Social Media Guidelines

Guidelines for those who wish to interact with Saint Agnes Medical Center on social media.

Sharing Content

We love to share your comments and stories with our employees and supporters.

By posting, you agree to allow everyone, including people outside of the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram (or other social media network) community, to access and use that information, and to associate it with you. Saint Agnes Medical Center may use or share the comments you make through our social media networks, a practice which gives us the ability to share criticisms, ideas, comments and praise with employees and others.

Site Moderation

Saint Agnes Medical Center intends to promote effective communication and maintain a relevant and respectful dialogue in social media and other platforms. In that spirit, we seek to maintain a productive and open forum for community discussion and for discussion with our associates, members, patients and communities.

Our moderators use the specific rules to ensure that posted comments are constructive and suitable for all readers, while respecting a range of opinions and points of view. All postings must comply with the following and repeat violations may result in the user being banned:

Comments must be relevant to our posts, the health care industry and to our audience. If not deemed relevant by page managers, they will be removed.
Comments must be civil and may not contain slanderous, libelous, malicious, offensive, threatening, profane, or insulting language.
References to the personality of individuals or personal attacks will not be permitted.
Advertising or promotional announcements are not permitted and will be removed.
Comments must be within the scope of the topic under discussion.
Comments cannot include personally identifiable information, such as an address, phone number, social security number or other sensitive information.
Comments cannot represent a person other than the one posting the comment.
Comments containing links to other web sites or pages must be relevant to the topic.
Comments cannot serve electoral campaign purposes.
Political messages will not be published.
Participants are responsible for what they post.
Comments must not breach any law, confidentiality, or copyright.
Comments by external parties on the any Saint Agnes Medical Center social channels are not official public testimony concerning any project or program. An opinion expressed through any of Saint Agnes Medical Center's social media forums is posted for discussion only and is not a substitute for a formal statement in a public hearing process. Saint Agnes Medical Center Health's social media networks are not forums to submit open-record requests.

Participants who break with the terms of these guidelines may be banned by moderators.

HIPAA Regulations in Social Media

HIPAA, state privacy laws, and state medical laws limit the freedom for posting on social media, particularly disclosing patient health information (PHI) publically. Sharing the following PHIs on any digital platform, publically, will result in penalties such as fines, suits, and/or job loss:

Name
Geographic information
Dates (e.g. date of birth, admission date, discharge date, date of death)
Telephone numbers
Fax numbers
Email addresses
Social Security numbers
Medical record numbers
Health plan beneficiary numbers
Account numbers
Certificate/license numbers
Vehicle identifiers and serial numbers, including license plate numbers
Devise identifiers and serial numbers
URLs
IP address numbers
Biometric identifiers (e.g. finger and voice prints)
Full-face photographic images and any comparable images
Other unique identifying numbers, characteristics, or codes

Our Channels

These are discussion forums for Saint Agnes and its associates, members, communities and patients. They are not channels for bullying or ranting. While it is our intention to never ban individuals from our page, if content becomes abusive or inflammatory, we will remove that content and block the offending users so as to allow constructive and beneficial conversations.

We hope you'll never have cause to complain about Saint Agnes Medical Center's programs or service from its members, but we are open to any and all feedback and will do our best to help you connect with the right people who can, if needed, correct any situations that require attention.

Because of the need to protect the privacy of patient information, we will ask you to send us appropriate details in a private channel such as email. Please be aware that we cannot discuss personal, legal and private matters in a public channel. As a result, posts that mention litigation will be promptly removed.

Please note that we do not allow "bumping" content--that is to say, posts that serve to repeat existing issues and bring them to the top of the wall.

All posters participate at their own risk, taking personal responsibility for their comments, username and any information provided.