The PR industry has welcomed the precautionary action of a regional NHS trust to prevent damage to its reputation through inappropriate use of social media by issuing a set of Facebook guidelines to hospital workers.
Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust sent out an email on its staff intranet service highlighting its concerns about breaching patient confidentiality on social sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
It reminded employees about the risks of describing incidents, people and situations that they encountered at work, following a growing number of complaints about the content staff were posting to their Facebook profiles.
In particular, it warned against making disparaging remarks about the organisation and its staff, taking photos of patients from mobile phones and posting any information that could lead to the identification of a patient.
A Trust spokeswoman described the move as a precautionary measure and that no disciplinary action had been taken against any individual.
Leading PR commentators have urged other trusts to follow Lancashire's lead by taking pre-emptive action rather than waiting until a serious incident had taken place.
Nevertheless, the PR profession is delighted to see signs that its message about inappropriate use of social media is finally getting through and is now looking forward to the day when social media guidelines become a standard part of company procedure.
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