Blogging, worse then you think!

[reaper]

Interesting article that was sent out by our state EMS office.

This is a long letter, but does have an excellent point to it!


BLOGGING? A GOOD IDEA?

My name is Zach Bieghler and I'm a paramedic in the State of Kansas.
I have served with various EMS agencies in South Central Kansas as well
as for an educational institution. I've been a paramedic since
September of 2005 and in EMS since 2002. I've spent the last six years
of my life dedicated to EMS, working as much as I could, between
multiple EMS jobs to gain knowledge and experience. Life was good. I had
recently become established enough to buy my first home in the town of
which I served. I was taking various EMS courses to be a better
instructor for my students of which I taught. Life as it seemed was on
the right track I hoped and dreamed for. Unfortunately, that dream came
to a sudden stop, which came by no one else's fault but my own.
In April of 2007 my EMS partner and I were called out for an
inter-facility transfer. The patient had several medical complications,
in addition to being severely obese. Several hours after the call and
when the report was finished, I sat down at the computer, while on the
clock mind you, and entered Myspace.com. There I started a "blog"
which I wrote about the call I had just ran hours before. Out of respect
for my previous employer, I'm not going to discuss what I had written
in the blog, but to say ashamedly, it was vulgar and offensive and
related to the patient's level of obesity.
I had written the blog for my friends to see only, most of which are in
the EMS profession. I later discovered that I did not have settings
adequate on Myspace.com to prevent the general public from viewing. I
wrote the blog to share my experiences and to make them laugh. As a
healthcare provider, we all must be empathetic and sympathetic towards
all patients regardless of the situation. As I wrote this blog, my
empathy for this patient was absent. I didn't think about the anger,
humility, and mistrust that could have manifested by the patient towards
me, my agency or my profession. Not to mention a legal preceding that
could have been initiated by the patient that could have damaged my
agencies trust and reputation. This will present a tough, but extremely
important lesson to learn as time goes by.
After I had written the blog, time went by as usual. As months went by
I had actually forgot that I had written the blog. I had actually cared
for this patient two more times since the blog for various reasons. As I
continued caring for him I grew to like the patient. I remember one time
as I entered his residence he greeted me by first name with a smile. You
have developed a special bond with a patient when they remember you by
name and you remember them. At this point, I would have deleted the blog
from my site, but as I said, I had forgotten all about it.
In September of 2007, a co-worker reported the blog to my employer.
This initiated a meeting between my Director, hospital Vice President
and my agencies attorney. While participating in a mass casualty drill I
was pulled away and escorted to the Vice President's office. I knew it
had to be a significant matter to pull me away from such a training
exercise. Completely oblivious as to what was going on, I found myself
in the office with the Vice President of Operations and the Director of
EMS. I was immediately confronted with the blog that I had written. I
had a rush of emotions, the most
powering being sorrow for what I had done. I was instructed not to talk
about it, delete all work related blogs immediately and was given a 30
day unpaid suspension. My Director also told me that he would more than
likely be reporting the incident to the Kansas Board of EMS.
In a state of complete devastation I arrived home and immediately
logged onto Myspace.com and deleted every blog I had ever written. I
found out that evening that two of my co-workers had also been suspended
30 days without pay because of my personal blog and their return
comments. I'm the author and they got suspended as well! I had never
lived with such guilt in my life as I felt then. So guilt ridden in
fact, that I lost 10 lbs over the next few days.

See part 2!!!!!

 

[reaper]

Blogging, Part 2

Sorry, it all would not fit in one post!


