October 15, 2009 Hospital social media ban sparks healthy discussion Play video

(NECN: Ted McEnroe) - There's some interesting discussion on the web this morning about New England Baptist Hospital, which has become the latest business to ban its workers from using social networks on the job. Now, banning social media at work isn't a surprise - after all, I mentioned earlier this month that 54% of businesses have banned Twitter, Facebook and such according to a recent survey.

But what makes the New England Baptist ban interesting are two things - one, that New England Baptist is physically blocking the sites, which is a bigger step than many companies take. They cite privacy concerns, which do make a block more logical (after all, once patient information is out there, you can't make it private again, even if you discipline the leakers). But it's also interesting that the news of the ban started a conversation because of a blog post by the CEO at another hospital. On Tuesday when Paul Levy, the President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, published an email he received last week annoucing a social media ban at "another Boston hospital", which he declined to name. (Of course,

He also has a fantastic blog, if you have never checked it out. http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2009/10/shutting-down-social-media-not-here.html

As for Baptist - it's pledged to come up with a social media policy and then unblock the sites. No one can argue that they have reason for concern over patient privacy - and there have reportedly been instances at other hospitals where tweets or posts may have violated patient privacy. Whether blocking the sites is the mature response to that - well, personally, I'll side with Levy, but hey, I don't have to live by HIPAA rules, either.

Two other things to note this morning. First, I made another mention of bookofodds.com, which Lisa van der Pool mentioned in her Boston Business Journal segment on Monday. Odds are you'll find it addictive.

And Monday night on NECN, of course, we are broadcasting the final debate between Boston Mayor Tom Menino and challenger Michael Flaherty, and we'll be doing some interesting things online, as well. We'll be livestreaming the debate from 7-8pm, and in conjunction with WBUR, WGBH TV and the Boston Globe, we'll also be holding a live chat during the debate. We're using a program called "Cover It Live" - and if you go to the debate page on NECN.com, you'll be able to chat live with reporters, give your thoughts and feedback and more. And if you'd rather watch the debate on the big TV screen, you can still take part in the chat on the computer. Hope you'll join us - should be interesting.