I had a bizarre moment this morning and I'm not totally sure what to make of it.
There's a fellow in my MA class who's a TCM practitioner. Nice guy, bright, thoughtful, good martial artist too. I saw that he was offering qi gong classes at his store, so I went on a lark. I had a good time - a recent injury limited my movement so I basically stuck with the same exercise through the whole thing, but that was okay. At one point I asked if he had any recommendations for depression, and he suggested a particular tea. I met some nice folks and learned some useful things. Altogether an enjoyable afternoon.
Imagine my surprise when I logged on this morning to find this as his Facebook status: Front of the clinic is starting to look like the training montage in a kung fu movie. Some people attacking each other while others meditate. The guys in their eighties do taiji and this mentally ill woman just sort of does the same exercise for hours on end. I come out from time to time to answer questions, but mostly they are just taking care of themselves.
As soon as I pried my talons out of the monitor I wrote him as politely as I could - something along the lines of "Please tell me I'm mis-reading this?" Oh no, it was another client who came in looking for a particular technique. She's doing well, he said, as if that explained everything.
That post of his was wrong on so many levels - a complete disregard for any client's privacy, the arbitrariness of identifying someone in those terms, the basic lack of respect.
If I spoke about any of my clients like that, especially on something as visible as Facebook, I'd be fired in a heartbeat. I kept my reply polite, but I thought I'd do him a favor and remind him that there are very strict provisions for patient's privacy under HIPAA. I don't know whether TCM is covered under that, but if it is he could face some very heavy fines. I'm not going to report him, but he could be jeopardizing his whole fledgling business for the sake of ... what exactly?
There's a fellow in my MA class who's a TCM practitioner. Nice guy, bright, thoughtful, good martial artist too. I saw that he was offering qi gong classes at his store, so I went on a lark. I had a good time - a recent injury limited my movement so I basically stuck with the same exercise through the whole thing, but that was okay. At one point I asked if he had any recommendations for depression, and he suggested a particular tea. I met some nice folks and learned some useful things. Altogether an enjoyable afternoon.
Imagine my surprise when I logged on this morning to find this as his Facebook status: Front of the clinic is starting to look like the training montage in a kung fu movie. Some people attacking each other while others meditate. The guys in their eighties do taiji and this mentally ill woman just sort of does the same exercise for hours on end. I come out from time to time to answer questions, but mostly they are just taking care of themselves.
As soon as I pried my talons out of the monitor I wrote him as politely as I could - something along the lines of "Please tell me I'm mis-reading this?" Oh no, it was another client who came in looking for a particular technique. She's doing well, he said, as if that explained everything.
That post of his was wrong on so many levels - a complete disregard for any client's privacy, the arbitrariness of identifying someone in those terms, the basic lack of respect. If I spoke about any of my clients like that, especially on something as visible as Facebook, I'd be fired in a heartbeat. I kept my reply polite, but I thought I'd do him a favor and remind him that there are very strict provisions for patient's privacy under HIPAA. I don't know whether TCM is covered under that, but if it is he could face some very heavy fines. I'm not going to report him, but he could be jeopardizing his whole fledgling business for the sake of ... what exactly?
