The Compliance Divas Podcast
Our podcast covers current topics such as infection prevention and control, OSHA and HIPAA compliance for dentistry. We discuss the latest regulatory information, answer frequently asked questions and give suggestions for dental practices to make compliance easy and sustainable. The Compliance Divas are a trusted source for consistent, accurate information based upon current guidelines, standards, science, and recommendations.
The Compliance Divas Podcast
#102 Social Media in Dental Offices - Effective, Appropriate and HIPAA Compliant
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Many people enjoy watching reels and videos on social media. If you are already posting videos or are thinking about posting videos, this episode will provide valid considerations to be sure your goals align with that of the practices and regulatory requirements.
Resources:
- Rita Zamora Connections - https:www.ritazamora.com
- The HIPAA Journal - HIPAA Social Media Rules https://www.hipaajournal.com/hipaa-social-media/
- Careerarc - The Vital Role Social Media Plays in Your Employer Branding Strategy - https://www.careerarc.com/blog/social-media-employer-branding-strategy
- Forbes - Workplace Trends on TikTok: How They Impact Employee Engagement - https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanpeart/2023/02/21/workplace-trends-on-tiktok-how-they-impact-employee-engagement-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/?sh=4535cb7b4d43
- Zenefits.com -Ramifications of Employees Posting TikTok Videos - https://www.zenefits.com/workest/ramifications-of-employees-posting-tiktok-videos/#:~:text=Here%27s%20what%20you%20need%20to%20know%20about%20ramifications,a%20big%20boost%2C%20provided%20the%20messaging%20is%20positive
Welcome! I'm Leslie Cannum. I'm Mary Gavoni.
SPEAKER_02I'm Munda Harvey. I'm Olivia Juan, and together we are the Compliance Divas. Hey, my name is Olivia Juan, and I'm with the Compliance Divas. We wanted to talk about social media considerations for dental practices in this episode. We all enjoy watching Facebook reels and TikTok videos and other videos and posts of dental practices, and sometimes they're rather funny and we truly enjoy them. But what are some of the compliance issues that we should consider? As the compliance divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. Please subscribe to the Compliance Divas podcast through your favorite podcast channel, or you can access the episodes on our website, thecompliancedivas.com. So let's turn our attention to social media considerations for dental practices. We know that it's actually part of our culture now, and people love to share stories and videos, but let's think about the compliance aspect. And I wanted Mary to kick us off talking about some of the potential OSHA and infection control issues that might be spotlighted. Mary, what can you share with us?
SPEAKER_01I can share a lot, Olivia. As you know, this is one of my pet peeves, is showing pictures of, especially on social media or in advertising media for that matter, of people with inappropriate personal protective equipment when they're doing their clinical procedures. So it's one thing if you want a photo of your team in a non-clinical setting, maybe it's the Facebook cover photo of your team or something like that. And you can have your scrubs if you wear them, and you don't have to have your personal protective equipment on. But sometimes people want to make it look a little more real. And so they have a face mask, which they then tuck underneath their chin. And that is an incorrect use of a face mask. So don't do those kinds of things. It's either a clinical photo where you have all of your PPE on, or it's a staged photo just showing who you all are where you don't have to have personal protective equipment. So we look at things like are you wearing long sleeves, which is required by OSHA when you are doing an aerosol generating procedure? Are you wearing appropriate eye protection? And right now that is goggles or a full chin-length face shield for eye protection. And do you have your mask or respirator on appropriately? When I go to look for stock photos, for example, for a presentation or for an example, so many times I find people with dental professionals that are posed with a face mask that doesn't come up over their nose, which we all know is not compliant, doesn't protect you, doesn't do you any good. So make sure that you look at these photos and make sure and that everything that you're wearing is properly positioned. It's the right type of personal protective equipment. And it is OSHA compliant. It follows CDC guidelines because not only do your patients look at that, they may not understand what the OSHA guidelines are, but your fellow um dental professionals do look at that. They may use you as an example of what not to do. Um, and also don't be misled by some of the ads that you see. I can remember a few years ago, one of the key dental hygiene publications had a hygienist on the on the front cover with um no eye protection and a face mask down below their nose on the front cover of the magazine. And she was doing a clinical procedure. And I went into one of my client offices, long-term client offices, and two of the hygienists met me at the door with this magazine showing me the cover photo saying, what's wrong? Make them fix this. And you know, I do what I can to try to call these people out when they see it. But just because you see it in a photo doesn't mean it's correct.
