Why your doctor won't 'friend' you on Facebook

[Johnboy60]

Doctors' practices are increasingly trying to reach their patients online. But don't expect your doctor to "friend" you on Facebook -- at least, not just yet.

Physicians generally draw a line: Public professional pages -- focused on medicine, similar to those other businesses offer -- are catching on. Some might email with patients. But doctors aren't ready to share vacation photos and other more intimate details with patients, or even to advise them on medication or treatment options via private chats. They're hesitant to blur the lines between personal lives and professional work and nervous about the privacy issues that could arise in discussing specific medical concerns on most Internet platforms.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/23/health/doctors-social-media/index.html

 

[bhsmte]

Doctors' practices are increasingly trying to reach their patients online. But don't expect your doctor to "friend" you on Facebook -- at least, not just yet.

Physicians generally draw a line: Public professional pages -- focused on medicine, similar to those other businesses offer -- are catching on. Some might email with patients. But doctors aren't ready to share vacation photos and other more intimate details with patients, or even to advise them on medication or treatment options via private chats. They're hesitant to blur the lines between personal lives and professional work and nervous about the privacy issues that could arise in discussing specific medical concerns on most Internet platforms.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/23/health/doctors-social-media/index.html

Doctors need to control communication with patients, because they can be deemed to "be on the hook" if they don't respond in time, or appropriately.

 

[seashale76]

This is not news to anyone that knows what professionalism is. Your doctor isn't your friend. Your doctor is a professional and has a therapeutic relationship with you as the patient. That's all.

 

[cow451]

Believe it or not, your doctor probably doesn't remember you until he/she gets the record prior to walking in the exam room. That's not a knock, just noting that seeing twenty different people a day causes them to mostly be just "patients" (or whatever body part or procedure is involved).

IOW, outside a situation where you see the doc at least weekly for an extended time, you aren't going to be memorable. You are special but not THAT special.

 

[ChristsSoldier115]

This is not news to anyone that knows what professionalism is. Your doctor isn't your friend. Your doctor is a professional and has a therapeutic relationship with you as the patient. That's all.

Yeah... like when people friend their boss and then wonder why they're fired or have some stupid duty because of something they said on facebook. I am not going to friend who I work with on facebook. 9 times out of 10 people do not know how to leave stuff at home.

 

[bhsmte]

Yeah... like when people friend their boss and then wonder why they're fired or have some stupid duty because of something they said on facebook. I am not going to friend who I work with on facebook. 9 times out of 10 people do not know how to leave stuff at home.

One of the reasons I don't do facebook.

Having stuff on the internet about your life, gives me the creeps.

 

[Ada Lovelace]

I'm "friends" with several of my nurses, doctors, and other medical caregivers on Facebook, though none of us would actually construe our relationship with one another as a true friendship. We're friendly with one another rather than friends. The same is true for the teachers I've "friended" who aren't my friends. Any communication there still has the appropriate tone. My circumstances are a bit unique, though; far more time has been spent with those giving me medical care than in a typical doctor-patient transaction. My dad and stepmom are also physicians (he's an oncologist and she's a pediatrician), and he's connected on Instagram and Facebook to select patients he developed a long-term friendly relationship with, whereas she will not personally connect to any of her patients on social media. Her office does have a public Facebook page, though. It mainly is for posting articles and tips and the like rather than a typical page with more personal posts.

For the most part, patients are having relatively brief interactions with their physicians, and it's essentially a business transaction where one person is soliciting and paying for the expertise of the other. Ideally a physician should be cordial but not overly familiar unless there's a specific reason to be. They also want to be able to decompress at the end of the work day, and many would have the valid concern that it would be harder to leave the job behind at night if their patients were inundating them with messages on Facebook or Instagram. There are also liability concerns.

 

[seashale76]

One of the reasons that drove me to get rid of my Facebook account was students (current and former) finding me and wanting to friend me and send me messages. No. Just no. While I liked my students, I don't need friends under the age of eighteen. I had good rapport with them, but I wasn't their friend. Some boundaries should never be crossed.

 

[seashale76]

Yeah... like when people friend their boss and then wonder why they're fired or have some stupid duty because of something they said on facebook. I am not going to friend who I work with on facebook. 9 times out of 10 people do not know how to leave stuff at home.

This is true. It's also how some people lose their jobs. For example, I know someone who is a nurse and so is her husband. Some of his friends from nursing school friended her on Facebook. She mentioned that a lot of them don't know when to stop talking about work. When you put the friends of friends thing in there, HIPAA violations can occur and other people you didn't know were friends with your friends can find out exactly who and what you're talking about. The result is somebody can lose their job (as happened to one of her husband's friends).

 

[trunks2k]

Yeah... like when people friend their boss and then wonder why they're fired or have some stupid duty because of something they said on facebook. I am not going to friend who I work with on facebook. 9 times out of 10 people do not know how to leave stuff at home.

That's my general rule. No work mates on Facebook unless I am actually friends with them outside of work. I have one person I broke that rule with and it was an accident (thought I hit "ignore request"), and I feel bad undoing it.

 

[keith99]

This is true. It's also how some people lose their jobs. For example, I know someone who is a nurse and so is her husband. Some of his friends from nursing school friended her on Facebook. She mentioned that a lot of them don't know when to stop talking about work. When you put the friends of friends thing in there, HIPAA violations can occur and other people you didn't know were friends with your friends can find out exactly who and what you're talking about. The result is somebody can lose their job (as happened to one of her husband's friends).

Who your facebook friends are does not make any difference. Since facebook is NOT a secure site as soon as you mention any patient information there you have committed a HIPAA violation. Same for normal Email. It does NOT matter at all who you are talking to, it is not secure and a violation. That is in law, of course in practice it makes a difference, the same difference as speeding on an empty road and speeding on a road that is empty except for the traffic cop and his radar gun.

 

[keith99]

What about those of us whose doctors are their friends? I mean for real. I've had at least 2 physicians who were friends. One emigrated to New Zealand and between years in Grad School I spend 7 weeks with him and his wife or traveling in her car. I've been on the other end of that also. I worked with my father who was a paedodontist and some patients became friends. Heck my current dentist was dad's associate until dad retired. I think being invited to his wedding is enough to mark us as friends. I'd count a couple of teachers from Jr. High as friends. It happens, it is just not automatic.

 

[Ada Lovelace]

One of the reasons that drove me to get rid of my Facebook account was students (current and former) finding me and wanting to friend me and send me messages. No. Just no. While I liked my students, I don't need friends under the age of eighteen. I had good rapport with them, but I wasn't their friend. Some boundaries should never be crossed.

I'm friends with some of my teachers but I definitely understand the potential conflicts of interest, the way such a friendship could be misconstrued based on the appearance of impropriety, and the complications that could arise. As I wrote before, I don't actually consider most of my teachers to be friends even though we've friended one another on Facebook. I never use Facebook anymore anyway. My art teachers are my legitimate friends, but those are unique circumstances. Plus one is like 60 and gay, so he's obviously harmless. Mainly it's been a way of staying in contact over the holidays and sharing major news. Some teachers do have public Facebook pages for their classes that parents and students are invited to participate in. There was a scandal at my school involving a very popular English teacher who'd had a clandestine inappropriate relationship with girls, and it lead to a substantial amount of media attention and the beloved head of the school resigning. I think now teachers and parents would be too protective to friend students on social media. It's a shame because he was the one rotten apple.

If you wanted to return to Facebook but maintain your privacy you could always just go by a nickname. Or your first and middle name and leave off your last name. I stopped going by my real name on social media after oversharing on YouTube a few years ago and having a creepaholic stalker hunt me down in person. I can still find friends through my email address contacts, or by searching for them myself.

 

[TerranceL]

It seems to me that it would get really awkward really fast if you friend the wrong doctor....

"You are now Friends with Dr. Chuck Ming - Proctologist"

Followed by your friend pointing how bit Dr. Mings hands are...

No thanks.

 

[keith99]

It seems to me that it would get really awkward really fast if you friend the wrong doctor....

"You are now Friends with Dr. Chuck Ming - Proctologist"

Followed by your friend pointing how bit Dr. Mings hands are...

No thanks.

Just an off the wall thought. It may even be possible that by accepting a friend request a physician could implicitly confirm rumors and violate HIPAA rules. Not so much for a GP, but for a specialist it implies visits related to the specialty.

 

[TerranceL]

Just an off the wall thought. It may even be possible that by accepting a friend request a physician could implicitly confirm rumors and violate HIPAA rules. Not so much for a GP, but for a specialist it implies visits related to the specialty.

Ok I'll be serious this time, this is a good point.