Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa (PCI) encourages you to engage in open discussion on our social media sites. We look forward to reading your comments about your experiences. We do make reasonable efforts to monitor all of our social media channels to ensure that posted comments are appropriate.
Remember that information posted on any of our social media platforms should not be considered medical advice and should not replace a consultation with a health care professional.
You should not anticipate that your online postings will remain private. Please use caution when posting medical information on any of PCI’s social media sites and never disclose personally identifiable information such as your location, patient account number, financial information, or other private information. For more information about your privacy and health care, please review our Privacy, Security & Refund Policy.
We do not comment on patients' medical status. We sometimes receive requests on our social media channels from concerned individuals asking for information about a particular patient’s medical status.
As an organization providing health care services, we are prevented by law from publicly providing any information about our patients, even if the information has already been disclosed by a patient’s parents, friends or family members online (health information privacy is covered by the federal government’s Health Information Portability and Accountability Act, commonly referred to in health care as HIPAA).
We place an absolute priority on rigorously adhering to our discipline of preserving our patients’ privacy. This is a discipline that we carefully follow no matter how eager individuals may be to receive answers on social media.
Social Media Terms & Conditions
BY POSTING ON ANY PHYSICIANS’ CLINIC OF IOWA SOCIAL MEDIA SITE YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS. Physicians’ Clinic of Iowa (“PCI”) has opened publicly facing pages on social media sites for viewing content and/or videos and posting comments about PCI. These social media sites include but are not limited to various blogs, bulletin boards, networks, multi-media and news media sites or other user generated content sites (“Social Media Sites”). By accessing, viewing and/or posting any content related directly or indirectly to PCI on any 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 Social Media Site on the internet. Your use of Social Media Sites is acceptance of this Policy and has the same effect as if you had actually physically signed an agreement.
- If you are a PCI employee you must adhere to the PCI MEDIA AND SOCIAL NETWORKING POLICY post on the PCI Intranet site.
- You must be at least 18 years old to post any content on any Social Media Site.
- You are prohibited from posting any content that is personal health information including patient images on any Social Media Site. You are also prohibited from using the Social Media Site to provide medical advice or medical commentary by non-PCI physicians or to use the Social Media Site to make, recommend or increase referrals to physicians who are not employed by PCI.
- As a guest posting content to any Social Media Site on the internet, you agree that you will not: violate any local, state, federal and international laws and regulations, including but not limited to copyright and intellectual property rights laws regarding any content that you send or receive via this Policy; transmit any material (by uploading, posting, email or otherwise) that is unlawful, disruptive, threatening, profane, abusive, harassing, embarrassing, tortuous, defamatory, obscene, libelous, or is an invasion of another's privacy, is hateful or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable as solely determined in PCI’s discretion; 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 or otherwise) that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any party; transmit (by uploading, posting, email or otherwise) any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising (including advertising of non PCI services or products), promotional materials, "junk mail," "spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes" or any other form of solicitation; transmit any material (by uploading, posting, email or otherwise) that contains software viruses, worms, disabling code, or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment; harass another; or collect or store, or attempt to collect or store, personal data about third parties without their knowledge or consent; or to share confidential pricing information of any party.
- PCI reserves the right to monitor, prohibit, restrict, block, suspend, terminate, delete, or discontinue your access to any Social Media Site, at any time, without notice and for any reason and in its sole discretion. PCI may remove, delete, block, filter or restrict by any other means any materials in PCI’s sole discretion. You understand and agree that PCI may disclose your communications and activities with PCI in response to lawful requests by governmental authorities, including Patriot Act requests, judicial orders, warrants or subpoenas, or for the protection of PCI rights. You agree that in the event that PCI exercises any of its rights hereunder for any reason, PCI will have no liability to you.
- 6. By posting any content on any Social Media Site, you grant to PCI the irrevocable right to reproduce, distribute, publish, display such content and the right to create derivative works from your content, edit or modify such content and use such content for any PCI purpose.
- You shall defend, indemnify, and hold PCI and its corporate affiliates and their respective officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, successors and assigns 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 a Social Media Site, any third party claims of infringement or any breach of this Policy.
- YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ASSUME ALL RESPONSIBILITY RELATED TO THE SECURITY, PRIVACY, AND CONFIDENTIALITY RISKS INHERENT IN SENDING ANY CONTENT OVER THE INTERNET. By its very nature, a website AND THE INTERNET cannot be absolutely protected against intentional or malicious intrusion attempts. PCI does not control the THIRD PARTY SITES AND THE Internet over which you may choose to send confidential personal or health information OR OTHER CONTENT and, therefore, PCI DOES NOT WARRANT ANY SAFEGUARD AGAINST ANY such interceptions or compromises to your information. When posting any content on an internet site, you should think carefully about your own privacy in disclosing detailed or private information about yourself and your family. FURTHERMORE, PCI DOES NOT ENDORSE ANY PRODUCT, SERVICE, VIEWS OR CONTENT DISPLAYED ON THE SOCIAL MEDIA SITE.
- You agree that any claim or dispute relating to your posting of any content on a Social Media Site on the internet shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Iowa without regard to its conflict of laws provisions and you agree to be bound and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the local, state or federal courts located in Linn County, Iowa.
- You may not provide any content to a Social Media Site that contains any product or service endorsements or any content that may be construed as political lobbying, solicitations or contributions or use the Social Media Site to link to any sites or political candidates or parties or use the Social Media Site to discuss political campaigns, issues or for taking a position on any legislation or law.
- THIS POLICY MAY BE UPDATED AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE, AND EACH TIME A USER ACCESSES A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE, THE NEW POLICY WILL GOVERN, USAGE, EFFECTIVE UPON POSTING. To remain in compliance, PCI 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.