The use of social media has gained great traction in the recent past. With millions of people using one or more platforms of social media, many organizations are finding it easy to communicate to customers using social media. The use of social media in engaging customers is a common practice in the healthcare system (Ventola, 2014). The University of Michigan Hospital and the Stanford University hospitals are examples of healthcare systems that have largely employed the use of social media in communicating with patients and communities that they serve.
The University of Michigan Hospital has a well-established social media policy. This policy seeks to guide the engagement of the hospital with the patients, families, and communities. The policy outlines the code of conduct as well as the rights and responsibilities of the hospital’s social media page administrators. Overall, the hospital uses social media to obtain feedback from customers utilized in improving service delivery to patients in the hospital consistently (Gagnon & Sabus, 2015). It encourages patients to raise their concerns over social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Moreover, the hospital removes post containing threats, pornographic content, racial slurs, and illegal activities. In essence, this hospital uses social media effectively in connecting with customers and the communities that they serve. Their use of social media does not pose a threat to patient confidentiality.
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The Stanford University Hospital has equally put in place a social media policy that defines the engagement of hospital employees on social media both at a personal level as well as in their capacity as employees of the hospital. Among other things, this hospital guideline on the use of social media defines the content that should not be posted on social media. However, the major shortcoming in the use of social media in this hospital is that not all employees are familiar with these guidelines (Panahi, Watson, & Partridge, 2016). As such, there is a threat of misusing the social media platform.
Response to student 1
Your post on the use of social media in medical research is indeed informative on several aspects. First, it explores how social media has been effectively used to gather data by both Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center in drawing clinical observations and conclusions. Although it demonstrates effective use of social media, it is not clear how such research addresses the concerns of participants’ right to consent. Scientific researchers using human respondent have an ethical obligation to receive consent from their participants if they are to use their information as part of the research. However, this post does not demonstrate how the researcher in the two healthcare systems obtained such consent in using people’s post as part of a research. Secondly, the research does not guarantee patient confidentiality. By encouraging patients to post their side effects on social media, the researcher breached the requirements of patient confidentiality. I believe that the two hospitals have not utilized social media responsibly.
Response to Student 2
You have provided an in-depth description of how the two healthcare facilities have utilized social media. This in-depth description of the social media pages of the two hospitals is indeed informative. It shows the extent to which the two hospitals have utilized social media. However, there is no mention of whether the two hospitals have a social media policy. As such, it is hard to determine whether specific rules guide social media engagements in the two hospitals. In the absence of such guiding, the use of social media within the healthcare system is prone to misuse. Therefore, there is a need to review the stopgap measures that the two healthcare facilities have put in place to ensure that responsible use of social media in their engagements with their patients and the community at large. Moreover, there seems to be very little use of social media at Indianapolis Gastroenterology and Hepatology (IGH).
References
Gagnon K. & Sabus, C. (2015). Professionalism in a digital age: opportunities and considerations for using social media in health care. Physical Therapy, 95 (3): 406–414.
Panahi, S., Watson, J. & Partridge, H. (2016). Social media and physicians: Exploring the benefits and challenges. Health Informatics Journal, 22(2): 99-112.
Ventola, C. L. (2014). Social media and health care professionals: benefits, risks, and best practices. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39 (7): 491-499, 520.
