The Impact of Social Media on Informatics in Healthcare Settings

This report delves into the significant impact of social media on healthcare informatics, emphasizing the need for policies to govern its use within healthcare organizations. It addresses the ethical and legal considerations, including HIPAA violations and the blurring of professional and personal boundaries. The report examines the relationship between accreditation, informatics, quality of care, and reimbursement, highlighting how accurate data documentation and informatics contribute to these areas. It also discusses the importance of ethical guidelines for healthcare professionals regarding social media use, including patient confidentiality and the avoidance of judgment based on social media profiles. The conclusion stresses the importance of understanding the implications of social media in healthcare and the need for organizations to integrate quality of care, informatics, accreditation, and reimbursement practices.

Running head: IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON INFORMATICS
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON INFORMATICS
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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Introduction
Social media and smart phones have been dominating the lives of people these days.
However, it has its pros and cons and its use should be limited especially in healthcare
organisations. Hospitals should devise and implement policies regarding the use of social
media and at the same time, they should ethically deal with the above situations.
The policy of Hospitals Regarding the usage of Social Media and Phone
Policies are required for all organisations as they set a plan of action that gradually
leads to the desired outcome and helps in making decisions. All healthcare organization needs
to devise and implement policies as well as procedures. When social media is used in
healthcare organisations poses a significant challenge for professionals. The balance between
private and professional boundaries can be blurred when there is no separation between
personal as well as professional communication.
While making policies regarding the usage of social media and smartphone the
management should ensure that the employees are using the HONcode principles and website
as it is a certified one and respects the privacy of the users, provide funding details and
distinguishes advertising from an editorial. Facebook is one of the widely used social
networking sites and has become a ground for HIPAA violations where pictures, situations
and discussions of patients are posted that is against the rule (Cohen & Mello 2018). Though
Facebook can be used for sharing and promoting healthcare organisations, sharing
professional information on this site will be prohibited. The policy should ensure that only
those pieces of information are shared that are not private, protected and traces back to the
medical history of a patient. Authenticated and official website should be used by the
employees to gain information on health-related topics. The policy will also include a system
to validate the information that is circulated on the internet that will develop and promote

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reliable sources of information for healthcare professionals. The policy will also prohibit the
usage of phones and social networking sites in an operating room. The cell phone will be
allowed only when it does not affect the safety of other patients, their privacy and dignity.
Areas, where mobile phones and social media should be used, will include cafes, lifts,
reception, and regions where medical care is not given.
Professionals are required to apply privacy settings to protect their personal
information as well as keep their private and professional sectors separately. Healthcare
professionals should be sensitive while dealing with sources and the knowledge that is
displayed publicly. Physicians are required to maintain confidentiality online. Technology
can be used to keep in touch with the patient but it should not replace personal meetings.
Online interactions with patients should be avoided as it may lead to ambiguous language.
To maintain the trust of the patient's healthcare professionals are required to apply ethical
principles to preserve confidentiality, respect, and privacy. Crowdsourcing should be avoided
as it is a moral concern that raises questions regarding privacy (Sims et al., 2019). It is ethical
for the employees not to post details about their patients or their condition on any social
media as it is a legal offence as well. While law and ethics protect patients' information, this
protection also allows the physician to consult from their colleagues regarding the medical
treatment of a patient.
Therefore, through social media and smart phones sometimes help the patients as well
as the professionals to take advice and gain information, it can have long-term consequences.
On the one hand, it helps the professionals to use the information for clinical aid, and on the
other hand, the patient’s boundary can be violated through the misuse of data.

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Access to the social media post
Social media assists people to stay in touch with their family as well as friends.
People share posts, pictures, opinions, and interests through social media. People are free to
post their opinion, interests and photographs on social networking sites. No one has the right
to judge a person according to the activities of his/her social media account. Sometimes
employers judge the candidates according to their social media activity, which is not legally
correct.
Employers should avoid judging candidates according to their social media posts as
their personal lives that should be separated from the professional ones. While viewing the
social media account of a person, the employer can unknowingly discriminate him/her
according to colour, gender, religion as well as national origin (Blount et al., 2016). People
are free to voice their opinion in a given manner and live life according to their preferences.
Employers have no right to judge a person’s opinion or a way of living while employing a
person as the latter can be a potential candidate and it might be a loss to the company. While
a college representative, healthcare professional or an employer views the social media post
of an individual, he/she may come to know about the information that he is not entitled to
which may affect the hiring process. A post cannot define a person’s strength and character; it
is just an opinion or an effort to stand at par with others, so they should not be judged based
on the post. Furthermore, without knowing the person or interacting with him and making a
personal opinion on that is not legally and professionally correct. The candidate suffers a lot
by the above act of the employer. On the other hand, employees should also be aware of what
they are posting online and follow the privacy settings so that an unknown person cannot
view their accounts. Employers while hiring candidates, sometimes check the social media
profile of the employee to judge his behavior and character. This cannot be done as it is
illegal to view someone else’s profile and judge him/her according to what is displayed on

