Can you post about your patients?

Every clinic and studio hits this. The results are the proof, the transformation is the story, and the obvious content is the person who got better.

Then someone asks whether you are allowed to post it, and the honest answer is: less often than you would like, and not on the basis of the permission you probably have.

What follows is general and is not legal advice. If you handle protected health information, run your policy past your compliance officer or an attorney who does this for a living.

The short answer

Using identifiable patient information for marketing generally requires written authorization. Not a verbal yes. Not a text message. A signed authorization that says what will be used, where it will appear, and that it can be revoked.

Treating care and marketing as the same consent is the mistake. Someone consenting to treatment has not consented to appearing in your advertising.

Why a verbal yes is not enough

People say yes in the room. They are pleased, you have helped them, and declining feels rude. That dynamic is exactly why written authorization exists, and why a cheerful "of course, post it" from the treatment chair is worth very little if anyone later asks.

It also protects you from the version where someone changes their mind in six months. A written authorization tells you what you agreed and how they withdraw it.

De-identified is harder than it sounds

Cropping the face is not de-identification. Tattoos, scars, jewellery, a distinctive room, the date you posted it, and the size of your town together can make someone perfectly recognisable to the people they most want not to know.

The test is not whether a stranger could identify them. It is whether their neighbour could.

What to post instead

The good news is that patient content is rarely your best content anyway. What people actually want before booking is to know what will happen to them.

What the first appointment involves. How long until they feel different. What the room looks like. What you will ask. What it costs and what it does not include. Who you are not the right practitioner for. None of that requires a single patient, and all of it answers the question that is actually keeping someone from booking.

Get this checked

Rules vary by discipline, by state, and by what you are actually posting, and the penalties are not trivial. Have someone qualified write you a one-page policy and a standard authorization form. It is a cheap afternoon that removes the question permanently.