SPEAKER_02Good points, Mary. And and like you, when I see these photos, I just can't help but start spotting the errors and the violations, especially as you noted with the glasses. And it's really proof that they're not in compliance when they have those photos displayed or videos. So thank you for your insight on that. I'd like to ask Leslie to talk with us a little bit about the HIPAA aspect of social media and avoiding HIPAA violations. And I thought maybe she could recall the example of the dentist with the hoverboard. Do you remember that case, Leslie?
SPEAKER_00Olivia, I remember it very well. In fact, I bring that up as an example of how not to utilize social media to promote yourself or your practice. And in this case, it was Dr. Seth Licarte who was extracting a tooth while on a hoverboard, and not bad enough that it was on a hoverboard, which endangers the patient's safety, but but it was videotaped and he shared that with several people, and they shared it, and of course, that becomes viral. So the prosecutors in Anchorage, Alaska, where the dentist practice, uh, looked into Dr. Locarte and they found many other things going wrong. He was fraudulently billing Medicaid, he was embezzling from his employers, he was unnecessarily sedating patients so he could inflate his Medicaid bill. So he really brought a lot of attention to himself in a negative way when I think he was just trying to show off and have fun. Well, of course, the patients did not approve or or authorize him to videotape them. And so permission, of course, not being granted, became a huge issue. Those patients became uh wet witnesses and testified against him in court. Uh, he is now in federal prison. But another thing I think we have to keep in mind is that if this is a bizarre example of using uh your cell phone or taking videos and putting or posting pictures on social media. I know we all love to do it, and many times our patients love to be highlighted, but we have to have their permission. And written permission is so important today when it comes to HIPAA compliance. Also, we need to be mindful that there are not other patients that might inadvertently be in the picture. I remember the case of one orthodontic practice shared with me that they took a picture on de-banding day of the young patient who was so happy not to have her braces anymore. But there was another patient in the background. And when they posted that photo on social media, the mother of that other patient complained loudly that she did, she objected to having her daughter on social media in a picture without her permission. So it's not only people that sometimes can be in our pictures or our social media videos, but it can also be other things it could be seen. Documents, for example, that should not be viewed by others, um, credit card information, x-ray information, chart information. So we really need to be mindful. Well, pictures and social media can certainly help boost a dental practice's visibility in the social media world where a lot of people like to be and like to get their information. We can also find that it can be uh disastrous for us. It can be a double-ended sword.
SPEAKER_02Great information, Leslie. And thanks for bringing up that example of the dentist from Alaska. It's interesting that he was sentenced to 20 years in prison with eight years suspended, 10 years of probation, and charged with felony offenses, medical assistance fraud, theft in the second degree, and scheme to defraud. So those are some really, really serious wrongdoing. Mary, please help us learn more.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Unrelated to that incident, but um, building on what Leslie had said about making sure that you have written permission to use those photographs. And I ask my clients when I work with them, do you get permission to use that information? And they say, Oh, yes, we have a photo release, which is a whole different type of document. A photo release just means that your patient is acknowledging that you are not going to have to pay them royalties for using their image? It is not the same as a HIPAA disclosure and allowing you to use their image as protected health information. And Olivia, I would like to ask you this question. Would it be okay for a dental practice to put both of those types of disclosures, disclaimers on the same form, or should they be separate?
