I just participated in a Washington State Healthcare Executive Forum educational program via teleconferencing. WSHEF is a local chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives and I'm really impressed by how they were able to engage healthcare executives across the state and miles to participate in this event. It was really cool and I can't wait to share the story with my telehealth and HCE friends.
The program was titled Employing Social Media to Build Customer Satisfaction and Community Outreach and the panel represented hospitals and public health in the State of Washington. When I heard about it, I wanted to just listen in to see if I had really addressed what people what to know in the book. But, I was also given an opportunity to introduce the book. The panelist really covered the key topics for engaging customers and the community and they also talked about a few of the other applications.
To emphasis a few of the points made:
- It really isn't just about promoting our organizations. Social media is also about how we will accomplish our work.
- The best way to grow is to build upon your past efforts.
- There are examples of social media improving outcomes.
- Written policies for social media use are vital.
One of the panelist also mentioned a quote by William Shakespeare and I'm going to end with it because it really does speak to the real power of social media.
"We are advertised by our loving friends"
Do you (or does anyone) happen to know whether hospitals or public health organizations are using social media differently than smaller medical practices? We’ve been trying to engage our clients (http://www.nuesoft.com/blog/healthcare-and-social-media-%e2%80%93-good-medicine-for-your-practice/) from small- to medium sized medical practices in a dialogue about social media, and have not gotten much in the way of feedback. Thanks in advance.
Posted by: Jennifer McDuffee | April 07, 2010 at 06:46 AM
Sorry. Please use this link: http://www.nuesoft.com/blog/healthcare-and-social-media-%e2%80%93-good-medicine-for-your-practice/
Posted by: Jennifer McDuffee | April 07, 2010 at 06:49 AM
One of the most important things to do when selecting social media is to make sure it fits the user, audience and targeted need. Physicians in small to medium practices will first have to identify their purpose and audience and they should start by talking with their patients.
Visit Dr. Greene's site at http://www.drgreene.com/. He is probably the best small practice I've seen, and know, using social media. He has also be doing this a long time so he and his wife have really built it over time.
Posted by: Christina Beach Thielst | April 07, 2010 at 07:58 AM