How Hospitals Are Quietly Leading The Way With Social Media

Sep 25

How Hospitals Are Quietly Leading The Way With Social Media

by Rohit Bhargava
Category: Digital Influence

Amidst the attention on Twitter and how Pharma brands may be using it, what the FDA is doing with their blog and the rise of internet users finding health information on the web there is one group that has been quietly innovating with using social media without receiving much attention or credit for it.

Today in the US, there are 367 hospitals that are actively using social media. Collectively they are responsible for 186 YouTube Channels which include over 5,000 videos. They have created 267 Twitter accounts and published more than 10,000 tweets. (Stats from Ed Bennett’s great Hospital Social Networking List) In the process, hospitals are creating several interesting case studies of the power of social media:

A patient who had surgery for a rare carcinoid cancer at the Nebraska Medical Center and shared her cancer experience via YouTube generated so many requests for the surgery that it prompted NMC to open a monthly clinic for the condition.
Back in March, at the Henry Ford Hospital near Detroit, doctors used Twitter as an interactive media to connect with more than 1,900 people to answer tweeted questions during actual brain surgery on a 47-year-old man.
Recently the Children’s Hospital Boston launched the first health and science blog from a pediatric hospital in the country, called Thrive.
The President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston is using a blog to share an opinion and comment on behalf of the hospital on the possibility of a public health insurance plan.
The Sarasota Memorial Hospital is using Twitter to actively answer patient questions and provide real time customer service and support for patients and their family.

These are just a few of the many examples emerging from hospitals as they continue to explore opportunities for using social media.

Why Does It Matter?
Hospitals are on the front lines of patient care, at the intersection of the medical community and healthcare information. As people continue to seek healthcare options online, local information will hold a currency and importance that makes this information not only relevant but also actionable in terms of physically going to a particular location.

These hospitals are also at the center of the public health policy debate happening in Washington right now, and have a vested interest in how and if a public insurance option does come to fruition. They also have a marketing challenge and customer service challenge as they struggle to continue to have people select their facility and address the needs (and sometimes issues) of their patient population.

There is significant data to show that these efforts are paying off as well. Web traffic on the majority of hospital sites has risen exponentially for those that use social media, and a recent report from Ad-ology noted that social media impacts nearly 40% of recent hospital or urgent-care center patients, with more than half of 25-to-34 year olds reporting they are influenced by it. According to the report, this was particularly pronounced when it came to women deciding on hospitals for maternity care.

Summary & Implications
As more hospitals continue to gravitate towards social media, they will continue sharing their experiences with other hospitals at industry events and online. This is already leading to a rapid rise in social media adoption among new hospitals. For those hospitals who have become sophisticated in their use, leveraging blogs, Twitter and Facebook, they often have built a significant patient channel that could be useful to partner with in order to reach for various marketing reasons, including polling, identifying potential spokespeople and crafting marketing strategy for new products. Some of the individuals leading the way for hospitals to engage with social media may also be potential speakers, advisors and even, in some cases, strategic hires for any of clients to make to build or grow an internal team of social media focused communications professionals.

Resources & Links:
http://ebennett.org/stats/
http://ebennett.org/hsnl/

This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 5:55 am and is filed under Digital Influence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

34 COMMENTS
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34 Responses to “How Hospitals Are Quietly Leading The Way With Social Media”

Jason Says:
September 25th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Great post. thanks for the insight.

Social media should be a much bigger conversation in the healthcare reform conversation. If Obama is going to cut down admin costs of most healthcare providers, beside healthcare IT and digital medical records, online social interaction between patients and care providers is key. I think too often time patients go into hospitals for questions that can be simply answered by couple tweets. Social media can make doctor’s work more efficient, hospital more lean and ready for more serious illness and give patients the access to quick response addressing their concerns.

Hope to see more innovation in this soon.
Phil Baumann Says:
September 25th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I’m sure you’ve read 140 Healthcare Uses of Twitter.

A lot of these issues were raised then. Yes, it’s good to see hospitals come along.

http://philbaumann.com/2009/01/16/140-health-care-uses-for-twitter/
Dean DeLisle Says:
September 25th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Rohit, you are spot on. This is so critical with the doctors, clinics and hospitals we have met with many seem so skeptical, yet once you get with the patients - most have spent a minimum of 6.5 hours on the internet prior to selection or following recommendation. And, with the health care system the way it is right now, many areas are getting very competitive. It’s the facilities that get this that will flourish for time to come.

