Medical Ethics Policy

Medical Ethics And Terms And Conditions

By posting anything on AP Therapists social media sites or reading articles on the website you agree to the following terms

Online Users Interacting With AP Therapists Social Media Channels And Website

We welcome and encourage open discussion on current and future AP Therapists social media sites – including but not limited to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, and online story-sharing forums – and look forward to any comments, stories and experiences you would like to share.

AP Therapists makes a reasonable effort to monitor participation to ensure that you stay on topic. Please remember that information posted on any social media platforms shouldn’t be considered medical advice and shouldn’t replace a consultation with a health care professional. If you have medically-related questions regarding your health, please call your medical provider or physiotherapist.

Please be aware that once you post something online, there’s the potential for thousands of people to read your words, even years from now. As a result, we suggest that you exercise caution when posting information on any of our social media sites and that you not disclose personal identifiable information like your location, medical record number, financial information, etc.

While AP Therapists makes reasonable efforts to monitor and/or moderate content posted on its social media platforms, we do not moderate all comments and cannot always respond in a timely manner to online requests for information. Please know we cannot respond to comments that deal with individual medical cases and issues.

AP Therapists has publicly opened pages on social media sites for viewing content and/or videos and posting comments. These social media venues may include, but are not limited, to various sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, multimedia or other user-generated content. By making use of these platforms and accessing, viewing and/or posting any content to any AP Therapists social media site on the internet, you accept without limitation or qualification the following terms of use.

If you do not agree to the terms of this Policy, you may not view or post any content to any AP Therapists social media site on the internet. Your use of AP Therapists social media sites is acceptance of this Policy and has the same effect as if you had physically signed an agreement.

2. Employees of AP Therapists

If you are an AP Therapists employee, you must adhere to the Social Media Compliance Policy supplied by AP Therapists. Failure to comply with these policies and procedures may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.

You are prohibited from posting personal health information content, including patient images, on any AP Therapists social media site. You are also prohibited from using the AP Therapists social media site to provide medical advice or medical commentary or to make, recommend or increase referrals to providers and/or physicians.

As a guest posting content to any AP Therapists social media site on the internet, you agree that you will not:

• Violate any HPCSA code will be in convention of the AP Therapist’s Ethics Policy.
• Transmit any material (by uploading, posting, email, etc.) that is unlawful, viewed as malicious, obscene, threatening or intimidating, that disparage patients, employees, suppliers or that might constitute harassment or bullying.
• Examples of such conduct might include offensive posts meant to intentionally harm someone’s reputation or post that could contribute to a hostile work environment on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion or other status protected by law or company policy.
• Impersonate any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity; transmit any material (by uploading, posting, email or otherwise) that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships.
• Transmit any material (by uploading, posting, email, etc.) that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party, this includes not referring content shared from other sites.
• AP Therapists reserves the right to monitor, prohibit, restrict, block, suspend, terminate, delete, or discontinue your access to any AP Therapists social media site, at any time, without notice, for any reason and at its sole discretion.
• AP Therapists may remove, delete, block, filter or restrict by any other means at its sole discretion. You understand and agree that AP Therapists may disclose your communications and activities with AP Therapists in response to lawful requests.
• By posting any content on any AP Therapists social media site, you grant to AP Therapists the irrevocable right to reproduce, distribute, publish, and display such content and the right to create derivative works from your content, edit or modify such content and use such content for any AP Therapists purpose.
• You shall defend, indemnify, and hold AP Therapists and its corporate affiliates and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, and successors harmless from and against, and shall promptly reimburse them for, any and all losses, claims, damages, settlements, costs, and liabilities of any nature whatsoever (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) to which any of them may become subject arising out of, based upon, as a result of, or in any way connected with, your posting of any content to an AP Therapists Social media site or website, any third party claims of infringement or any breach of this Policy.
• You expressly acknowledge that you assume reasonable responsibility related to the security, privacy and confidentiality risks inherent in sending content over the internet. By its very nature, a website and the internet can be absolutely protected against intentional malicious hacking attacks by third parties.
• AP Therapists does not control third party sites and the internet over which you choose to send personal or health information or other content. AP Therapists does not warrant or safeguard against any such interceptions or compromises to your information. Please be aware of positing confidential information on the internet.
• AP Therapists does not endorse any product, service, views or content displayed on any social media channels.
• You agree that any claim or dispute relating to your posting of any content on an AP Therapists social media / website represents the organisation, and you will respect that accordingly.
• You may not provide any content to an AP Therapists social media / web site that contains any product or service endorsements or any content that may be construed as political lobbying, solicitations or contributions; or use any AP Therapists social media to link to any sites or political candidates or parties; or use any AP Therapists social media site to discuss political campaigns, issues or for taking a position on any legislation or law.
• The opinions and or views expressed on any AP Therapists social media platform, including, but not limited to, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube, blogs, represent the thoughts of individual bloggers and online communities, and not those necessarily of AP Therapists or any of its corporate affiliates or any of their respective directors, officers, employees, research staff, medical staff or members of its respective board of directors. The opinions and views expressed on these pages do not in any way reflect the views of the site they are posted on, other sites affiliated with the site, the staff involved with maintaining the site or any members of the site.
• This policy may be updated at any time without notice and each time a user accesses any social media channel controlled by AP Therapists or the website the new policy will govern usage, effective on posting.
• To remain in compliance, AP Therapists suggests that you review the Policy, as well as the other website policies, at regular intervals. By continuing to post any content after such new terms are posted, you accept and agree to any and all such modifications to this Policy.

3. AP Therapists Ethics

AP Therapists adhere to the following regulations:

• Not breaching your clients’ confidentiality online;
• Not telling your client how to use social media – thereby misusing your position of power in the treatment dynamic; and
• Avoiding the unethical trap of “Google-ing” clients.
• Be cognisant of standards of patient privacy and confidentiality that must be maintained in all environments, including online, and will not post sensitive patient information online or transmit it without appropriate protection.
• Use privacy settings to safeguard personal information and content to the extent possible, but realise that privacy settings are not absolute and that once on the Internet, content is likely there permanently.
• Maintain appropriate boundaries of the patient-physiotherapist relationship in accordance with professional ethical guidelines just as you would in any other context.
• Report unprofessional postings to appropriate authorities.
• Do not post any identifying information about your clients, patients, and affiliate care providers. This is a breach of confidentiality.
• Avoid searches on individuals that you relate with professionally; “Googling” can lead to a violation of privacy.
• We will not give clinical advice or diagnosis online; online users will be referred to the appropriate medical professional for assessment.
• Any content published on the site or on social media is for educational purposes only, AP Therapists will not be held liable for online users who act of their own free will and do not consult with the physiotherapists if the exercises are propriate for their specific condition.