Understanding The HITECH Act: HIPAA On Steroids

By Jeffrey Segal MD JD and Michael J. Sacopulos JD

Understanding the law before you send your patients any e-mail.

Snail mail is becoming less popular as the calendar pages turn. E-mail and social media networks have changed how we communicate. Before clicking the send button in an e-mail template, healthcare professionals should better understand that HIPAA violations have also entered a new era. More cases are prosecuted with assessment of both statutory civil fines and criminal penalties.

A little background: Even though HIPAA passed in 1996, little prosecution followed when patient privacy was violated. Since the law took effect in 2003, nearly 45,000 complaints were filed with the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights. Of these complaints, only 775 cases were referred to the Department of Justice or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for investigation. None resulted in direct civil monetary penalties.

Then, in 2009 the HITECH Act (“HIPAA on steroids”) was enacted. This act intended to increase HIPAA confidentiality protections of Electronic Protected Heath Information(ePHI), instill tough civil and criminal penalties for violations, mandate notification of breaches of HIPAA protected heath information, and extend the definition of covered entities to include business associates. A tall order indeed.

For example under the tougher HITECH Act, in April 2010 a former employee of a hospital was sentenced to four months in prison for accessing the medical records of his coworkers and various celebrities. He had no “valid” reason for accessing these records.

According to the Health and Human Services (HHS), penalties have increased. Prior to the HITECH Act, the HHS Secretary could not impose a penalty of more than $100 for each violation or $25,000 for all identical violations of the same provision. Section 13410(d) of the HITECH Act strengthened the civil money penalty scheme by establishing tiered ranges of increasing penalty amounts, with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million for all violations of an identical provision.

Just how "high tech" are physicians when it comes to communicating with patients?

A survey by the health information firm Manhattan Research in 2009 found that 42 percent of physicians had some online communication with patients.

The American Academy of Family Physicians reported in a 2009 survey that just 6 percent of responding members had performed a Web-based consultation - that number was more than double the 2.6 percent who had done so in 2008.

But is all of this electronic communication legal?

The HITECH Act requires that all communications involving ePHI be encrypted.  HHS recently adopted National Institute of Standards and Technology guidelines for encryption.  This means that if a physician wants to consult, refer, or prescribe for a patient by e-mail, the e-mail had better be encrypted.  Of course most patients do not have software to decrypt.  So what alternatives do healthcare providers have? And, more importantly, how can this be made easy and pragmatic. Email was designed to simplify, not complicate.

Healthcare providers may seek their patient's consent to communicating via unencrypted e-mail.  While HHS does not provide a standard form for securing patient consent, basic "informed consent" strategies should apply.  First, get the patient's consent in writing.  The patient should not be given just a binary choice – but a menu of choices.  For example, a patient may wish to electronically receive information on appointment dates but not test results.  The consent document – as is standard with most routine HIPAA forms -should also note that the patient may withdraw his or her consent at a later time. This can be part of an expanded HIPAA form the patient signs when first seeing you in the office.

Here are some more recommendations when communicating with patients electronically:

1) A physician may be held responsible for a delay when responding to a patient's e-mail. Solution: A physician that wishes to accept e-mail from patients should use an auto response feature that informs the patient that a) the physician typically responds to e-mail within XXX number of hours/days; b) if the patient requires immediate attention, the patient should telephone the physician's office or contact an emergency healthcare provider.  

2) If a patient initiates an e-mail with a physician, Rachel Seeger of HHS Office for Civil Rights says that it is assumed that the patient consents to unencrypted communication.  "If this situation occurs, the healthcare provider can assume (unless the patient has explicitly stated otherwise) that e-mail communications are acceptable to the individual”.

3) If a physician does end up sending a patient an e-mail, double check the recipients’ e-mail address before clicking the send button. This is to prevent the e-mail from being sent to the wrong person, therefore sharing private information to an unintended party. Good advice also in the non-healthcare world.

