One of my patients may be stalking me...

[Aristus]

I entered the exam room today to follow up with a new patient on his high blood pressure. Before I could mention to him that his levels had improved, he said: "I looked you up on Facebook!"

I told him politely that if he friended me, it wouldn't really be ethical of me to accept the request. He said he understood.

But I thought: 'Weird. Nobody ever looked me up on Facebook before..."

[nolabear]

1. Happens to me fairly often.

Don't sweat. Just be nice and don't friend him.

[Aristus]

3. No problem.

He's a nice guy. With improved blood pressure...

[bluedigger]

2. Seems like he's just exercising due diligence.

You work with the public and have information about yourself available on the internet. Whatever they found out, it didn't influence them to cancel or look for a different health care provider. You passed scrutiny, and they let you know it.

[Aristus]

4. Hadn't thought of it that way.

Thanks!

[Lars39]

5. He may have just wanted to see what you looked like.

I've had to find all new doctors this past year. I googled for photos so I could see if the new docs had kind faces.

[mrmpa]

6. I looked up a woman on facebook..........

she was a new addition to my Doctor's office. I had a letter from her that she was the liaison for patients with Diabetes. I didn't like the letter as there were 3 typos in it. Her facebook page annoyed the hell out of me. I found it juvenile in tone and not professional. In her letter she said she would meet with me at my next appointment. I went to that appointment & never met with her (this was a year ago).

A couple of months ago at my appointment the CNA, gave me forms to fill out, saying the "liaison" wanted them filled out. I told the CNA that the liaison could stick it, I was not filling out forms, The CNA, came into the exam room, yelling at me saying "how dare you not fill out these forms, I have to know who you're related to." (the forms were probably HIPPA forms, which I have filled out before). When I told her I had gotten a letter from her saying she would meet me at my appt. last year, she retaliated that she has too many patients to see. I told her to get out of the room, and further told her, that if she thought her job was too tough, maybe she should find another job. I heard her complaining in the hallway about me. I found the office manager & told her about the situation, & brought up the liaison's facebook page, and how the juvenile the facebook page was, and her behavior today just emphasized that what I read, was exactly what I met. I also told the manager, that I was 3 minutes away from finding a new doctor.

Just needed to vent. Thank you.

[FloridaJudy]

18. Jeebus!

We all bitch about patients/clients, but most of us do it out of ear-shot of the public. And making one's personal FB pages available to the public is just not cool for any professional, medical or otherwise. I do know some who keep a separate FB page for professional purposes, like posting hours, contact numbers and interesting articles about medical issues, but my Halloween pics of me as a Russian princess and my Zen chicken jokes are just for my friends. Even at that, I follow my self-imposed rule never, ever to post anything on the 'net that it would distress me to read on the front page of the newspaper. The one my family and my boss read.

While I've Googled my doctor several times, I'd never send her a FB friend request. And I'd find it more than a little creepy if she did so, pleasant as she's always been.

This woman's behavior is simply not professional on many levels. And bullying patients is not acceptable, ever.

[chollybocker]

7. Everybody googles their doctors these days.

Personal facebook pages usually show up ahead of degrees, articles, lectures, etc. Sign of the times.

[zanana1]

8. Facebook is public...

If you don't want people to know you, don't use it.

[Aristus]

14. I think you may have misunderstood the tone of my OP.

I don't mind at all that he looked me up. I just never had a patient do that before. And I wanted to assure him that if he friended me, I would have to reject his request on grounds of medical ethics, not because I disliked him. (I don't; I like him very much, but that's not the point.)

[zanana1]

16. You implied he may be "stalking" you. nt

[Aristus]

17. I didn't imply it; I said it straight out.

What I implied was that it was tongue-in-cheek. I don't really think he's stalking me.

[Quantess]

9. No, it doesn't sound like it...

I have had moments where I sat there and looked up people on facebook just to see what kind of profile photo they had and if they offered anything for the general public to see. Mostly out of boredom. 90% of the time there's nothing all that interesting to see, but you never know. I usually do it because I'm hoping to find something interesting, but it usually isn't . I know I'm not the only person who has ever done this.

He's just unusual for telling you about it. It's probably nothing.

[Taitertots]

10. He probably looked in up on a smart phone while waiting n/t

[LaurenG]

11. I don't think that's stalking necessarily

sounds like he's curious.

[Honeycombe8]

12. You may not THINK anyone looked you up on Facebook, but he's just the only one who told you.

I don't do FB. Didn't like it. But I think people who do, are forever looking up other people. It's just something they do.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. Nobody ever looked you up on Facebook?

Or nobody ever TOLD you they looked you up.

Facebook is scary. I don't think there's any exit, once you enroll. I just jammed every privacy setting I could find up to 11's and then stopped logging in.

[Aristus]

15. Hey, Bozo!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've been looked up before, but he's the first who ever told me. My patients are homeless, but they get Internet access at the local public library. It's a great resource for them; job searches, housing opportunities, etc.

[Rhiannon12866]

19. He might just look up everybody...

Or maybe he has a lot of time on his hands. And the others might not have told you...