Preventing Blogorrhea

     It seems like you can't pick up a newspaper these days without reading about someone being reprimanded for something they posted online. Perhaps it's the story of the Delta flight attendant who was fired over job-related content on her personal blog. Or the sad tales of recent college graduates who can't find employment because potential employers keep reading their MySpace profiles. Recently, a Pennsylvania paramedic was terminated by her employer due to her blog postings, and a New York paramedic received a $225,000 settlement related to criminal investigations of his off-duty Internet activities.

     Blogs are only one of the myriad ways in which people exchange information on the Internet. Unfortunately, while creating and posting Web content was once limited to those with superior technical knowledge, it can now be accomplished by anyone with the savvy to get on the 'Net in the first place. This has led to an enormous proliferation of unedited, free-form content on the Internet in the form of things like blogs, personal Web pages and message board debates.

     To say the legal landscape in this area is complex is an understatement. Not only is the state of the law unclear, it evolves on a daily basis and differs significantly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. It would be impossible to give a reasonable overview of Internet law here, so let me just suggest you contact a local attorney who specializes in this area when developing policies for employees posting on blogs and other Internet sites.

     The biggest issue facing EMS managers in this area is how to develop guidelines for employees who blog off-duty. You may consider developing an official department-sponsored blog, where postings are more easily monitored and controlled. This may provide an outlet for some employees, but it will certainly not completely eliminate off-duty blogging. For that reason, your department needs a clear set of guidelines for what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate information for employees to post on their blogs.

     You can't control everything employees might post off-duty. Information critical of the agency, especially a public agency, may very well be considered valuable speech and thereby be protected from sanction. Then again, it's extremely clear that patient-specific information-including names, addresses, call details and especially photographs and videos-should be prohibited on any employee blog or posting. Posting such information would almost certainly violate numerous laws.

     Here are some guidelines on policy development for EMS managers in the area of content on private websites: