Health care organizations, professionals and patients alike are embracing the social media movement with vigor as online tools like blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube grow in popularity. It is no longer a question of whether you should be using social media tools to promote your practice and institution and connect – effectively, legally and ethically -- with patients and referral sources; it is a question of when, and how.  

A skilled user of social media has the opportunity to become a trusted source, a convener, an influencer; and can effectively and efficiently utilize these tools for reputation enhancement and building strong relationships with existing patients and referral sources while “expanding the sales funnel” to attract new patients and referral sources.  However, the use of these tools requires interaction and engagement at a level that many health care organizations find uncomfortable.  Balancing the inherent tension between transparency and privacy, openness and control, can be difficult.  While the legal land mines are there, you can make your way through and emerge unscathed if you have a clear understanding of HIPAA and other relevant rules – and how they apply to social media initiatives.  

Learn more during this interactive 90-minute webinar about the value of social media tools, the range of issues they present, and some key strategies for using these tools effectively while steering clear of trouble by social media expert and charter member of the Advisory Board of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media, David Harlow.  Become comfortable with social media for your facility!

Learning Objectives:

• Gain greater familiarity with social media tools and tactics and their value to the health care enterprise.
• Achieve understanding of legal, regulatory and risk management issues related to the use of social media in health care.
• High-level introduction to best practices.

Target Audience:

• Health care executives (C-Suite)
• Clinical leaders of health care facilities and physician practices
• Health care marketing and communications managers
• Health care compliance officers
• Clinical managers
• Risk Managers 
• Social Workers

Level: All levels 

Meet your expert:

David Harlow, JD, MPH is Principal of The Harlow Group LLC, a health care law and consulting firm based in Boston, MA.  His over twenty years’ experience in the public and private sectors affords him a unique perspective on legal, policy and business issues facing the health care community.  David is adept at assisting clients in developing new paradigms for their business organizations, relationships and processes so as to maximize the realization of organizational goals in a highly regulated environment, in realms ranging from physician-hospital relationships to data privacy and security to facilities development to social media strategies to the avoidance of fraud and abuse.  His award-winning blog, HealthBlawg, is highly regarded in the legal and health policy blogospheres.  He is a charter member of the Advisory Board of the Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media. He speaks regularly before health care and legal industry groups on business, policy and legal matters, including the uses of social media.  You should follow him on Twitter.

Web: http://harlowgroup.net

Blog: http://healthblawg.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/healthblawg

The sponsor of this educational activity is AHC Media.

Recorded: Tuesday, October 25, 2011