Social Media and Healthcare

Four panelists from the healthcare industry presented the strategy, challenges and opportunities they face with using social media for their respective employers. While HIPPA rules may slow down social media serving as a spoonful of medicine for healthcare, these brand managers have embraced its potential for outreach, engagement and even improving the patient experience.

The panelists were:

Catherine Showers, Digital Marketing Coordinator, St. Mary’s Hospital (@stmarysmadison), St Marys SMB Mad PPT

Trish Skram, (@TrishSkram) Media and Public Relations Specialist, Mercy Health System (@mercyhealth), Mercy.SMB Mad PPT

Sue Spaight, (@SueSpaight) Director of Strategy, Jigsaw, PowerPoint

Jennifer Walker, (@jw4lk) Social Media and Information Architect, UW Health (@UWHealth), UW Health SMB Mad PPT

St. Mary’s Hospital

The Facebook page for St. Mary’s has 3,138 likes, most of which are employees. Catherine said the majority of their posts are visual, and are aimed at celebrating the fun things their employees are doing in the hospital, community or while engaging with patients. Their Google+ page is the only one not currently blocked internally, so is a good way to cross-purpose their FB content. Catherine did speak about how challenging it was to manage the hundreds of ways Google was mapping their logo, and encouraged everyone to keep on top of claiming their listings. To promote various service lines such as their Family Birth Center, Cardiac Center or Stroke Center, St. Mary’s uses a well organized LinkedIn company page with thumbnail logos and a brief description with keywords that supports their SEO strategy.

Mercy Health System

Trish presented the strategic approach to social media used within the Mercy Health System. While known as a tool for supporting their brand, Trish noted “branding is not about logos and taglines, is about people and relationships. The purpose of our brand advertising is to let people know what they can expect from us.” With that in mind, Mercy defined their goals for social media:

Begin changing the mindset of under-appreciation
Emphasize the caring heart within the walls of Mercy
Focus on why Mercy does what it does, not on what it does
Build greater community involvement
Differentiate Mercy
Emphasize importance of having specialized care close to home

Made up of hospitals in three distinct counties, it was interesting to hear that each area defined their own social media objective. For Rock County it is to “lead the community in modeling appreciation while differentiating ourselves from the competition and building Mercy’s brand.” For Walworth County: promote the facility as the premier integrated health care provider in Walworth County. Finally, McHenry County (Illinois) focuses on promoting their “primary and specialty care physician practices and immediate care centers.”

To make access to their social presence easy for customers, Mercy houses quick links on one dedicated webpage: mercypulse.org. It is well worth checking out if you are seeking a good model for a clean approach beyond the usual 32×32 social media icons that frequent most websites.  Trish wrapped up by addressing what Mercy considers as measurements of success for their social media efforts. “It’s not about the views, impressions or visits. For us success is measured by engagement, service recovery and the ability to manage our brand.”

Jigsaw

Not the name of any hospital you know? You’re right. Sue was invited to present because Jigsaw lives in the strategy space for their healthcare clients. She wasted no time defining the very real barriers healthcare organizations face with using social media:

HIPPA
Overall risk aversion
Low appetite for innovation/early adoption
Limits on employee social media access at work
Physician/management mistrust of internet data
Difficult to secure clinician participation
Resource constraints
Unsure how to prove business case/ROI
Senior management knows we need to “do social media” but doesn’t necessarily understand the full potential or purpose.

While an intimidating list to be sure, Sue presented a confident case that social media “with strategic integration, can improve patient experience, improve outcomes, reduce the cost of care and build an accountable care model.” In her experience, social media can not only help drive patients to the right care pathway, but also supplement traditional offline patient support groups and use CRM to act as a measure of lifetime patient value. To support those assertions, Sue presented case studies from the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, The University of Maryland Medical Center, and the Inova Health System in Washington, D.C.  To get more details, go to her slides which are available here.

UW Health

Jennifer Walker, Social Media and Information Architect certainly had the coolest job title. UW Health is the overarching brand name for a massive organization of multiple business units including the School of Medicine and Public Health, the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics and the Medical Foundation. The social media effort falls under the “e-health team” that also oversees the websites and email marketing. UW Health.org builds its brand in multiple social spaces including FB, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn and blogs. Structurally, a single manager is responsible for three main accounts. While that offers improved efficiency, Jennifer did mention this approach does slow down spontaneity and the managers are somewhat removed from where the action is for content. Other social accounts are targeted to very niche audiences, such as Dottie Donor Dot, Medical and Surgical Weight Management and transplant patients. While this provides information directly from content experts, it is difficult for staff to find time to post regularly.

Jennifer closed by outlining how they manage requests by individuals or departments to start a social presence specific to their unit. They were very proactive in setting up procedures and clear policies early on, which helped with providing a consistent approach to each case. There is a request form, the request must support the strategic mission, must have a unique audience, the effort needs the support of the VP as well as the VP of marketing. Lastly she covered how social media played a vibrant role in cross-purposing content and coverage of their largest event, the Champion for Kids radiothon.

Thank you to all of the terrific speakers, in particular Catherine who stepped up with 24 hours notice after a late cancellation and the effort by UW Health’s Christine Schmieden to recruit the panelists.

Make sure to show your appreciation to our sponsors who keep this a quality event with fantastic food at terrific venues:

Charter Business, HiveMind, LLC, American College of Healthcare Executives, UW-Hillel, Food Fight Restaurant Group, Bluephies Restaurant and Vodkatorium,  Suttle-Straus, Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren s.c., smart image, geekazine, pc/nametag, DiditDirect, Melissa Carlson Creative,

Written by Annie Rubens, integrated multimedia marketing and communications specialist, strategic social media page manager. Annie.rubens@gmail.com   

Additional Resources:
Prezi slide show