Social Media Policy

Our policies are in compliance with state and federal regulations. If you have any questions, please call us at 218.249.5555 or 800.321.3790.

Purpose:

The purpose of Aspirus St. Luke's social media policy is to provide guidance to anyone using Aspirus St. Luke's social media sites. Before posting on any Aspirus St. Luke's social media site, all visitors are bound by the following policy.

Policy Statement:

Aspirus St. Luke's welcomes you to share your comments, thoughts and experiences on its social media sites.

We encourage visitors who post on any Aspirus St. Luke's social media site to be respectful, fair and courteous to others. We ask visitors to avoid making comments which are offensive to others.

Please be aware that anything you post online is visible to others, years into the future. As a result, we suggest you consider carefully before disclosing any medical information or personal details.

We do not offer medical advice in response to any comment posted on a Aspirus St. Luke's social media site, and would encourage any visitors seeking medical help to consult a health professional.

We make a reasonable effort to monitor visitor participation on the Aspirus St. Luke's social media sites and reserve the right to delete comments which are abusive, defamatory, spam, use profanity or advertise commercial products.

Definition:

Visitors: All people accessing Aspirus St. Luke's social media sites, including, but not limited to, patients, employees, volunteers, patient family members, friends, vendors.

Social media site: Any form of website serving a function to communicate, post information and content, interact with others. These include, but are not limited to blogs, social networking sites, chat rooms and the official organizational websites. Examples include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, Yammer, Second Life, slhduluth.com. The absence of, or lack of explicit reference to, does not limit the application of this policy.

Procedure:

1. The opinions and comments posted on Aspirus St. Luke's social media sites are those of individual visitors to the sites and do not necessarily represent those of Aspirus St. Luke's hospitals, clinics, affiliates, or any of its employees or directors.
2. Use of the Aspirus St. Luke's social media sites does not create a physician-patient relationship and should not be interpreted as such. Information posted on any of our social media sites should not be considered medical advice, and should not replace consultation with a qualified medical professional.
3. Aspirus St. Luke's reserves the right to review, edit or delete any comments considered to be abusive, personal/defamatory, spam, inaccurate, use profanity, concern HR matters, advertise commercial products, involve solicitation, are off-topic, violate the privacy of patients and their families, use "hate" speech (for example, making comments that are offensive to another person's race, gender, disability, religion or any other status protected by law). Further, Aspirus St. Luke's reserves the right to block access to its social media sites by any visitor who violates this policy.
4. Aspirus St. Luke's logos and trademarks may not be used without written consent.
5. Links to external sites from any Aspirus St. Luke's social media site are provided as a service to visitors, and do not represent endorsement of the sites to which they link.
6. By submitting content to any Aspirus St. Luke's social media site, you understand and acknowledge that this content is visible to the public, and may be used by Aspirus St. Luke's both for internal and external purposes, including promotional or marketing functions. You understand and acknowledge that other visitors to social media sites may use any information posted by you in ways beyond the control of Aspirus St. Luke's. If you are not willing to acknowledge this, please do not post on any Aspirus St. Luke's social media site.
7. Aspirus St. Luke's employees should, in addition to the guidelines above, refer also to the Confidentiality Agreement, Service Excellence standards, Employee Handbook, Code of Conduct, Human Resources Discipline Policy (D-2) and Human Resources Solicitation Policy (S-2) available on the intranet.

Reference:

• Confidentiality Agreement
• Employee Handbook
• Code of Conduct
• Human Resources Policy D-2 (Discipline)
• Human Resources Policy S-2 (Solicitation and Distribution of Literature)
• Management Policy M-5 (Telephone Triage Calls)

Coordination:

• Marketing Department

Key Involved Departments:

• Marketing
• Quality Management
• Medical Records
• Human Resources