Recommendations
Digital social networks, also known as social media, have been beneficial to many businesses in the healthcare sector across the globe. Social media allows healthcare institutions to network, which has increased the prominence of its tools in the fields of marketing and various human resource operations (Nica, 2015). The use of social media in the United States of America has rapidly increased with the rise in the advancement of technology. Even though it has already been established that businesses in the other sectors are making use of the social networks to promote their ventures, less has been identified in the role of social networks in the healthcare industry. The role of social networks in the interaction between a healthcare institution and its patients requires to be analyzed from a more profound point of view. Therefore, modern researchers in the healthcare industry have given various recommendations that can be used in the application of social networks in the sector.
Firstly, the hospitals need to implement a better connection between the organizations and the patients to actively take part in the use of social networks to grow themselves. The other sectors, apart from the healthcare industry, in the US, have been known to make the use of digital networks to enhance their customer service. The use of social networks along those lines builds a rapport between the organizations and their target market. Similarly, healthcare institutions can benefit from excellent customer service with the use of social networks (Elenko, Underwood, & Zohar, 2015). Secondly, hospitals across the US can make use of social networks for research. The digital social networks possess an advantage of containing vast information, which acts as a reliable resource to the institutions (Elenko, Underwood, & Zohar, 2015). The increasing role of research and development in healthcare institutions promotes the efficiency of the operations in the organizations, which benefits both the patients and the members of staff.
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Thirdly, the healthcare institution in the US can make use of social networks in advertisements and marketing. Just like the organizations in the other industries in the country, the healthcare sector benefits from the social networks in attracting potential clientele for the various services offered (Bolton et al., 2018). The use of social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and websites for marketing has gained widespread popularity in the US. The social media marketing plays an integral role in connecting the patients and the hospitals while increasing knowledge of the former in the services offered by the institutions. Fourthly, social networks ease the process of communication made by the hospitals in the wake of a crisis (Bolton et al., 2018). The increasingly popular networks have interconnected many Americans, which makes it convenient for healthcare institutions to communicate their crises to the target audience using social media.
The significance of social networks by the healthcare industry is indispensable. The other recommendation that the researchers in the healthcare sector have associated with the use of social networks by the healthcare institutions is to make use of the networks to promote training in the human resource department. The vast resources that are available in the digital social networks are accessible by the various employees working in healthcare organizations, which promote a learning culture (Sarker et al., 2015). The culture intensifies the efficiency of the medical procedures in the institutions. The role of competition in today's healthcare industry, such as in the US, is evident. With the organizations competing regarding aspects such as marketing and efficiency, the practice has inspired the medical researchers to recommend the use of social networks in the industry (Sarker et al., 2015). With the increase in posts made by the healthcare institutions such as those related to surgical operations, various organizations have benchmarked on efficiency in the same and aspired to carry out their operations with increased diligence and patient-centeredness.
Study Limitations
One of the study limitations observed in the research to investigate how healthcare organizations make use of social networks in the small sample size. Although the United States of America is at the forefront of technological advancement in the various sectors, the other countries in the world have also increased their use of social networks. Therefore, with the study explicitly focusing on the use of social networks in the healthcare industry in the US, the researchers fail to find out the extent of access to the social networks in the other continents such as Africa and Asia. The sample size has also failed to focus on the specific regions of the US in comparison with their use of social networks in the healthcare industry. Therefore, with the lack of specificity in the determination of the sample size, the research may fail to accurately focus on the appropriate use of social networks in the medical care field.
The other study limitation observed in the research is the limited access to the available literature. Although the topic of the use of social networks in various industries has been of interest since the twentieth century, many healthcare institutions across the United States of America began embracing the use of the networks in the twenty-first century. Therefore, most of the researchers have compiled less information regarding the application of social networks to the healthcare industry. Thus, the limited literature has led to a decrease in the efficiency of the research performed to find out the use of social networks among healthcare organizations. Therefore, the existing gap in the research regarding the use of social networks in the healthcare sector cannot be filled with the available literature. However, the researchers in the healthcare sector have to look for more literature to fulfill the objectives of the study.
