Social Media Rules for Health Practitioners

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Beware! If you are a health professional registered with the Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) – eg a dentist, optometrist, psychologist, or physiotherapist – any post on your business social media account could mean that you are:

  • committing a criminal offence;

  • at risk of thousands of dollars’ worth of fines;

  • on the receiving end of disciplinary action from your professional body.

It’s a scary (and expensive!) thought, but these are the very real consequences for health practitioners if they are caught breaking the rules – mainly the Advertising Guidelines as set by AHPRA and the governing boards under Section 39 of the National Law; or even the Therapeutic Goods Administration for products like eye drops, vitamins or Chinese herbs. (It’s times like this you really wish you’d become a mechanic or plumber instead!)

And yet working in social media as we do, we often come across health business accounts that are in breach.

Why Is Social Media such a Minefield?

The first thing you should know is that if AHPRA comes knocking, ignorance is no excuse.

AHPRA tends to assume that if you are smart enough to become a podiatrist, chiropractor or the like, you are more than capable of reading and adhering to their guidelines. Unfortunately, this doesn’t take into account the fact that business owners tend to be very busy people, trying to stay on top of the latest advances in their profession, Medicare regulations, HR issues, and the list goes on.

Nor can you blame it on your admin or social media manager. The buck stops with you – the registered health practitioner – so you want to be very sure that whoever is looking after your social media accounts is fully conversant with the guidelines.

Like many legal-type documents, the guidelines do seem to leave themselves open to interpretation - we’ve watched enough law shows on TV to know a grey area when we see one.

Reviews + Testimonials

To complicate things further, it seems some things are okay in some situations, but not in others.

For example – if a patient posts a review on your Google My Business account, that’s okay – but not if it’s on your Facebook account. Why? Because you can (and should) turn off the reviews feature on your Facebook page, but it’s impossible to do so on Google. AHPRA understands that sometimes you can’t control what patients are posting online.

And just to add to the confusion, some reviews are actually acceptable! If it says something along the lines of “the reception staff were very welcoming and friendly,” it doesn’t breach the guidelines because it doesn’t relate to clinical practice.

If you are a healthcare professional and business owner, you could:

  • pour over the guidelines and tear your hair out over every post on your account (yes, even the old ones – we know of one Traditional Chinese Medicine practice that recently got into trouble for a Facebook post from 2010,  before TCM was even part of AHPRA!);

  • employ a lawyer to do it instead;

  • hire a reputable social media company (like us!) with experience in sticking to the AHPRA guidelines;

  • avoid social media altogether.

Social Media Checklist for Health Professionals

Or, you could use our handy dandy checklist! You’ll stay well clear of murky waters if you avoid:

  • Testimonials;

  • Discounts or special offers;

  • “Can” (use “may” instead);

  • “Safe and effective”;

  • Lists of health conditions;

  • Terms like “specialising” or “expert”;

  • Heavy handed sales and promotional tactics.

You’re welcome 😉 .