4) Add any e-mail a patient sends (and any response) to the patient's chart.

5) In the HITECH Act code 170.210 section B states that the date, time, patient identification and user identification must be recorded when electronic health information is created, modified, deleted, or printed; and an indication of which actions occurred must also be recorded. This means if you send an email to a patient with protected health information – and delete it – you will need a record of what was deleted and when. This is not dissimilar to crossing out a line in a paper medical record- updating the record – with a date of the update.

6) Since communicating with patients via e-mail is becoming stricter, more physician offices and hospitals are using portals as a means of communication. This allows the patient to sign in with a secure username and password to view their records and communicate with their physicians. The security rule allows for Electronic Protected Heath Information (e-PHI) to be sent over an electronics open network, as long as it is adequately protected.  Of course, this is more complicated than using Outlook or gmail.

The HITECH Act has ushered in a new era of technology requirements and standards that must be met by physicians.  Given HHS's recent enforcement efforts, physicians should use caution when electronically communicating with patients.  By working within the boundaries of the six points above, physicians should comply with the HITECH Act. 

Jeffrey Segal MD JD and Michael J. Sacopulos JD are with Medical Justice, a Medical Spa MD Select Partner that protects physicians from frivilous lawsuits.

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As A Physician, You Need to Understand Your Online Reputation

By Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD & Michael J. Sacopulos, JD

The observation that social media is experiencing explosive growth is hardly novel. Moreover, social media is significantly influencing the medical profession. 

Free Webinar: "How To Control & OWN Your Professional Reputation Online!"

CNN Money.com reported that Facebook passed the milestone of half a billion signed on users half a year into 2010.  The professional and legal ramifications from the rapid growth of social media touch almost every aspect of physicians practicing today.  One of the most challenging of these ramifications is a physician’s online reputation.

Pew Internet and American Life Project recently released numbers that document just how important the source of information regarding medicine and physicians the internet has become.  Sixty-one percent (61%) of American adults look on-line for health information. Forty-nine percent (49%) of Internet users report researching a specific disease or medical problem on the Internet.  Forty-seven percent (47%) report seeking information about their physician or other healthcare professionals from on-line sources. 

Finally, five percent (5%) of “E-Patients” have posted a review online of a doctor. It is these very reviews from a small subset which form the basis of a physician’s reputation on-line.

Most physicians equate a tainted online reputation with a direct loss of business.  The analysis is simple; the worse the online reputation, the fewer the patients.  There are certainly many examples to support this reasoning. 

Dr. Linda Morrison, a physician practicing in Indiana, experienced first hand the harm that arises from an online reputational attack.  In July of 2000, Dr. Morrison noticed that an anonymous individual was posting defamatory statements about her via the internet.  Dr. Morrison received e-mails from this individual under a pseudonym “Surfycity45” that, among other things, made threats against her medical license.  The attacks continued into the fall of 2000.  Dr. Morrison ultimately learned that “Surfycity45” had been circulating defamatory comments about her while simultaneously encouraging others to do the same.  “Surfycity45” worked hard to organize a cyber mob with Dr. Morrison as its target.  

Dr. Morrison, via counsel, attempted to enjoin Defendant American Online, Inc. from the continued posting of the defamatory statements about her by the anonymous subscriber.  For a variety of legal reasons, the United States Northern District Court of Indiana ruled against the injunction.  Although Dr. Morrison alleged that “Surfycity45” statements were false, defamatory, and had resulted in damage to her professional reputation as a physician, she was unable to have these remarks removed from the Internet in a timely fashion.The damage was done.  

The implications of a physician's online reputation now extends beyond patients.  At least twenty seven (27) states have a recognized cause of action for negligently credentialing a physician.  Given this liability, credentialing committees will likely perform detailed background checks using all available search tools, including social network sites.