I continued to work for the educational institution during time I was
suspended. After a week of my suspension, the Dean of Instruction at the
educational institution received a letter accompanied by a copy of my
blog. Now, this blog not only caused my problems at my EMS service, but
my secondary job as well. This resulted in a very stern meeting between
me and the EMS Program Director. The Program Director is my mentor and I
had really let him down. Not only did I let him down, I let down the
entire staff and students at the educational institution. The guilt and
disappointment in me was starting to become unbearable. Serving a thirty
day suspension from my career and my primary source of income took its
toll. I had to completely drain all of my savings to stay afloat. All of
this resulted because of my poor choice of judgment. I soon found that
things were just starting.
I returned to work after my suspension and found myself working with
those extremely disappointed in me. After a couple of days and a few
talks with co-workers, things only improved by a little. I will never
get that full respect back that I had prior to the incident and I
wouldn't ask for it either. What I did was wrong and hard for anyone
to forgive. Still guilt-ridden and disappointed beyond words, I found
myself having difficulty coping with what I had done and fell into a
deep depression.
February of 2008 rolled around; I was enrolled in an Instructor
Coordinator class to further my education and passion to teach. I found
that my Director did in fact report the incident to the Kansas Board of
EMS. The Board's Investigations Committee was meeting in just days. I
had contacted the Board and confirmed the news and was told that a
decision would be made at the meeting later that week. The week passed
slowly by as I waited in horror. Friday came and I contacted the Board
office. I found that a decision had been made to revoke my Paramedic
certification. My world was soon spiraling out of control.
As one could imagine, the process to revoke a license is not a quick
and painless process. The process took months. Not knowing when my
license would be revoked and trying to concentrate on my career was
painstaking. One of the hardest things to complete was my Instructor
Coordinator class, uncertain of my careers future path.
I had finally started to build my savings back up and was advised to
seek an attorney. This was another financial hit from my original
mistake. I hired an attorney to help me through the revocation process.
A total of nine months passed since my original suspension. Nine months
of guilt, anguish, disappointment and depression, I finally received a
consent agreement. Given the options and willing to
accept my mistake and consequences of my action, I signed the consent
agreement. This agreement listed several things, to summarize, I was
being revoked for no less than 90 days for professional misconduct
emphasizing on a possible violation of patient confidentiality.
Consequently, I resigned as a paramedic for the service I worked for
and had to quit teaching, which is something I'm very passionate
about. I had to take a job as a vendor merchandiser, stocking shelves in
grocery stores. Working alone everyday gave me a lot of time to think
about what I had really done and who I had disappointed. Having resigned
from the EMS agency and not being able to teach, I roughly took a 60%
pay cut. Once again, the financial burden, for my moment of poor
judgment, continually hung over my head. During this time I relied very
heavily on my family, friends and mentors. As I relied on them, they too
suffered, feeling the ups and downs of the process. Also during this
time I sought counseling for my actions from a mental health hospital.
Having completed the counseling I learned more about empathy and it's
importance. It instilled in me the importance of patient confidentiality
as I found myself as a patient in a mental health hospital.
After barely struggling though my 90-day period it was time to try and
get reinstated. I knew that it was possible that the Board could extend
my revocation or worst yet revoke my MICT indefinitely. I soon found
myself sitting in front of the Investigations Committee in Topeka, in a
small room, crowded with people I didn't know. I felt alone as I
really only knew three individuals there, two of which testified on my
behalf. As I stood out in the hallway with the panel during
deliberation, I felt sick with emotions. "What if they say no?" was
all I could think of. I thought about how much effort and time (6 years)
I had put into my career. For what? All for the chance to blog on
Myspace.com?
The large group in the hallway filed back into the conference room as I
took a seat back at the table in which I had testified at. The decision
was made to reinstate my MICT! This was all I could ask for. There were
two conditions that followed: 1) Write an article for the KEMSA
Chronicle, which would also be published on the KSBEMS website, and 2)
make myself available to any EMS agency across the State of Kansas to
speak about what I had done and the consequences that followed.
Having listed the conditions stated, I want to emphasize that I'm not
writing this article because I have to. I am writing this article to
educate other EMS professionals. What I did was wrong and should never
happen to anyone. I want people to learn from my mistake. I have heard
several of my colleagues talk about calls that they had ran, some even
in the same format as what I had wrote. We in EMS all have to know that
"blogging" has consequences. Each and every bit of electronic
postings must edify the profession, other technicians, ourselves and the
patients we serve. I want my colleagues to think twice before saying or
writing anything about the patients they care for. We have to be
empathetic, put yourself in their shoes. Or as the hospital Vice
President asked me in her office, "What if that patient was your
mother, father, son or daughter"? As to the second condition listed, I
would be more than happy to discuss my experience with your employees,
co-workers or students. This is free of charge as required. You can
schedule this by contacting me by email at emsmedic712@gmail.com.
I would like to thank the Kansas Board of EMS for giving me the
privilege and opportunity to share my experience with others. I would
also like to thank KEMSA for publishing this article. Also thanks to all
my family, friends, colleagues and my counselor who has supported me
through this trying experience

