdere, M. (2013). Social media as collaborative media in workplace learning.
Human Resource Development Review, 12(3), 329-344.

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Vaast, E., & Kaganer, E. (2013). Social media affordances and governance in the workplace: An
examination of organizational policies. Journal of computer-mediated communication,
19(1), 78-101.