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Social Media Policy

Welcome to our site!

NOTE: Our patient privacy policy and website terms of use agreement can be found at these addresses:

On our social media sites, we encourage comments from our fans and hope you will join the discussions. We do, however, reserve the right to remove postings that we believe are inappropriate, including those promoting a commercial product, or those that use profanity or abusive language. We also caution you about sharing any of your protected health information as Lifespan's social media sites are public sites

By using any of our social media sites, you acknowledge that:

  • The site and its health-related information and resources are not intended to be a substitute for medical advice from a physician
  • Lifespan and its affiliates are not responsible or liable for any claim, loss or damage directly or indirectly resulting from the use of any fan page or information or resources contained or linked to that page.
  • Your access of the page and other Internet sites, including information, services, products or materials are solely at your own risk.

Please see below for our full policy.

Policy Details

BY POSTING ON ANY LIFESPAN SOCIAL MEDIA SITE (including FaceBook, YouTube and others) YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS, to the extent not otherwise inconsistent with the applicable social media site use terms. Lifespan and its affiliated hospitals believe in the importance of open exchange with the community through online social media network sites for viewing content and/or videos and posting comments about our affiliated hospitals and their mission to improve the health status of the people whom we serve in Rhode Island and southern New England through the provision of customer friendly, geographically accessible and high value healthcare services.

These social media sites include but are not limited to various blogs, bulletin boards, online social networks and news media sites or other forms of online publishing or discussion networks operated by Lifespan and its Affiliates (“Lifespan Hospital Social Media Sites”). By accessing, viewing and/or posting any content to any Lifespan Hospital 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 Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site on the internet. Your use of Lifespan Hospital Social Media Sites is acceptance of this Policy and has the same effect as if you had actually physically signed an agreement.

  1. If you are a Lifespan or affiliated Hospital employee you must adhere to the Employee Social Media Policy posted on the Lifespan Intranet site.
  2. You must be at least 18 years old to post any content on any Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site.
  3. As an employee, you are prohibited from posting any content that is personal health information including patient images or patient identifying information on any Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site without the express written consent of the patient fully completing an authorization and release form, obtained from the Marketing and Communications Department. You are also prohibited from using the Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site to provide medical advice or medical commentary by non-Lifespan physicians or to use the Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site to make, recommend or increase referrals to physicians who are not employed by Lifespan or its affiliated hospitals.
  4. As a guest posting content to any Lifespan Hospital 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 Lifespan'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 Lifespan or its affiliates' 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.
  5. Lifespan and its affiliates reserve the right to monitor, prohibit, restrict, block, suspend, terminate, delete, or discontinue your access to any Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site, at any time, without notice and for any reason and in its sole discretion. Lifespan may remove, delete, block, filter or restrict by any other means any materials in Lifespan's sole discretion. You understand and agree that Lifespan may disclose your communications and activities with Lifespan and its affiliates as may be required by law, or for the protection of Lifespan rights. You agree that in the event that Lifespan exercises any of its rights hereunder for any reason, Lifespan will have no liability to you.
  6. By posting any content on any Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site, you grant to Lifespan 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 Lifespan purpose.
  7. You shall defend, indemnify, and hold Lifespan and its 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 Lifespan Social Media Site, any third party claims of infringement or any breach of this Policy.
  8. 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. LIFESPAN AND ITS AFFILIATES DO 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, LIFESPAN AND ITS AFFILIATES DO 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, LIFESPAN AND ITS AFFILIATES DO NOT ENDORSE ANY PRODUCT, SERVICE, VIEWS OR CONTENT DISPLAYED ON THE LIFESPAN HOSPITAL SOCIAL MEDIA SITE.
  9. You agree that any claim or dispute relating to your posting of any content on a Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site on the internet shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Rhode Island 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 in Rhode Island.
  10. You may not provide any content to a Lifespan Hospital 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 Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site to link to any sites or political candidates or parties or use the Lifespan Hospital Social Media Site to discuss political campaigns, issues or for taking a position on any legislation or law.
  11. THIS POLICY MAY BE UPDATED AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE, AND EACH TIME A USER ACCESSES A Lifespan Hospital SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE, THE NEW POLICY WILL GOVERN, USAGE, EFFECTIVE UPON POSTING. To remain in compliance, Lifespan 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.

Contact Information

Contact us for more information about our websites and their terms of use by email at webteam@lifespan.org or by phone at 401-444-5327, or address your concerns in writing to:

Lifespan Marketing and Communications
Attn: Kristen Connolly, Web Manager
117 Ellenfield Street, Suite 100
Providence, RI, 02905