Use of Practice Social Media Accounts

Our Practice has appointed the Practice Manager as our social media officer responsible for managing and monitoring the Practice’s social media accounts. All posts on the Practice’s social media website must be approved by the Practice Manager. The Practice reserves the right to remove any content at its own discretion.

When using the Practice’s social media, all members of our Practice Team will not:

  • Post any material that:
    • Is unlawful, threatening, defamatory, pornographic, inflammatory, menacing, or offensive,
    • Infringes or breaches another person’s rights (including intellectual property rights) or privacy, or misuses the Practice’s or another person’s confidential information (e.g. do not submit confidential information relating to our patients, personal information of Staff, or information concerning the Practices’ business operations that have not been made public),
    • Is materially damaging or could be materially damaging to the Practice’s reputation or image, or another individual, and
    • Is in breach of any of the Practice’s Policies or Procedures.
  • Use social media to send unsolicited commercial electronic messages, or solicit other users to buy or sell products or services or donate money,
  • Impersonate another person or entity (e.g. by pretending to be someone else or another practice employee or other participant when you submit a contribution to social media) or by using another’s registration identifier without permission,
    Tamper with, hinder the operation of, or make unauthorised changes to the social media sites,
  • Knowingly transmit any virus or other disabling feature to or via the Practice’s social media account or use in any email to a third party, or the social media site,
  • Attempt to do or permit another person to do any of these things:
    • Claim or imply that you are speaking on the Practice’s behalf, unless you are authorised to do so, and/or
    • Disclose any information that is confidential or proprietary to the Practice, or to any third party that has disclosed information to the Practice.
  • Be defamatory, harassing, or violation of any other applicable law,
  • Include confidential or copyrighted information (e.g. music, videos, text belonging to third parties), and/or
  • Violate any other applicable policy of the Practice.

Monitoring social media sites

The Practice’s social media channels are part of our customer service and should be monitored and dealt with regularly.

Testimonials

Our practice complies with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) national law and takes reasonable steps to remove testimonials that advertise their health services (which may include comments about the practitioners themselves). Our practice is not responsible for removing (or trying to have removed) unsolicited testimonials published on a third-party website or in social media accounts over which they do not have control.

Personal social media use

Any social media posts by Staff on their personal social media platforms must not reveal confidential information about the Practice or person who uses the Practice (e.g. Staff should not post information relating to patients or other Staff, or information concerning the Practice’s business operations that have not been made public).

Staff are free to personally engage in social media outside of work hours, as long as their actions do not have the potential to bring the Practice into disrepute. Employees may not represent personal views expressed as those of this practice.

Any social media posts by the Practice Staff on their social media platforms should:

  • Include the following disclaimer if they identify themselves as a Practice employee on any social media platforms – for example: ‘The views expressed in this post are mine and do not reflect the views of the Practice/Business/Committees/Boards of which I am a member, and
  • Staff should respect the copyright, privacy, fair use, financial disclosure, and other applicable laws when publishing on social media platforms.

All social media activities must be in line with this policy.

Policy review and statement

This policy will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is up to date with changes in social media or relevant legislation. Practice Staff will be notified of the changes via Staff and Clinical meetings.