It is not just patients and credentialing committees which are scrutinizing physicians’ online reputations.  In any  medical malpractice action, physicians should assume that the plaintiff’s attorney will checking the doctor’s online reputation.  Geoffrey Vance, a thirty eight (38) year old partner at McDermott, Will and Emry, makes use of social networking sites to gather facts about the opposing side for trials.  “I make it a practice to use as many sources as I can to come up with and to find information about the other side” Vance said.  “We used to run Lexus Nexus; we still do that.  We always look at cases, and now we use the internet – Google, and social networking sites.”

Mr. Vance is not alone.  Paul Kiesel, a lawyer in Los Angeles County, admits to using social media not only to investigate the opposing side, but also to help select jurors.  “Last month I had fifty (50) jurors, and as the Court Clerk read out the names, I had two (2) people in the courtroom and the third person back at the office, with all three (3) of them doing research.”

Lawyers are not the only actors in a courtroom who are using social media at trial.  Courts across the country are grappling with the serious problem of “Internet-tainted” jurors.  In case after case, judges and lawyers have discovered that jurors are doing independent research via cell phone during trials.  Last year in Arkansas, a state court judge allowed a 12.6 million dollar verdict to stand even though a juror sent eight (8) messages via Twitter from his cell phone.

Physicians’ online reputations are being examined with increasing frequency at crucial moments in their professional career.  It is no longer  prudent for a physician to fail to monitor his or her online reputation.  “Physicians should carefully monitor their online reputation.  I have seen examples of ex-spouses, past employees, and competitors all posing as disgruntled patients in an online effort to damage a physician’s reputation.  This is a real threat that is not going away,” says Rivera.

Whether physicians work through organizations such as Medical Justice or Search Engine Optimization companies or go it alone, they need to guard their online reputations.  In the words of Benjamin Franklin “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”

About: Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD, a neurosurgeon, is the founder and CEO of Medical Justice Services. 

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6 Signs For Physicians That Social Media Is Not For You

Here are the 6 signs that social media is not for you.

Social media is here to stay, and it's only going to grow. Facebook now has 500 million members and, unless you're in geriatrics, the majority of your patients are already on it. We sing the praises of physician/patient connection, but it isn’t for everyone.

(Note: While Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter may not be for you, they're manditory for your medical spa or cosmetic practice.)

Here are 6 signs (for physicians) that social media is not for you:

1.  You hate what you do. Social involvement requires some degree of passion for what you’re discussing. If you’re unhappy at medicine and you’re generally an angry sort you might keep things to yourself. Unless of course you’re passionate about creating a community of angry doctors.

2.  You are a paranoid, risk-averse milquetoast. Every now and again I bump into a doctor who tells me about all the trouble I could be getting myself into. And they usually have a hundred ideas why I need to keep my door shut. Open dialog requires something of a leap of faith. In order to make any of this work you need to live without the looming belief that every post is a lawsuit-in-waiting. Tweet smart but understand the real risk-benefit.

3.  You work 170 hours a week.  Sure social media takes time. And yes, this can be a challenge if you work 170 hours a week. But there are some really useful ways you can be social as a doctor on a time budget. For starters, limiting your social properties and your connections. Small and real is better than nothing at all. I think I’ll stop there and turn this one into a post for tomorrow. Or the next day.

4.  You want to hire someone to do it. I recently tried to sell one of my fertility friends on developing a presence for himself.  He was really interested but at the end he winked and said, “Send me some info.  I’ll have my girls get on it.”  Oiy. Colleagues and patients want you, not your logo, office manager, or your “girls.”  If you can’t do at least some of it yourself you should reconsider doing it at all.

5.  You don’t need the patients. Boutique specialties see social as part of their personal branding strategy,  and for good reason. But let’s face it, unless you’re banding stomachs or peddling bioequivalent hormones, you’ve probably got your hands full with more than enough patients.  Internists don’t think about their personal brand, footprint or outreach. What they do think is how their going to keep the lights on after the Government slashes Medicare.