SPEAKER_02That's a good question, Mary. Some of these should have an expiration date on them. And so that that might make it a little cumbersome to put it on separate documents. And you're so right, Mary, because even a full face photo could be part of protected health information. So depending on how we're using that. And Mary, even when we go on site as consultants with my team, if we're taking pictures of staff, we have them sign a photo release as well. Because some people are really reluctant to have their photo made because the last thing they want it to have happen is land on social media. So those are a good concerns that you bring up. One is the HIPAA release aspect of taking a patient's photo. And even if it's for educational purposes, that should be spelled out what it's going to be used for. I know some years back a medical doctor asked to use a radiograph of mine for educational purposes of mother medical students. And I so appreciated that he obtained my consent rather than just using the radiograph without my permission. Uh, and so even to avoid modeling royalties, and that's a good point. What if the photo or those video went viral and somebody's making $200,000 on TikTok and now they're coming after the author of that post saying, Well, you made so much money on this TikTok video and you said you were going to give me 30% commission and nothing is in writing? And so now we have a dispute. So I think it's really wise, even as Leslie pointed out, to have that written authorization. Unfortunately, Linda Harvey couldn't be here with us today, and I know she would have valuable input to share as well. Another aspect that we wanted to bring up is brand. And is the post that you're posting or the video that you're taking consistent with the brand of your practice? For example, I really enjoyed watching this TikTok video of a dentist, and he's dancing around with his staff, and you could look at it two ways. So let's look at it the positive way. You look at the video and you think, hey, that looks like an incredible, fun bunch of people to work with. So it's a very positive impact. But then another reader or someone that's viewing the post might say, Well, they look ridiculous, or they don't take their job seriously, or you know, I wouldn't want to have my crown or root canal there. So, you know, it's hard to have this balancing act of what is something that's seen as successful in the eyes of the audience. But certainly talk to your employer, the owner of the practice or management, upper management, to see if you have permission to post and tag the dental office to make sure it's consistent with the image or the brand that they're displaying. Another aspect to consider is what you're posting as an employee. You know, some people are talking very uh just quite upfront about it, about quiet quitting. You know, they're gonna or the bare minimum Monday. They're gonna do as little as possible on Monday, or how much they hate their jobs. And that can have such a negative impact on a practice, especially when they connect where they're employed on social media and really gives the practice a bad light. What are some of y'all's thoughts on that, Leslie and Mary?
SPEAKER_01I I always coach my clients to understand that they are a dental professional and be very careful about what they post on their personal pages. And some of them take exception to that, but especially if you live in a small town where a lot of people know each other, you need to be very, very careful because people know where you work and it reflects whatever you post, reflects on the practice. And people need to remember that once you put it out there and it goes viral, as you mentioned before, then um it's there forever, and it's you you can't unsee it and you can't, you know, re-rain it back in. So we have to be very careful. What I have two um nieces who, when they were in college, I told them, whatever vacation pictures you take of us when we're at the beach in the summer, you do not post on Facebook or you will be disinherited. Um because and they respected that, they understood. I said, I can't have that kind of stuff on my um reflecting on my business. So we need to be careful of what we post and you know, even some simple things like I know we all have our opinions about the political situation right now, but we have to be very careful about those so we don't alienate other people.
SPEAKER_02Mary, thank you so much for bringing that up. And I think that's really critical right now because alienating someone or offending someone can really impact our businesses and the relationships that we have. And like you mentioned with small towns, you know, I practice in a small town with less than 2,000 people. And over the last, I don't know, I've been self-employed the last 23 years, and I've had employees come and go. And when employees would write things on Facebook or other social media platform forms that were as offensive, don't you think my phone was ringing? And how embarrassing that was, and also the tough balancing act of allowing an employee to have freedom of speech, but yet how it impacted the business. And so that's really what we want people to think about with this episode is don't be quick to post. Think about what this is going to cause, the cause and effect of that video or that post. Leslie, did you have another thought to share?
SPEAKER_00Wouldn't it be wise for a Dell practice to include in their monthly meeting or however often they do have their meetings or even at a huddle, a discussion about what to what you might post on social media that could look poorly for the practice? And you know, again, if we had an especially bad day or especially grumpy patient, that's okay to debrief about that amongst ourselves. But when we put something like that on social media, that could make other patients think, oh, well, they really don't like their patients or they have a hard time with people or they don't get along with people. And so that part, you know, of course, we want to post good things about when we have a good day, a wonderful day, a happy day, but also want to remind our dental uh listeners that sometimes there can be a HIPAA violation when we have a patient maybe that posts something on social media and we respond. So let's keep in mind that our responses um should be very, very generic in nature, never mentioning a patient's name or their condition. And I recommend that uh if a patient initiates posting, like has a uh discomfort after a visit, maybe their mouth is sore after a hygiene visit, that that the team not respond on social media, but uh take the initiative to contact the patient by phone and have the discussion offline about what the remedy might be.
