A Cautionary Tale - Social Media in Healthcare

By Nancy G. Burch, MidLantic Urology Compliance Manager and

Melissa Paper, Solaris Chief Compliance Officer

Every day on the news or in our own personal lives we seem to hear something about Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. These sites allow people to stay connected with friends and family, but when the line is crossed from personal to work related matters, especially in healthcare, it is not always a good thing.

In early October, a story broke where a Physician Assistant working for a large healthcare system made multiple posts referencing patient information on her Instagram site (click here for more information on this story). The content of some of the posts referenced the patient’s condition and made distasteful comments as to why the patient was being seen at the hospital. None of the posts directly disclosed a patient’s name, however the act was still inappropriate. According to the employer of this Physician Assistant, while the posts were distasteful, no patient health information was posted or released by the employee at issue. However, the actions by the Physician Assistant were not without consequences. Since the incident broke, the Physician Assistant was put on leave and has deleted her Instagram account containing the inappropriately posted information. 

As a member of the Solaris Health workforce, you have received a handbook that contains a Social Media section. In this section it clearly notes the cautionary tale against using social media during working hours, or on work equipment, and about the posting to sites. In addition, employees are reminded that they are not permitted to post on social media on behalf of Solaris. 

As a healthcare practice we are obligated under the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to maintain the confidentiality of the patient information entrusted to us. As such, Protected Health Information must only be used and disclosed for work related purposes. Patient information must never be posted on an employee’s social media account. The only exception would be a posting to an official affiliate or Solaris social media account (i.e., testimonial), only after we have obtained the patient’s written authorization to do so. 

Think about how you would want your healthcare provider to treat your personal protected health information. Maybe if this Physician Assistant treated the patient information as if it were her own personal information, she may have treated it a little differently, and maybe she wouldn’t have made such an egregious error. 

As a reminder, there are several ways to report a potential compliance or privacy concern:

• Directly to Management, the Affiliate Compliance Officer, the Chief Compliance Officer, or to a Member of Human Resources
• The Compliance Hotline: 888-298-8824
• Web Reporting Form on the Compliance Corner of the SunDial SharePoint. 
• By email to our Chief Compliance Officer [email protected]
• In writing addressed to the attention of the Solaris Chief Compliance Officer at: 500 E. Broward Blvd, Suite 2150, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33394
• Or scan our QR Code 

Jason Langley joins as new CFO

In mid-November, Jason Langley joined Solaris Health as our new Chief Financial Officer. Jason is responsible for leading the financial strategy for our group, providing leadership, direction, and administration of all financial aspects related to mergers and acquisitions.

His expertise will ensure that our business can execute both short- and long-range business plans.

Prior to joining Solaris, Jason served in executive leadership positions, most recently as Executive Vice President of Financial Operations for Summit Behavioral Healthcare, a national group of behavioral health clinics. Before that he worked in hospital-based care, serving as Division CFO for Acadia Healthcare as well as in several leadership positions with Central Florida Health.

"I am excited to join a best-in-class national healthcare platform. The Solaris culture of excellence and commitment to delivering the highest quality of care to patients is guided by incredible physician leaders and comes across in everything Solaris affiliates do,” said Jason. “I look forward to partnering with the rest of the leadership team to use my passion for finance, operations, and strategy in a collaborative way to build upon the many successes the team has already achieved."

A big thank you goes out to our former CFO, Michele Haas, for her work in building the financial infrastructure and reporting systems of the company from the ground up. Under Michele’s financial leadership, Solaris has grown from two practices to seventeen premier affiliates, scaling to the largest Urology platform in the country. We wish Michele well in her next endeavor.

We look forward to having Jason pick up the reins and continue leading our financial growth in the coming years.

Learn more about Jason’s background here. 

And the Trailblazer is…Arpeet Shah, MD

One of the two inaugural recipients of the LUGPA Trailblazer Award (announced at LUGPA’s 2023 annual meeting) is Dr. Arpeet Shah with Associated Urological Specialists (AUS). Dr. Shah was selected for his exceptional achievements, innovation, leadership, and commitment to help advance the field of urology. A recap of his many achievements include:

• Implementing a seamless telehealth service program during the first week of COVID
• Incorporating extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy (ESWL) and greenlight photoselective vaporization of the prostate (PVP) at AUS
• Introducing an innovative outpatient protocol for robotic radical prostatectomy and partial nephrectomy patients
• Revamping the AUS recruitment program with impressive results
• Helping enhance the management of BPH, OAB, men’s health issues, and prostate cancer
• Serving as director of the now-flourishing AUS Advanced Practice Provider program

Dr. Shah’s commitment to shaping the future of urology includes roles on the AUS Executive Leadership Team and on the Solaris Board Future Leaders Committee.

Congratulations, Dr. Shah and thank you for your dedication.

Paurush Babbar, MD of TUG Participates in National Men's Health Symposium

The Urology Group’s Dr. Paurush Babbar was a featured speaker at last week’s Sexual Medicine Society of North America (SMSNA) 2023 Symposium on the Health economic aspects of providing treatment for men with ED.

The conference, held in San Diego, brought together some of the best minds in Men's health to share ideas and cutting edge approaches to treatment in this growing subspecialty. Dr. Babbar spoke at a panel discussion focused on health economics insights in prosthetic surgery and how to provide more access for patients who face ED and incontinence. Dr. Babbar performs over 130 prosthetic cases annually and is in the top 1% of implanters in the U.S.

"Men's health is increasingly in the limelight as patients take more ownership over their physical health and well-being," Babbar commented. "Prosthetic surgery in the urological realm has been around nearly 5 decades, but recent advances are making the procedures more streamlined and accessible to patients. The need for prosthetic surgery is immense, with 1.7 million insured American men with moderate to severe erectile dysfunction who have failed all medical management and roughly only 22,000 (1.3% of men) receiving penile prosthesis surgery. In other words, 98.7% of men who could benefit from these types of procedures are not getting the care they need."

Affiliates Get Their Boo On

We know another holiday season is already upon us but wanted to share a look-back to October. Check out how some of our affiliates celebrated Halloween!