6.  You don’t want anyone to know what you think. Admittedly, public dialog done right requires some degree of disclosure. If you’re averse to anyone knowing what you are thinking, what you believe, or what (God forbid) you may be passionate about, you may just as well hide securely under your exam table and leave the dialog to the rest us.

But in the end, you may not have a choice. When Bryan Vartabedian MD, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Texas Children's Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine who writes and thinks about the convergence of social media and medicine crowdsourced suggestions about this on Twitter, a point was made that the use of social media is becoming no longer optional. It is, as the reply put it, “a mandatory transformation in order to evolve as a society.”

Now I can’t beat that.

Talk amongst yourselves.

Bryan Vartabedian, MD  is a pediatric gastroenterologist at Texas Children's Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine who writes and thinks about the convergence of social media and medicine at 33Charts.com

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Physicians' Need to Understand & Influence Their Online Reputation

Here's some very good advice from one of our Select Partners, Medical Justice.  

The observation that social media is experiencing explosive growth is hardly novel. Moreover, social media is significantly influencing the medical profession.  CNN Money.com reported that Facebook passed the milestone of half a billion signed on users half a year into 2010.  The professional and legal ramifications from the rapid growth of social media touch almost every aspect of physicians practicing today.  One of the most challenging of these ramifications is a physician’s online reputation.

Pew Internet and American Life Project recently released numbers that document just how important of the source of information regarding medicine and physicians the internet has become.  Sixty-one percent (61%) of American adults look on-line for health information. Forty-nine percent (49%) of Internet users report researching a specific disease or medical problem on the Internet.  Forty-seven percent (47%) report seeking information about their physician or other healthcare professionals from on-line sources.

Finally, five percent (5%) of “E-Patients” have posted a review online of a doctor. It is these very reviews from a small subset which form the basis of a physician’s reputation on-line.

Reputations are forged when people make judgments upon the mosaic of information available about us.”  Viewed in this light, ratings, blog postings, and web pages are the pieces of the reputation mosaic.  Unfortunately, all it takes is one or two bad pieces for the mosaic to be marred.  The implications of a damaged online reputation are extensive."

Most physicians equate a tainted online reputation with a direct loss of business.  The analysis is simple; the worse the online reputation, the fewer the patients.  There are certainly many examples to support this reasoning. 

Dr. Linda Morrison, a physician practicing in Indiana, experienced first hand the harm that arises from an online reputational attack.  In July of 2000, Dr. Morrison noticed that an anonymous individual was posting defamatory statements about her via the internet.  Dr. Morrison received e-mails from this individual under a pseudonym “Surfycity45” that, among other things, made threats against her medical license.  The attacks continued into the fall of 2000.  Dr. Morrison ultimately learned that “Surfycity45” had been circulating defamatory comments about her while simultaneously encouraging others to do the same.  “Surfycity45” worked hard to organize a cyber mob with Dr. Morrison as its target.  

Dr. Morrison, via counsel, attempted to enjoin Defendant American Online, Inc. from the continued posting of the defamatory statements about her by the anonymous subscriber.  For a variety of legal reasons, the United States Northern District Court of Indiana ruled against the injunction.  Although Dr. Morrison alleged that “Surfycity45” statements were false, defamatory, and had resulted in damage to her professional reputation as a physician, she was unable to have these remarks removed from the Internet in a timely fashion.  The damage was done.

The implications of a physician's online reputation now extends beyond patients.  At least twenty seven (27) states have a recognized cause of action for negligently credentialing a physician.  Given this liability, credentialing committees will likely perform detailed background checks using all available search tools, including social network sites.

Health institutions making credentialing or hiring decisions currently face a dilemma when it comes to information about physicians contained in social network profiles.  Although there may be some risks in searching against them (as discussed in the next section), the potential liability for making a panel decision in the absence of such information likely tips the balance."

