More Patient Users than Hospitals

Social media has become a phenomenon that has integrated into everyday living. Social media sources are being tapped into everyday by thousands of people, and many of these are individuals looking for answers to medical questions. This praticular group has been given the name e-patients and are becoming more and more dependent on social media outlets for a wide variety of health are information.

Having a website is no longer enough for hospitals. The opportunity for facebook and twitter accounts, blog postings by physcians, CEO's, board members, and patients, youTube postings, and podcasts are endless. It doesn't appear however, that the healthcare industry is really infiltrating the social media world. According to healthcareitnews.com, only 1 in 3 hospitals has a social media plan. Maybe that is because they haven't realized the benefits included in such things.

In cases of crisis management, community relations, public affairs and marketing it allows the hospital employees to "speak" directly to the public. Besides being most of the time free, there is no need for a middle man and an opportunity for transparency appears. Also, the message is being put into the hands of the public in a way that is most convinent and comfortable for them. Social media allows the healthcare team to get directly into the homes and lives of the public. As far as marketing and public relations goes, the possibility to be creative and hit a wide variety of audiences is endless. You can use written, video, or oral means of spreading the word.

Social media is changing the way the world finds out information and patients have latched onto this. Healthcare systems do too. The advantages it offers to healthcare systems is endless.