Social media have opened up endless opportunities for connecting with others to communicate information, promote your practice, introduce yourself to new patients and stay in touch with existing ones. However, with new opportunities come new risks as well. Patients who are dissatisfied with your services can share their complaints with the world, and responding to those complaints carelessly can lead to a HIPAA violation as well as a retaliatory lawsuit. Providing specific advice in response to questions about symptoms posted by non-patients on your website could potentially create a chiropractor-patient relationship with someone you have never met, and for which you can be held fully liable if the patient is harmed by following your advice. Moreover, if you provide advice that strays beyond the allowable scope of chiropractic in your state, you could actually be charged with practicing medicine without a license. There are other risks as well, which we’ll cover later. Objectives 1. Describe what does and does not constitute defamation in the eyes of the law. 2. Explain how to respond to a negative online review withoWhen you complete this course, you should be able to:ut incurring legal liability. 3. Describe how to market your practice effectively on social media.