It is not just patients and credentialing committees which are scrutinizing physicians’ online reputations.  In any  medical malpractice action, physicians should assume that the plaintiff’s attorney will checking the doctor’s online reputation.  Geoffrey Vance, a thirty eight (38) year old partner at McDermott, Will and Emry, makes use of social networking sites to gather facts about the opposing side for trials.  “I make it a practice to use as many sources as I can to come up with and to find information about the other side” Vance said.  “We used to run Lexus Nexus; we still do that.  We always look at cases, and now we use the internet – Google, and social networking sites.”

Mr. Vance is not alone.  Paul Kiesel, a lawyer in Los Angeles County, admits to using social media not only to investigate the opposing side, but also to help select jurors.  “Last month I had fifty (50) jurors, and as the Court Clerk read out the names, I had two (2) people in the courtroom and the third person back at the office, with all three (3) of them doing research.”

Lawyers are not the only actors in a courtroom who are using social media at trial.  Courts across the country are grappling with the serious problem of “Internet-tainted” jurors.  In case after case, judges and lawyers have discovered that jurors are doing independent research via cell phone during trials.  Last year in Arkansas, a state court judge allowed a 12.6 million dollar verdict to stand even though a juror sent eight (8) messages via Twitter from his cell phone.

 In another case, a juror decided to seek the wisdom of the masses by holding a Facebook online poll. “I don’t know which way to go, so I’m holding a poll, wrote the democratic juror.”  Upon learning of this misadventure, the juror was dismissed and the case proceeded.

Physicians’ online reputations are being examined with increasing frequency at crucial moments in their professional career.  It is no longer  prudent for a physician to fail to monitor his or her online reputation.  “Physicians should carefully monitor their online reputation.  I have seen examples of ex-spouses, past employees, and competitors all posing as disgruntled patients in an online effort to damage a physician’s reputation.  This is a real threat that is not going away,” says Rivera.

In the words of Benjamin Franklin “It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.”

Resource: Physicians + Facebook Marketing - How to do it correctly!

Guest post by Joy Tu of Medical Justice.

Submit a guest post and be heard.

Chicago Doctor Sues Over Yelp & Citysearch Reviews

The next time three of Dr. Jay Pensler's patients could be seeing him will be in a court of law. But it's probably not what you're thinking. Pensler's patients aren't suing him -- he's suing them.

Pensler is upset about negative remarks they made about him on Yelp and Citysearch , two websites where customers can anonymously post reviews about almost anything and everything.

I was trying to prevent what happened to me from happening to other women," one of his former patients told FOX Chicago News. "I didn't want people to go through the same thing I went through."

If you want to know exactly what the women who posted reviews went through, they said the pictures speak for themselves. One woman's breasts are clearly uneven and the nipples point in different directions. The X-ray from another woman who received a tummy tuck showed an object that looks like a staple. She said it is actually the head of a needle Pensler left in her body, but Pensler says was left by another doctor in a previous procedure.

Some people call him a butcher, which I agree with," another woman who went to Pensler told us.

Like the other patients we interviewed, she asked we don't identity her because she's embarrassed and scared what she says can be used against her in a trial. Since seeing Pensler, she said she's been operated on twice by another surgeon to correct Pensler's work.

Pretty harsh stuff. Click here for the rest of the article.

Dr. Pensler is in way over his head of course since he's got no recourse if either the patient's claims are true or they're the patients opinions. The law suit that Dr. Pensler was hoping would keep negative reviews of his practice off of the internet are having exactly the oposite effect. His lawyer should have told him as much.

AMA Policy: Medical Professionalism In Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging & Physicians

A new policy on professionalism in the use of social media was adopted at the November 8th 2010 meeting of the American Medical Association. These basic guidelines represent one of the first steps by a major American physician organization to offer guidance in the appropriate use of social/new media.

It's pretty generic and basic stuff but it does recognize that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social networks are destined to become intimately intertwined with medicine.