Great post!
TwittLink - Your headlines on Twitter Says:
September 25th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
[...] How Hospitals Are Quietly Leading The Way With Social Media [...]
Roger Ewing Says:
September 26th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Rohit, aside from providing some very intersting information. Your article is well written. I particularly like your use of different colored text. Nice job.
Social media has replaced the way we communicated in the past. The party line telephone was the original internet and people still need a way to communicate on a personal level.
ICMCC News Page » How Hospitals Are Quietly Leading The Way With Social Media Says:
September 27th, 2009 at 2:13 am
[...] Article Rohit Bhargava, Fresh Influence, 25 September 2009 SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “How Hospitals Are Quietly Leading The Way With Social Media”, url: “http://articles.icmcc.org/2009/09/27/how-hospitals-are-quietly-leading-the-way-with-social-media/” }); [...]
What Are Some Of The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Globalization Leading To A Single World Culture? « 美綠島嶼 Says:
September 27th, 2009 at 5:01 am
[...] How Hospitals Are Quietly Leading The Way With Social Media [...]
So Doctors Are Using Social Media | Avantrasara Says:
September 27th, 2009 at 6:39 am
[...] How Hospitals Are Quietly Leading The Way With Social Media [...]
Social media and healthcare: hospitals lead | e-Patients.net Says:
September 27th, 2009 at 8:49 am
[...] few months, and it’s surprising and hopeful how eager they are to use social technologies. Rohit Bhargava at Ogilvy discusses how hospitals have been “quietly innovating with using social media without receiving much [...]
lucien Engelen Says:
September 27th, 2009 at 9:38 am
If you’re interested in how the European hospitals are doing, have a look at the sister-site of Ed’s great work.
http://hospitalseu.wordpress.com
Nick Dawson Says:
September 27th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Great article!
Like Phil has pointed out, there are many uses for social media in the medical setting.

One of the reasons it is gaining so much traction may have to do with the focus on customer service in healthcare. We have figured out how to circumnavigate most of industries known for poor service via the internet - traevl, we book online rather than dealing with a surly agent, shopping - buy anything on amazon and then rate it, etc

Healthcare on the other hand is one of the last things where you (at least today) need to see someone. You need to be in front of a doctor to get a diagnosis, or at the ER to get stitches. That makes customer service more important than ever.

Using social media to connect with patients and caregivers is a natural extension of that - its as close as we have to amazon ratings for healthcare right now.

Its an exciting area to follow - thanks for the great write-up!

-N
Hospitals in Social Media @ Tech Crunchies – Internet Statistics and Numbers Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 3:34 am
[...] Oglivy PR 360] All Social Media statistics and FactsBiggest Online Social Communities (By Share of Unique [...]
Taylor Walsh Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 10:54 am
The adoption of social media by hospitals could have more far-reaching consequences than improving communications among current participants in a hospital’s operations. Health “care” is undergoing far more disruption than the deck chair re-arrangement now going on in the national debate. True prevention — setting optimal wellness goals and activities ahead of onset — will become more prevalent (following smoking restrictions, and environmental health accompanying green programs); include nutrition in schools, phys ed in schools, even stress reduction in schools. Then there will be all the responsibility being dropped into consumers’ laps, including behavior-change incentives at work.

Hospitals are getting into social media at a time when they are also slowly applying minimally-remunerated therapies like massage therapy and acupuncture, among others described as “integrative medicine.” To the extent that social media will bring the consumer deeper within the confines of hospitals and influence the patient-doctor relationship, it will bring in their experiences with and demands for all options that work, including those “alternatives” that have been shown to strengthen one’s health and protect against future disease.

Secondarily, the hospital as a trusted local social- and civic-good organization could re-invent the model of citizen engagement (i.e.: everybody listen to the conversations) for similar local, public service-oriented institutions through its experience with social media.
Pixels and Policy Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 11:10 am
Social Health: How Hospitals Adopted and Refined Social Media …

Hospitals are turning to social networking to keep patients healthy and informed. Find out why social media is already transforming how we view medicine….
PixelPolicy Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I made sure to link the information in your article as some source material for a more in-depth study on my blog, PixelsandPolicy.com. Thanks for doing all of this great research!
Jason Heller Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Rohit et al - thanks for the thought provking perspective.

Here’s one more. BJC in St. Louis luanched a pretty groundbreaking site for consumers and healthcare providers to openly engage in a dialog about health care reform and simply how to make medicine better http://www.makemedicinebetter.org
NewsBits » Blog Archive » Hospitals and Social Media — a Quick Note Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
[...] interesting blog post: — How Hospitals are Quietly Leading the Way with Social Media at http://blog.ogilvypr.com/2009/09/how-hospitals-are-quietly-leading-the-way-with-social-media/. Perhaps attitudes are starting to change about the use of social media within [...]
Corey Walker Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 11:41 am
We just had a lot of fun using social media at Mercy Sacramento http://www.mercysacramento.org. Mercy celebrated Mercy Day by having 50 participants do random acts of kindness throughout Sacramento. Things like giving out free Starbucks cards, paying parking meters, giving out water and dog treats at the park and washing people’s car windshields. The street team that was out doing these acts would email or text me with info of where they were going to be and I would then tweet out the location. For instance “Mercy is handing out free Starbucks cards at the corner of 5th and P St. Go get ‘em!” In all I did 40 tweets that day incorporating photos and one video. We got about 15 RTs too. It was a blast!
Hospitals use Twitter, YouTube to interact with patients « FCEdge Powerful Marketing Communications Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
[...] Hospitals use Twitter, YouTube to interact with patients Hundreds of hospitals across the country are embracing social media with 186 YouTube channels, 267 Twitter accounts and thousands of educational videos by one expert’s count. Hospitals are using blogs and Twitter to answer patients’ questions, plan efforts to fight rare diseases and explain complicated procedures such as brain surgery, Rohit Bhargava writes. 360° Digital Influence [...]
David Ormesher Says:
October 1st, 2009 at 11:39 am
It’s interesting to me that hospitals are the leading innovators in communicating with their customers, while some of the other major healthcare players (with more $$) such as pharma and health insurance are largely on the sidelines due to legal and regulatory fears.

As Taylor Walsh notes, the real move is on the wellness and prevention end. Finding ways to “nudge” patients towards owning and managing their health and making healthy lifestyle choices. Hospitals can provide a social media context for building local, healthy movements.
Using Online Video Can Help Explain Complex Terms and Situations | GlynnDevins Says:
October 1st, 2009 at 3:59 pm
[...] kinds of online videos people are watching; the other was a report by social media thought leader Rohit Bhargava about how hospitals are using social media. Did you know there are 186 channels on YouTube with [...]
Rohit Bhargava Says:
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
@Jason - Great point about how social media can make the docs time at the hospital more efficient, and help patients get their important

@Phil - Yes indeed, but thanks for sharing it with the readers of this post. It’s a great resource.

@Dean + @Roger - Thanks for reading and commenting!

@lucien - Thank you for sharing this link, it’s a great resource. I will be sure to share it with my European colleagues.

@Nick - Thanks for reading and interesting point you share in your comment. I would agree that for the most part this is still an “in person” industry … but even with new concepts such as 23andMe for DNA analysis or ePrescribing there are trends that are moving healthcare towards more automation. Of course, I doubt there will ever be a way to get stitches virtually - but you never know!

@Taylor - Really interesting that you raise the role of hospitals as potentially reinventing the model for citizen engagement. If that does start to happen, it would be a great end result for our society and something that perhaps could add to the significance of this trend. Thanks for sharing this “big picture” idea to add a different dimension to the conversation!

@PixelPolicy - Thanks for your post and sharing this idea and content with your readers.

@Corey - Thanks for sharing, that does sound like a great campaign! Let me know if you do something like that again and I’ll be sure to help tweet it out and maybe help you get even more conversation going! (I’m @rohitbhargava on Twitter)

@David - You’re right that hospitals certainly seem to have been more aggressive when it comes to using social media. I think the other potential reason for this is that they have a far more direct connection on a patient by patient basis than most pharma or healthcare brands to. More person to person contact could likely lead to an easier sell on why social media matters. Just a thought …
Social Media -- Hospital Innovations | Health Care OS News Says:
October 2nd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
[...] technology firms to consumer products manufacturers–there is one flying under radar. Rohit Bhargava, on the Fresh Influence blog, points out that hospitals are quietly but actively involved on the [...]
Steve Christensen Says:
October 6th, 2009 at 10:29 am
While I find these statistics highly interesting, I think that an equally interesting issue is found when looking at the healthcare PR apparatus and how they have operated in the past.

There is a PR “control” culture that says every external effort must be coordinated, monitored, and planned. Well, from this perspective, the ROI just isn’t there in most social media projects. But in the case of a hands off PR culture (which almost sounds like a oxymoron) the cost is minimal, so the benefit threshold is much lower, which means that this sort of activity makes sense.

My hope is that the benefits will grow faster than the cultures change, but somethings got to improve before we see widespread social media activity from health systems.
Healthcare Marketing: Making the Case for Social Media - Online Marketing Blog Says:
October 9th, 2009 at 7:10 am
[...] organizations that are quietly innovating on the social web, as Digital Influence blogger Rohit Bhargava [...]
Social Media in Healthcare, Elder Care, and Senior Service Marketing: Making the Case « The Elder Care Market Says:
October 9th, 2009 at 11:58 am
[...] organizations that are quietly innovating on the social web, as Digital Influence blogger Rohit Bhargava [...]
Social Media in Healthcare Marketing: Making the Case | SocialMarketingReport.com Says:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
[...] organizations that are quietly innovating on the social web, as Digital Influence blogger Rohit Bhargava [...]
Top Blog » Blog Archive » Social Media in Healthcare Marketing: Making the Case Says:
October 10th, 2009 at 12:45 am
[...] organizations that are quietly innovating on the social web, as Digital Influence blogger Rohit Bhargava [...]
SociaListed » Social Media in Healthcare Marketing: Making the Case Says:
October 10th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
[...] organizations that are quietly innovating on the social web, as Digital Influence blogger Rohit Bhargava [...]
Hospital and Social Media at AdPharm Blog Says:
October 18th, 2009 at 8:49 am
[...] Click here for the full story. [...]
Epic Supplements Says:
October 20th, 2009 at 6:52 am
Great blog thanks for the information
Stinky39 Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:05 am
They are also trained to fill out a written evaluation form after completion of the simulated examination. ,
Wolf57 Says:
October 23rd, 2009 at 7:53 am
When you wrote the slip you wrote it with your at the time full band. ,
scuba diving Says:
November 13th, 2009 at 7:48 am
nice to see this happening,