SPEAKER_02No, those are good points, and thank you for bringing up that aspect.
SPEAKER_01Mary. Leslie, thank you so much for bringing up that point about not responding on social media because um that also spills over into things like um Yelp reviews and Google reviews. And we had an instance um just a couple of years ago where a dental practice was fined $10,000 by HIPAA because they were sort of duking it out online about some issue that they had, and they the dental practice put enough information out there on the review site that could identify the patient. So that was considered to be a violation. So we need to be very careful about that. And I have a question for you, Olivia: would it be appropriate for a dental practice to have something in their um HR manual, a policy that gives some parameters for what's acceptable on social media? In other words, that they would be prohibited from posting something that has a negative impact on the practice. Would that be a legal thing to do?
SPEAKER_02We have to be careful, Mary. I think it's a good idea to have a social media policy, but it should not be so narrowly construed that the employees feel like they do not have freedom of speech. And so we have to balance it out with, you know, protecting the practice from HIPAA violations and negative online attention, but also protecting the employees' ability to speak about things that they want to speak about. I mean, maybe it's something that we don't go along with personally, but the important aspect in those policies that when an employee is speaking out like that, that they are not representing the practice, that the viewpoints that they are sharing are those of their own personal individual ideas and not of the dental practice. And Mary, it's interesting that you point that out because I did have several cases related to this where it affected a dental practice, some things that actually happened outside of the dental office and somehow made its way into the dental practice and created a huge, huge mess. So if you do have a social media policy, just be careful about you know how that policy is put together. You may want to contact your favorite HR consultant or an attorney to make sure that it conforms with promoting a good online present, but yet not restricting an employee's right to speak. Um, over the years, we've recognized how you know I have some demo clients that they they don't want their employees discussing how much they make. You know, that that can't be in an HR policy because employees have the right to discuss wages. So uh just like that aspect, we have to be really careful. But I think this is uh timely information for today's society. There's uh millions and millions of people using video and posts to reach their audience. I know locally there is an attorney in the neighboring town. I love to watch his TikTok videos because they're hilarious. Would that be something that I would do? No, it wouldn't because it's not my personality and it's not my brand. But to see how this attorney is reaching huge audiences is quite interesting and comical, but certainly not my brand. And I know that Leslie wanted to point out that there's some resources for our listeners who maybe want some professional help with their social media posts.
SPEAKER_00Well, we have a dear friend of the complaints, divas, Rita Zamora, who specializes in social media marketing for dentists. And she has a book, I believe, maybe even two, on how to uh brand your dental practice and position your posts in a way that reflects favorably and on what people would be attracted to in a dental practice. So I highly recommend Rita Zamora, and we use her occasionally as our own consultant and and have used her services in the past. We also want to remind people that uh if you're an employee, think about how the employee selection takes place if you're up against other candidates in a dental practice that you really want to work at. Don't you think that the employer would be looking at your social media and some of the posts that you have? And if you're posting outrageously and yeah, maybe using foul language, you might get passed over for a prime physician that you'd like to have because of some of the things that you have displayed about yourself. Olivia.
SPEAKER_02So true, Leslie. Good, good information. And maybe some of our younger listeners, these are some concepts that they had not thought about before, that you know, older employers like us, we look at their whatever's public on social media to see what they're putting out there. So I think this is great information uh for our dental practices to keep them in the positive and also to keep on enjoying. Keep enjoying your posts and your videos, just make sure it's consistent with the brand. And we hope that you've enjoyed this episode. As the Compliance Divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. Please submit your questions to support at the compliancedevas.com. Any resources that we mention, we will make available in the notes. Thanks for joining us.