The Internet has created the ability for medical students and physicians to communicate and share information quickly and to reach millions of people easily.  Participating in social networking and other similar Internet opportunities can support physicians’ personal expression, enable individual physicians to have a professional presence online, foster collegiality and camaraderie within the profession, provide opportunity to widely disseminate public health messages and other health communication.  Social networks, blogs, and other forms of communication online also create new challenges to the patient-physician relationship.  Physicians should weigh a number of considerations when maintaining a presence online:

(a)  Physicians should be cognizant of standards of patient privacy and confidentiality that must be maintained in all environments, including online, and must refrain from posting identifiable patient information online.

(b)  When using the Internet for social networking, physicians should use privacy settings to safeguard personal information and content to the extent possible, but should realize that privacy settings are not absolute and that once on the Internet, content is likely there permanently.  Thus, physicians should routinely monitor their own Internet presence to ensure that the personal and professional information on their own sites and, to the extent possible, content posted about them by others, is accurate and appropriate.

(c)  If they interact with patients on the Internet, physicians must maintain appropriate boundaries of the patient-physician relationship in accordance with professional ethical guidelines just, as they would in any other context.

(d)  To maintain appropriate professional boundaries physicians should consider separating personal and professional content online.

(e)  When physicians see content posted by colleagues that appears unprofessional they have a responsibility to bring that content to the attention of the individual, so that he or she can remove it and/or take other appropriate actions.  If the behavior significantly violates professional norms and the individual does not take appropriate action to resolve the situation, the physician should report the matter to appropriate authorities.

(f)  Physicians must recognize that actions online and content posted may negatively affect their reputations among patients and colleagues, may have consequences for their medical careers (particularly for physicians-in-training and medical students), and can undermine public trust in the medical profession.

Our New Facebook Group: Physicians + Facebook Marketing - How to do it correctly!

Join our Facebook group: Physicians + Facebook Marketing - How to do it correctly!

Facebook now has more than 500 million accounts.... and if you're not using it to promote your services and build a community around your medical spa or clinic, you're missing the point.

Rather than just discuss Facebook marketing here on this site, we've decide to actually show you how to do it by using Facebook.

The new group that we just started, Physicians + Facebook Marketing is only a few days old. So far, we've got 30 people to join and we're going to grow this group while showing you exactly how we're doing it... on Facebook.

We'll have a number of our staff who are responsible for our social network marketing on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in this group to answer any questions you may have, or just learn from the case studies and articles.

You'll also want to listen to some of our new podasts since we've been discussing social marketing on there.

As always, if you like the content that you find here on Medical Spa MD, please give us a small pat on the back by clicking the new 'like' button that you'll find at the bottom of each post.  ; )

  MedSpa MD on Facebook

  Medical Spa MD on LinkedIn

  Medical Spa MD on Twitter

Update on 10-14-2010 by Medical Spa MD

This new Facebook group now has 60+ members in the first week. Nicely done.

Do-It-Yourself & Outsource Search Engine Marketing (SEO)

Frontdesk SEO is Medical Spa MD's newest Select Partner.

View the announcement here.

Frontdesk offers do-it-yourself SEO software that lets you use your front desk staff to market your business. (They offer outsource SEO as well.) You can start for as little as $59 a month which is killer.

If you haven't already, run a free SEO report on your website and see where you rank according to the major search engines.

This is the same system that we use at Medical Spa MD to keep our #1 rankings in all of the major search engines and I can't say enough about the back end and how easy it is to use and works eaqually well for any business or web site. And, if you want to kick it up a notch, the have outsourcing options that use their SEO experts to do the work.

Social Media Marketing: Part 1

Last week we had a webinar on social media marketing and more than 70 Medical Spa MD Members signed up. I'd expected somewhere from 10-15 so having 70+ surprised me somewhat.

Alex Panagiotopoulos of Freelance MD explains basic Twitter functions for physicians running medical spas, laser clinics, and cosmetic medical practices

We had intended to post the entire webcast but, due to some technology issues, the audio wasn't usable. So, Alex was kind enough to recreate the entire presentation in smaller parts.

