For Nancy C. Jean, senior media relations officer for Lifespan, it’s the personal connections that make social media so powerful. Jean oversees social media for Lifespan’s four partner hospitals as well as media relations for research at Rhode Island Hospital and its Hasbro Children’s Hospital.
Jean believes the biggest lesson to learn for those who are taking the plunge into social media is it is not about the organization. Rather, it’s about your community of friends and followers, even for Rhode Island’s largest hospital chain.
PBN: You manage social media for four Lifespan hospitals in Rhode Island. What does that entail? Who are your target audiences? How many tweets do you get a day?
JEAN: We launched our Twitter and Facebook initiative in 2009. We can reach out to the community with important and timely health and wellness information, we can let them know about new services that are available, and we can relay vital information during a crisis. Social media is also a great opportunity to hear what the community is saying about us. It’s a great way for us to get feedback, and help us identify what we’re doing right, and where we need to improve.
Each day on Twitter, I tweet out several pieces of information from each hospital account, and then monitor and respond to any questions or comments. The numbers vary daily, and some tweets will spark up conversations with some of our followers. That’s what we actually hope for, because that’s what it’s all about – being social.
On Facebook, we post one or two topics that are appropriate for each hospital. Hasbro Children’s obviously focuses on children’s health and parenting, while we focus on more general topics for a community hospital like Newport. We also post a “Question of the Day” on each of our Facebook pages to encourage conversation. We really want to hear from people.
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PBN: On Twitter, you have 1,419 followers, and in turn, you’re following another 1,521 – and you explicitly say that you are expressing your own views, not the hospitals’. How constant is the flow of information? Do you ever feel as if you are tethered to your smart phone or computer?
JEAN: That is my personal account, and yes, those are absolutely my views. I believe that when you are representing an institution you need to identify yourself. It’s not the organization talking to people, it’s a live person, and that’s why each of the hospitals names on Twitter include the name Nancy, so people know who they are talking to when tweeting.
I developed a personal account before we launched the hospital accounts to wade in the waters, get a feel for what was going on, and connect with people who were doing things the right way so I could learn more and figure out this vast Twitterverse.
While I love Twitter, if you’re not following the right people, the world of Twitter can be a very confusing place. By using an application like TweetDeck, you can organize the people you follow into certain categories so that in one quick glance you can get up to date.
It’s easy to feel like you’re missing something if you’re not always checking though, whether you’re at work or at home. It’s all about finding a balance, because the world of social media is literally 24/7.
PBN: In building and managing the social network for Rhode Island’s largest hospital chain, what lessons would you share with others in the health care sector about best practices?
JEAN: One of the biggest lessons to learn is that it’s not all about your organization, it’s about your community of friends and followers. People really want to talk about themselves and share their thoughts and ideas. If you’re going to be in social media, you not only have to accept that, you have to encourage it.
Health care organizations and hospitals are quickly adopting social media as another tactic to build brand awareness and brand loyalty. To give you an idea of how quickly that’s grown, in December 2008, there were 166 hospitals using Twitter, Facebook or a blog. As of late November 2010, there were 890 hospitals. While that number is still less than 20 percent of all the hospitals in the country, it’s clearly growing. That’s because we are learning the value of this two-way conversation that social media provides.
The hospitals that will succeed in social media have to remember that it’s all about the conversation, about interacting with people. It is not the same as developing a tag line and coordinating an advertising campaign. It’s about having a two-way conversation. It’s listening to what others are looking for and helping them with what they need.
PBN: Researchers at the University of Rhode Island recently developed a new device that enables blood testing to be done by a microchip – and they are working on a smart phone application for it. What other kinds of apps for diagnosis and information are available today?
JEAN: We have become a mobile society, and people now expect to be able to do things when it is most convenient for them. The statistics on those who turn to the Web for health care information or for their news is growing by the day. I believe that health apps are going to become more and more important for managing disease, and for the patient-physician relationship.
PBN: What role do you see for Lifespan’s social network in increasing the communication between physicians and nurses and patients?
JEAN: Lifespan currently does not utilize social media tools for communication among the medical staff. We have technologies that improve communication already in place. Things like Physician Order Management take paperwork out of the equation, so a physician’s indecipherable handwriting is no longer an issue when providing patient care. Other technology, such as Medication Administration Checking, prevents medication errors; still others provide access to diagnostic imaging studies through a physician’s handheld device.
We are now embarking on putting in place all the technologies that will provide for seamless electronic health records. This will lead to better outcomes for patients, because their medical records can literally follow them wherever they go – whether it be an emergency room in Los Angeles, or a community health center in Providence – and it will all be secure.
Do I think a doctor should friend a patient on Facebook? Not necessarily. Technology, when used correctly, is a powerful and amazing thing, full of information, and it’s making the world a smaller place, and connecting people who otherwise would never have met.
