eGDCUsing social media responsibly
Protecting patient confidentiality in digital spaces
Be careful about sharing patient information on professional WhatsApp groups.
Charlie's story
Charlie, a recent dental graduate, joins a well-respected clinic in her hometown. Demonstrating strong clinical skills and great at building rapport with her patients, she quickly earns the respect of her senior colleagues, who hear positive feedback from her patients. One of her senior colleagues invites her to join a WhatsApp group, which is used for knowledge sharing, case discussions, professional networking and updates on professional development opportunities.
After several weeks on the WhatsApp group, which has around 500 members, Charlie feels confident enough to begin contributing to the group. She begins by sharing details about particularly interesting cases that she believes the other professionals would also find educational. Charlie progresses to sharing before and after photos of her patients, which she believes are sufficiently anonymised. However, some group members recognise one of the patients and call her out in the WhatsApp group.
See how Charlie used her professional judgement to deal with the situation...
Charlie regrets sharing patient information and decides to leave the WhatsApp group immediately. She's upset that her colleagues called her out and embarrassed that other professionals witnessed this exchange. She goes into work the next day and is called in by a senior member of staff to discuss the incident.
During the discussion, she realises that she reacted too quickly, and a more appropriate response would have been to apologise publicly, within the group, and delete the posts. This would have allowed her to demonstrate to a group of fellow professionals that she recognised she had made a mistake. It would also allow her to continue to gain from the valuable peer learning from the WhatsApp group.
Charlie asks to rejoin the group and apologises for sharing information in which patients could be identified.
Charlie also consults the practice’s confidentiality policy, which outlines the procedures for addressing a confidentiality breach. These steps include informing the patient that their identity was inadvertently disclosed, which Charlie does.
She also completes a recommended confidentiality and data protection course, which several of her colleagues had found beneficial.
Other guidance
Discussion points
- Why is maintaining patient confidentiality and confidence in the profession paramount for the dental profession?
- What are the potential legal consequences of breaching patient confidentiality?
- What are best practices for handling patient information digitally/online?
- What was the likely emotional impact on Charlie of having to inform the patient of what had happened?
- What do you think a patient’s reaction would be on seeing this post and reading the comments, and what might be the possible consequences?