The other limitation of the study regarding the use of social networks in the healthcare sector is the limited financial resources invested in the study. The outline of the research suggests that the researchers need access to the resources provided by social networks and the traveling to access the various organizations that are targeted by the increasing wave of the use of social networks in the healthcare industry. The research involved extensive studies conducted across the US, which would have incurred costs in traveling to the institutions. The lack of financial adequacy, therefore, hampered the efficiency of the research, which affects the overall results of the study. The limitations in the financial aspects of the research may also have derailed the plans of the researchers to diversify the study to encompass the organizations across the globe. That led to the narrowing down of the sample size in the investigation of the use of social networks in the healthcare industry.
Lastly, there were timing limitations in the research. Regarding the time invested in the research from start to finish, a study has to have a defined timeline, which leads to the efficiency of the research and consequently leads to inappropriate results. The research needed more time to ensure that sufficient data is collected to ensure that the results of the study are accurate.
Practice/Policy Limitations
In the process of the research, the researchers also encountered problems that were related to the practice of the use of social networks in the healthcare industry. Additionally, the researchers also encountered problems regarding the policies stipulated in the industry that deter the organizations from the successful implementation of the social networks in their medical care systems. The following are the practice and policy barriers that the researchers were faced with during the conduction of the study.
Firstly, the use of social networks in the healthcare industry leads to the rise of issues outlined by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) of the United States of America. HIPAA provides data security and privacy regulations that bind the healthcare institutions in the US together (Drolet et al., 2017). The increased use of social networks to share medical care procedures such as surgical operations may expose the patients' identities and information to the unauthorized third parties, which leads to the breach of the HIPAA regulations. The fear of breaking the rules that HIPAA provides for the healthcare institutions deters the medical care professionals from sharing their information and advancements on social media platforms in a bid to motivate other professionals (Drolet et al., 2017). Moreover, the strict rules of the HIPAA regarding the de-identification of patients reduce the willingness of the healthcare professionals to share their information on social networks.
Secondly, the use of social media networks in the healthcare industry exposes organizations to the possibility of cyber insecurity (Haggerty, 2017). The rise in the advancement of technology in the various parts of the world has also led to the rise of cybersecurity concerns. Without the proper cybersecurity measures being put in place in the healthcare organizations, the use of the social networks in the medical care industry by the professionals is a threat to the data collected from the patients. As per the principal regulations of the HIPAA in the US, healthcare professionals are expected to have measures that protect the data of the patients and the institutions (Haggerty, 2017). With the increase in the number of hackers from all around the world, the continuous exposure of the healthcare institutions to the social networks doubles the threat of cyber insecurity. Therefore, the rise in cyberattacks, which exposes voluminous data to unwanted parties, which deters the appropriateness in the use of social networks.
Thirdly, the lack of sufficient knowledge regarding the use of social media networks in the healthcare industry hinders the proper use of the connections (Saad & Soomro, 2018). In as much as the social networks have promoted education and training in healthcare settings, the managers in the organizations have had difficulties in applying the use of social networks in medical care organizations. Additionally, most of the healthcare professionals desire to stay professional and therefore lack knowledge that they can uphold professionalism while at the same time embracing the advancement of technology such as the use of social networks in the medical care sector. The fear of being labeled as lacking expertise, seriousness, and qualifications by the other colleagues bars the healthcare professionals from implementing the use of social networks in the healthcare field (Saad & Soomro, 2018). While the emphasis is laid on the considerations to the extent and the targeted audience of the social media posts, the human resource departments of the healthcare organizations have the task of educating their members of staff on how to balance professionalism and social network usage.
Lastly, the practice of using social networking platforms such as in the promotion of the services in a particular healthcare organization may solicit negative responses from the target clientele and the other organizations (Kasemsap, 2019). The advocacy of professionalism in the use of social networks in healthcare institutions has led to increased care in the application of marketing and promotion procedures. However, regardless of the innocuousness of the healthcare institutions in making the use of social media in advertisements, sometimes they are faced with backlash from the various stakeholders. The negative comments may mostly come from the stakeholders who may feel offended by the particular posts that have been made by the healthcare organizations (Kasemsap, 2019). Therefore, the practice of using social networks in healthcare organizations is limited by the fear of soliciting negative responses from the stakeholders and third parties.
References
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