Social Media Disclaimer

We welcome and encourage open discussion on Brattleboro Memorial Hospital’s social media sites. These include, but are not limited to, our blogs, Facebook, and YouTube pages. We look forward to any comments, stories, and experiences you want to share.

That said, we do make reasonable efforts to monitor participation to ensure that you stay on topic, are courteous, and avoid making offensive comments. Please remember that information posted on any of our social media platforms shouldn’t be considered medical advice and shouldn’t replace a consultation with a health care professional.

Please be aware that once you post something online, there’s the potential for thousands (or hundreds of thousands) of people to read your words, even years from now. As a result, we urge you to exercise caution when posting medical information on any of our social media sites and not to disclose personal identifiable information including your location, medical record number, financial information, etc.

That’s the plain English version. Here it is in legal language:

BY POSTING ON THE BRATTLEBORO MEMORIAL HOSPITAL SOCIAL MEDIA SITE YOU AGREE TO THESE TERMS. Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) has opened publicly facing pages on social media sites for viewing content and/or videos and posting comments about BMH. These social media sites include but are not limited to various blogs, bulletin boards, networks, multi-media and news media sites or other user generated content sites (“Social Media Sites”). By accessing, viewing and/or posting any content related directly or indirectly to BMH on any 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 Social Media Site on the internet. Your use of 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 BMH employee you must adhere to the BMH SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY posted on the BMH SharePoint site.
2. You must be at least 18 years old to post any content on any Social Media Site.
3. You are prohibited from posting any content that is personal health information including patient images on any Social Media Site. You are also prohibited from using the Social Media Site to provide medical advice or medical commentary by non-BMH physicians or to use the Social Media Site to make, recommend or increase referrals to physicians who are not employed by BMH.
4. As a guest posting content to any 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 BMH’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 BMH 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. BMH reserves the right to monitor, prohibit, restrict, block, suspend, terminate, delete, or discontinue your access to any Social Media Site, at any time, without notice and for any reason and in its sole discretion. BMH may remove, delete, block, filter or restrict by any other means any materials in BMH’s sole discretion. You understand and agree that BMH may disclose your communications and activities with BMH in response to lawful requests by governmental authorities, including Patriot Act requests, judicial orders, warrants or subpoenas, or for the protection of BMH rights. You agree that in the event that BMH exercises any of its rights hereunder for any reason, BMH will have no liability to you.
6. By posting any content on any Social Media Site, you grant to BMH 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 BMH purpose.
7. You shall defend, indemnify, and hold BMH and its corporate 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 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. BMH does 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, BMH DOES 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, BMH DOES NOT ENDORSE ANY PRODUCT, SERVICE, VIEWS OR CONTENT DISPLAYED ON THE SOCIAL MEDIA SITE.
9. You agree that any claim or dispute relating to your posting of any content on a Social Media Site on the internet shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Vermont 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 located in Windham County, Vermont.
10. You may not provide any content to a 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 Social Media Site to link to any sites or political candidates or parties or use the 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 SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE, THE NEW POLICY WILL GOVERN, USAGE, EFFECTIVE UPON POSTING. To remain in compliance, BMH 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.