Social Media Marketing – 20

Whether you are posting on your own social media page, addressing a comment or complaint, or responding to a review, make sure that you always stay HIPAA compliant. It’s also a good idea to take time to think about your response, and even run it by your HIPAA official if you’d like a second opinion.

It is best to not give medical advice on social media, as this requires a lot of information from the patient and should be addressed in a private setting.

If possible, take the conversation offline and talk to the patient in person. An easy way to do this would be to say something like “At Main Street Optometry, we take patient satisfaction very seriously. In order to protect our patients’ privacy, we prefer to handle situations like these offline. Would you be willing to call our office and speak with me so I can better understand the situation?”

Always educate your team on best practices for social media in order to stay HIPAA compliant.

Remember, even if you are responding to a positive review, it is important to not disclose any patient information or even indicate that the person writing the review is a patient. We have included a resource which can help you respond to both positive and negative reviews in a HIPAA compliant way.