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social media. Studies that were conducted have shown that many candidates were expelled or
not given jobs based on their social media posts. Employers should not be influenced by the
post of an individual as it is related to their personal life. They look into the account to make
sure whether the candidate is fit for the job that he/she is being offered. Candidates, too,
should be aware of what they are posting online. Before going for a job interview, they
should be careful that their social media account is free from any opinion that may jeopardize
their relationship with the employer and affect their future endeavors.
Therefore, it is professionally and personally illegal to judge a person through a social
media post while hiring a candidate. The employers should not make decisions according to
what they see online, as it is not morally correct as well.
Relationship between Accreditation, Informatics, Care and
Reimbursement
Accreditation is an agency that makes national standards with the help of which the
quality of care, as well as reimbursement, can be determined. As documents are extensive
therefore electronic information is needed to capture the data when it is challenging to meet
the standards. These agencies keep a check on the healthcare organisations to see whether
they are delivering quality care to the patient or not while keeping in mind the safety
measures (Hebda, Hunter & Czar 2019). Every employee of the organization is answerable to
the accreditation visitor and needs to respond to their queries. The providers of healthcare are
paid by the government with the help of the process of reimbursement. Benefits of
reimbursement should be provided to all healthcare employees so that they can use it for their
medical expenditure. Reimbursement is a method of payment that is given to healthcare
organisation so that the medical experts or the hospital management cannot turn the patients
away or neglect their treatment. Service providers should look after the issue of

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reimbursement. Payment is made to the hospitals for the procedures that they carry in a
specific period and this is volume-based compensation.
Quality of care on the other hand is essential for healthcare organisations to reduce
deaths. It is also the right of the patient to receive treatment without being discriminated. It is
also considered to be one of the components of right to health. To reduce deaths and diseases
it is vital that healthcare centers take the responsibility to treat the patient with effective
healthcare services. Quality of care requires communication so that the treatment can be
given in the best way. Furthermore, informatics assists in effective communication through
engineered processes. Information can be carried out in various ways however, it is
informatics that apply the foundation of mathematics as well as theory that are similar in all
system of computation.
The relationship between accreditation, quality of care, reimbursement and
informatics is quite clear and clear (Nelson & Staggers, 2016). Accreditation is not performed
until relevant data is documented. Reimbursement, on the other hand, many be jeopardized if
the information is inaccurate, absent as well as incomplete. Furthermore, quality of care is
dependent on the providers of care who make decisions on the proof that is frequently found
in the assimilated exchanges of the data. Sharing of data amongst organisations, providers, as
well as reliable entities, help in the contribution of the quality of care. Finally, specialists in
informatics approve the decisions regarding computers and other electronic systems. They are
experts in their field and therefore, can offer insight and wisdom to develop, evaluate as well
as implement the information system in a useful manner.
Thus, all four components are essential in a healthcare organisation as each is
interrelated with the other. All healthcare organisations should include the above elements to
improve their activities and move ahead in the medical business. It is essential to take into

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consideration all the points while making decisions professionally in medical centers to
ensure the satisfaction of the patients as well as the healthcare professionals.
Conclusion
To conclude, it should be noted that hospitals should be aware of the implications of
social media and the ethical and legal duty that they need to follow while using social sites
regarding the patients. Employers, too, should not judge an individual according to his/her
social media post as it is illegal. All healthcare organisation should encourage the quality of
care as well as informatics along with the need for accreditation and reimbursement.

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References
Blount, J., Wright, C. S., Hall, A. A., & Biss, J. L. (2016). Social media: Creating student
awareness of its use in the hiring process. Retrieved from:
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/businesscom_facultypubs/57/
Cohen, I. G., & Mello, M. M. (2018). HIPAA and protecting health information in the 21st
century. Jama, 320(3), 231-232. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.5630
Hebda, T., Hunter, K., & Czar, P. (2019). Handbook of Informatics for Nurses & Healthcare
Professionals (6th ed.). New York: Pearson.
Nelson, R., & Staggers, N. (2016). Health Informatics-E-Book: An Interprofessional
Approach. Elsevier Health Sciences. Retrieved from:
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Sims, M. H., Hodges Shaw, M., Gilbertson, S., Storch, J., & Halterman, M. W. (2019). Legal
and ethical issues surrounding the use of crowdsourcing among healthcare
providers. Health informatics journal, 25(4), 1618-1630.
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