Team 12C
Central Columbia Hospital Human Resources Department
Technology/Social Media Executive Summary
Due to actions by several employees on social media websites, senior management has
asked the Human Resources (HR) department to conduct analysis of the information involving
the employees’ social media statements and opinions. We want to provide to management the
possible legal issues and employment complaints. Our overall goal is to identify the key
problems and their components. Next, we should provide recommendations to mitigate or avoid
these types of actions by employees in the future.
Major/Minor Problems
The major factors we looked at concerning the actions of these employees involved any
violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) as well as the
Central Columbia Hospital (CCH) Code of Conduct (CoC). We also wanted to delve into factors
of employee dissatisfaction that possibly caused the current social media complications.
The transcripts pulled from the social media website allowed us to identify four
employees (Simmons, Philips, Sotherby, and Smith) that violated HIPAA. Using the HIPAA
guidelines, it’s unacceptable to disclose details that could be considered protected health
information (PHI). The PHI guidelines violated under HIPAA in this instance were (i)
information relating to the health or condition of an individual (mention of respiratory infection),
(ii) providing geographic information or other unique identifying number (mention of MedSurg
2), (iii) using other identifying characteristics (really big guy). These are not only violations of
HIPAA, but there should be a higher standard for healthcare professionals regarding their
fiduciary duty to patients.
The transcripts also revealed that not all seven employees violated the CCH CoC. CCH
CoC specifically states all employees will treat patients, families, co-workers, and vendors with
respect and dignity. This provision was violated in addition to HIPAA when a number of
employees discussed information concerning a patient. Additionally, Simmons violated the code
of conduct by not representing CCH in a professional and positive manner. These statements are
not protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) because the comments were mere
gripes not made in relation to group activity among employees. However, comments made by
the other employees (excluding HIPAA violations) are protected by the NLRA. The NLRA
protects comments about working conditions, working hours, wages, and staffing conditions.
Causes
The problem arises from employee dissatisfaction. Employees are complaining online
about working conditions, wages, etc. This problem shouldn’t be overlooked going forward
because it could impact the CCH patient satisfaction rating. The current goal is to achieve 90
percent patient satisfaction, but dissatisfied employees may begin to neglect certain duties and
responsibilities resulting in a negative impact on patient satisfaction.
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Ultimately, the root of all the problems stems from employee dissatisfaction. Disgruntle
employees will more times than not find ways to disclose their criticisms of employer practices.
In the digital age, upset employees will use the easiest metric possible to voice grievances.
Additionally, the HIPAA violations seem to stem from CCH not providing a proper set of
guidelines for what is acceptable under HIPAA. This leads to employees unknowingly using
protected information about patients in social media rants and raves. Additionally, there is no
training about HIPAA and social media except for a broad, blanket statement in the CCH CoC.
Moreover, the CoC is very broad and generic and difficult for the employees to interpret. This
causes for employees to violate the code of conduct even if the violations can appear to go
against the NLRA. The CoC also doesn’t explain to employees what is protected under the
NLRA.
Alternatives
The alternative solutions to the social media scenario we generated were: Do nothing,
Fire all employees involved, Fire employees that violated HIPAA/CoC, Conduct remedial
training for employees involved, Train all hospital employees using updated CoC with PHI
guidelines.
Additionally, we generated alternatives to target employee job satisfaction: Do nothing,
Apply complaints made on social media in this case to the entire hospital, Create an online job
satisfaction survey.
We think the best courses of action regarding the social media fiasco are to provide
remedial training to the employees involved and to train hospital-wide using updated CoC with
PHI guidelines. We want to explain to the employees involved the potential severity of what
took place and that problems with working conditions should be formally passed through HR to
help resolve the issues. We also want to seek legal counsel to help us narrowly tailor the CCH
CoC. This will help us clearly define to employees what types of comments are protected by the
NLRA; also we want to add as much pertinent information as possible in regards to HIPAA.
This means displaying all the important guidelines and PHI identifiers to ensure there is no
ambiguity. The new CoC with HIPAA guidelines will then be transformed into an online
simulation/quiz program to be used for annual employee training for all hospital employees.
Implementing these alternatives will ensure employees involved in the case fully comprehend
why this social media outburst was important to CCH. Additionally, the updated CoC and new
online training program prevent these types of situations in the future.
To understand the issue of employee dissatisfaction we plan to conduct a CCH-wide
employee satisfaction survey. This will allow CCH to understand across the board the specific
areas in which CCH needs to improve and help the HR department generate plans to alleviate
major and minor issues. It is important that CCH ensures employees are satisfied or CCH may
have more issues of employee social media debacles and possible retention issues. Furthermore,
more satisfied employees will perform better in areas that are specifically targeted by CCH to
evaluate patient satisfaction with the hospital. If CCH can identify the employee concerns and
improve on them, CCH will make strides toward its overall goal of 90 percent patient care
satisfaction.
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