We'll be posting a number of 'how to' videos as they're available around social media marketing with easy step by step instructions, from how to set up your Twitter account, to advanced techniques on Facebook to attract followers and promote your medical spa.

This video is the first in this series, Social Media Marketing for Medical Spas: Part 1, Alex goes over setting up a Twitter account correctly.

Setting up a Twitter account for your medical spa, laser clinic or plastic surgery practice. of course you'll want to follow Freelance MD and Medical Spa MD on Twitter.

Plastic surgeons, dermatologists, laser clinics, medical spas, skin clinics and laser centers will all benefit from learning about the newest social media marketing tactics and strategies. Social media is growing and your cosmetic medical practice can benefit from it's growth with Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, SEO and do it yourself search engine marketing.

Social Media Marketing Webinar TONIGHT! Thurs, Feb 25 8:30 EST

Freelance MD: Social Media Marketing Join us for a live Webinar on Thurs, March 25 Space is limited. Only about 12 seats remaining! Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/189033608 Freelance MD's Social Media Marketing Webinar presented by Alex Panagiotopoulos of Freelance MD, the webinar will serve as an introduction to  Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and cover how to set up accounts and a blog that can eventually increase profits and local awareness of your medical spa or cosmetic practice. The webinar is designed for doctors, practice administrators, and support staff who are either starting from square one or want to see how they can do things differently. A Q&A session will follow to ensure that all of your questions are answered. Title:   Freelance MD: Social Media Marketing Date: Thursday, March 25, 2010 Time: 8:30 PM - 9:30 PM EDT After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. System Requirements PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer

What Should Your Medical Spa Post On Facebook

We started with what to do if your medical spa doesn't have any Facebook fans. But 'content' that your patients want is what will drive readership.

Once your medical spa or plastic surgery marketing page is built and you've have a kickoff to get local potential patients aware of you, you should have at least several dozen people on your Facebook and Twitter pages.  The next step? Engaging them.

Always keep in mind the kind of in your face exposure this is going to bring.  When people are your fan or follower, whatever you write is going to appear in their "feed."  When people sign in to Facebook and Twitter, they are presented with a list of posts from everyone they have opted to follow. 

For example, when your made-up cousin Sally logs in to her Facebook account, she sees a post from her college boyfriend, a note from her mom, an invitation to a Tupperware party from her neighbor, and if she is a fan of your practice, your latest post.

If you are posting things that don't interest her, it is extremely easy for her to delete you from her account.  If you are posting things that interest her or add value to her Facebook experience, it is extremely easy for her to recommend you to her friends. If you don't have something good to say, don't bother! 

Facebook is great for embedded multimedia like pictures, video, and links, so simply writing text like "Come in and get Restylane for your lips, everyone is doing it!" is like buying a Ferrari and keeping it in first gear.  Instead, show people why they should come in and get Restylane injections.

An easy to digest mix of entertainment, usable tips, and reality content that shows off what you do best is a winning formula.  For example, over the course of a week, you could compare "The Octomom" Nadya Suleman's "trout pout" lip filler results with your own before/afters, have your aesthetician give ten winter makeup tips, and post a hand-held video (using a FlipHD video camera) that one of your assistants shot of you performing a procedure.

Posting your own reality content can even garner local media attention, just for the novelty that you are performing cosmetic surgery or injecting Botox live on Facebook. 

Any of this content that showcases your expertise in a fun and interesting way provides you with easy exposure.  Keep your website URL and phone number in several places on your fan page, so if someone sees something that sparks their interest, they can get in touch with you.

The biggest follow up question many doctors ask after this is, "How often should I post?"  As it says above, if you don't have something good to say, don't bother. Just posting endless plastic surgery liposuction ads or touting your laser hair removal treatments is a short trip to the off-list. But, if you have quality content, then set up a schedule and figure out what you'll do for the next month. 

Give your patients a feeling that they know you. A post every other day is fine to start and the more personal the content is, the better.