Participation Guidelines

What to know about participating on Vanderbilt Health's social media pages

Content on our social media accounts is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you're experiencing a medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest hospital emergency department.

Expectations

  • Treat others, including our moderators, with respect, even if you disagree.
     
  • We may delete comments and posts that we consider slanderous, unlawful, obscene, hateful, soliciting, threatening, abusive, harassing or an infringement of another's rights (including intellectual property, privacy or publicity rights).
     
  • We may remove comments we consider off topic, repetitive, spam or that share or link to unsubstantiated information.
     
  • We may block users who violate these guidelines.

By participating with Vanderbilt Health on social media, you agree to indemnify Vanderbilt University Medical Center against any damages, losses, liabilities, judgments, costs or expenses arising out of a claim by a third party relating to any posts, comments, likes, shares or other social media activity you have undertaken.

Sharing personal information

Social media platforms are third-party public forums. Their terms and conditions apply. 

Whatever information you share will be seen -- and could be altered and shared -- by others. It may be archived by various third parties. Your posts leave your control forever. 

Consider this carefully before posting detailed personal information. Vanderbilt University Medical Center has no control over the policies and practices of others.

Social media and online review platforms don't the privacy and security requirements of patient privacy regulations. Therefore, we cannot use these third-party channels to address concerns or questions a patient may have about their care or experience, even in private messages. Instead, we do our best to direct you to an appropriate communications channel or information source.

Below you'll find better ways to contact us for common questions or concerns:

If you're currently an inpatient with a concern about your care or experience, speak with your nurse or the unit's charge nurse.

Note for our employees

If you are an employee of the Vanderbilt Health system, all laws and Vanderbilt Health policies apply to your online activity. These include but are not limited to the social media policy as well as HIPAA, compliance, conflict of interest, security and safety. Expectations for CREDO behavior apply. You're responsible for reading and following these policies. Consult your manager if you have questions about your social media activity.