 

[JPINFV]

Two tips for blogging:

1.

Out of respect
for my previous employer, I'm not going to discuss what I had written
in the blog, but to say ashamedly, it was vulgar and offensive and
related to the patient's level of obesity.

Avoid that.

2. Put just enough to identify your background. There's no real reason to list WHERE you work. Similarly, if you want to discuss calls use generic names for patients and locations. One of my favorite web comics (Real Life Comics. It's not related at all to EMS) uses the characters "Alan Extra" and "John Generic" as supporting characters to fill in any random role needed. Putting down a specific "I work for company ABC Ambulance Service" is a recipe for disaster.

 

[suziquzi99]

We were handed this email printed today. I think our supervisor handed it out to everyone. Very interesting read!

 

[reaper]

Suzi,

You start OST?

 

[suziquzi99]

I did! We have been in orientation all week. We took the ambulance driving test. . That wasn't as different or as difficult as I thought it would be. I think I've seen a dozen videos. Today we actually started doing the packaging for the trucks. I am really enjoying everything. Our soon to be teacher came in also so we got to chat with him for a sec.

 

[KEVD18]

thats why my employer is never listed on my myspace.

i know three guys who were recently canned from a service i used to work for. they had mischevious pictures taken on company time and property. someone ratted on them and they got canned.

 

[mycrofft]

Uh, smells funny to me. Not impossible, but funny.

Not sure why.

I'm still wondering how an employer can suspend you for free speech exercised before employment. I suppose leaving it up constitutes continuation of this self-expression deleterious to the business. Yet, his putative employer, McPherson and McPherson, still posts a 2007 brochure listing him as an employee.

PS: My sheriff dept trainer course co=trainee helped teach me there can be ways to sneak around some blocks in myspace, etc.

 

[JPINFV]

I'm still wondering how an employer can suspend you for free speech exercised before employment.

Easy, your employer isn't bound by the first amendment unless your employer is congress.

 

[traumateam1]

-goes to facebook and myspace and starts deleting blogs-

But seriously, thanks. That was a good read.

 

[tatersalad]

important free speech related note -
the government can't restrict your right to free speech. Employers have a right to protect themselves and the businesses by giving you the opportunity to speak freely while working somewhere else.

Just be careful

 

[stephenrb81]

I had a 'general' blog. Just a general-musing type thing that my family and close friends loved. Although, I occasionally posted some work related WTF moments I never made any company/entity that I was associated with identifiable, I randomly rotated gender if it involved a patient, NEVER made any vulgar remarks or unprofessional observations, and always allowed some time to pass between the posting and the day/week/month the actual event occurred.

Aside from blogging, I also scrutinize and blur any company information from any pictures of myself that I put anywhere on the internet.

I don't take the precautions to protect my career, I do it to keep myself as unidentifiable as possible. I enjoy the freedom of speech that is granted to me, but I will not use that freedom to make vulgar remarks at others expense nor would I ever abuse it to defame one's character.

The sad truth is that there are immature people that relish the opportunity to raise their 'popularity' by making obscene/vulgar remarks about others and they SHOULD be held accountable for their words. Legally speaking, One has no expectation of privacy on the internet.

