A friend of mine recently lamented that she skipped the chance to take a web design class in college because she figured the Internet would be a passing fad. Naturally, we had this conversation on Facebook.
Likewise, the need to develop an active online presence for your medical practice is not going away either. The reasons for this are many. For one, today's consumers are increasingly becoming accustomed to information being streamed to them, rather than having to dig through the Yellow Pages to find it. The lazier and more information-bombarded society becomes, the harder you'll have to work to get your message in front of your patients. This means that counting on them to type your URL into a browser to find out when your next flu clinic will take place isn't nearly as effective as sending the info directly to where they already are, by having it pop up--and stand out--on their Facebook or Twitter feed.
Despite the benefits, many practices, as well as patients (who will continue to rely on more traditional forms of practice communication), remain reluctant to become involved in social media. Among adults, it seems that attitudes toward Facebook and similar sites run the gamut from full-on celebration of oversharing to sheer terror at the prospect of the computer stealing their soul.
Are there risks? Definitely. The Internet is not and may never be 100 percent secure, and new schemes to steal and make a profit from users' information emerge every day. But, for the most part, you have full control of what you put out there in the first place.
For medical practices, the top social-media phobias have to do with HIPAA and liability in terms of giving medical advice. As a recent article in American Medical News emphasizes, physicians should absolutely be aware of these risks and have a full understanding of what is and isn't OK to post. "Even an inadvertent disclosure of a patient's health information through social media can be a problem," the article notes. "For example, a hospital employee was forced to resign over a message she posted on Twitter that contained health information about a patient."
But for every no-no, there are a thousand ways to engage your customers directly without taking these risks. As a recent paper from Wellcentrix points out, the key is to "engage and educate" in a general way. This is the precise approach taken by Salud Pediatrics in the management of its Facebook fan page, currently boasting over 200 fans from its Algonquin, Ill., community, according to office manager Brandon Betancourt, whom I recently spoke with for our upcoming special report about the right way to reach your customers via a Facebook fan page (stay tuned!).
"We feel that it's an extension of the practice, and we use it to keep our community informed, not only with things about the practice but also to direct them in the right place to read health information on the web--because there's a lot of information out there and people tend to always find the information that's not in their best interest," he said. "We like to leverage Facebook to maintain our role as an authority in the community for what we do, which is to look after the well being of children."
As for the risks, Betancourt, who manages most of the page's updates and responses himself, says he has not so far experienced any instances in which patients or staff posted something inappropriate, noting that he'd simply delete information that shouldn't be there. If a patient does ask a specific medical question on the page, that person gets invited to make an appointment to discuss the matter in person.
I asked Betancourt whether practices were overly fearful of the risks related to using social media for business. "I think it's a great excuse to blame everything on HIPAA," he said. "If you really have the interest to leverage the the Web 2.0 promise--which is connecting, sharing, transparency and community--then I don't think privacy issues come into play because they really are manageable."
So, what's your take? Do the pros of jumping on the social media bandwagon outweigh the cons? What steps have you taken to ensure that your online communications remain appropriate and HIPAA compliant? - Deb