Want to Engender a Loyal Patient Base? Mocking Them on Social Media Is Not the Way to Go

Unless they’ve come in for an annual physical or something similarly mundane, patients are probably not having the best of days if they’re visiting an urgent care center. Certainly medical emergencies and childbirth are high-stress situations. It should go without saying that all parties deserve to be treated with respect as a bare minimum at all times. Apparently it does need to be said, though. As reported by 11 Alive in Atlanta, four nurses at Emory Hospital have been fired after posting a 52-second YouTube video in which they detail their biggest “icks” when dealing with patients and family members in the labor and delivery unit (example: “When we’ve already told you to push the call light but every 5 minutes there’s a family member coming to the desk asking for something else”). Emory Healthcare issued an apologetic statement and at first suspended the quartet before ultimately dismissing them. Responses posted by YouTube users and on other platforms have been understandably harsh. The debacle is clearly an aberration from how most healthcare professionals conduct themselves, but the damage to the institution from even one misguided social media post could be immediate and long lasting. It’s important that your team knows and respects boundaries online. JUCM published an article that should be essential reading when considering how to approach the subject. You can read Don’t Post That! Protecting Patient Privacy in the Age of Social Media in our archive right now.