*Steps down and slides his soapbox back under the desk*

 

[stephenrb81]

Let me clarify the "expectation of privacy"... A user has no expectation of privacy when posting to a third party site (social networks, internet forums, chat rooms). It is basically the same as ignoring a public sign that state "WARNING: AUDIO/VIDEO SURVEILLANCE IN USE"

 

[Sasha]

That is ridiculous. You can't revoke a paramedic license on the basis of personal opinion and irritation at fat people IF they did not post any revealing information about the patient. If they didn't violate HIPAA, they did nothing legally wrong, and you can't revoke a license on the basis of being an a-hole.

I'm with mycroft, it smells pretty funny. Nothing on snopes, yet, but an internet search did show him as an employee at McPherson EMS or something.

 

[Arkymedic]

Some states could argue that it was conduct unbecoming of an EMS professional...

That is ridiculous. You can't revoke a paramedic license on the basis of personal opinion and irritation at fat people IF they did not post any revealing information about the patient. If they didn't violate HIPAA, they did nothing legally wrong, and you can't revoke a license on the basis of being an a-hole.

 

[JPINFV]

That is ridiculous. You can't revoke a paramedic license on the basis of personal opinion and irritation at fat people IF they did not post any revealing information about the patient. If they didn't violate HIPAA, they did nothing legally wrong, and you can't revoke a license on the basis of being an a-hole.

I'm with mycroft, it smells pretty funny. Nothing on snopes, yet, but an internet search did show him as an employee at McPherson EMS or something.

65-6133 Denial, revocation, limitation, modification or suspension of attendant’s or instructor-coordinator’s certificate; hearing.
...

(7) has engaged in unprofessional conduct, as defined by rules and regulations adopted by the board.

http://www.ksbems.org/stats2003.htm


Link to the "Blogging: Do's and Don'ts" article on the Kansas EMSA website.
http://www.ksbems.org/Kemsa_Chronical_Article.pdf

 

[tatersalad]

remember this is a government agency we are talking about.

Still, common sense goes a long way.

 

[RailFan77]

An ex co-worker of mine once said "If it's put in writing, than there is always a record of it." No matter what we say on IM, text messenger, blog, etc., if something is said that can insult a patient, co-worker, company, etc., then it can come back to bite you one day...even years later.

On a personal note, I always try to put the tamer pictures online, and I never blog on myspace. I feel that if I want my friends/family to know something, then I can just call them and tell them personally...they don't need to read it online.

 

[BossyCow]

Most agencies are becoming hyper vigilant on this. Once something is posted to a blog, you lose control over where it goes from there and who sees it. I do not see this as a free speech issue. Our right to free speech ends where the patient's right to privacy begins. Also, if the 'vulgar and obscene' comments were made by someone identifiable as a member of a specific agency, the agency has the right to protect its professionalism and integrity in the eyes of the public and the EMS community.

Sort of under the same heading as wearing an inappropriate T-shirt on a call or flipping off someone on the road while driving the ambulance. What is a right in our private lives doesn't necessarily translate over to our working life.

 

[karaya]

That is ridiculous. You can't revoke a paramedic license on the basis of personal opinion and irritation at fat people IF they did not post any revealing information about the patient. If they didn't violate HIPAA, they did nothing legally wrong, and you can't revoke a license on the basis of being an a-hole.

Oh yes they can. You will find many State EMS divisions, etc. have a nice little ethics "catch all" built into their language. This in itself leaves a wide gap of interpretation. For example, a Kentucky paramedic lost his license over some photos he posted on a link to his Myspace site ( I have more on this in an article I wrote for the July 2008 JEMS). No privacy laws were broken with his postings, but the State of Kentucky board of EMS still felt he violated their "ethics" clause so they yanked his license.

As you can see from JPINFV's above post, it appears Kansas has a similar ethics clause.