The Standard followed up with Levy, asking him how his hospital deals with social networking. He said Beth Israel has not considered a similar policy because it is "inconsistent with our view of social media, which we view as an important adjunct to traditional forms of communication." He also said that while Facebook-style messages, wall posts and IM were used among younger staff at BI for informal chats or suggestions, when the talk turns to specific patients or other sensitive subjects, they switch to more secure electronic channels -- or better yet, talk about the issues in person or on the telephone.

Restrictions on social networking use is hardly a new issue for Boston-area hospitals and their staffs. We spoke with a doctor and researcher at the Boston Medical Center (who asked not to be identified) about practices at his workplace. The doctor described a long-standing ban on using hospital computers and networks for accessing Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Google Docs, and for that matter, any site featuring "sex, drugs, and rock and roll." However, our source wasn't sure whether the bans had been codified into a formal practice -- he said that trying to access the sites from computers on the BMC network results in an error message.

Nevertheless, the BMC ban is widely viewed as counterproductive, according to our source. For instance, the medical center's own development department once created a Facebook page and encouraged staff to participate. When the staff replied that they could not access it at work, they were asked to take part in the electronic community from home. This request was not well-received.

When our BMC source spoke with a senior IT executive about the ban, he was told that the concern among management was not so much around HIPAA compliance, productivity or bandwidth issues, as much as legal liability relating to inappropriate use or messages left on the online services by employees from hospital computers.