Hospital Social MediaOverview and Current Realities

Ed Bennett

University of Maryland Medical Center

Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN | October, 2011

Outline

Current Hospital List Numbers

Three Stories from my Hospital Opening Access to Social Media

Patient Support Groups on Facebook

… and this dog

Page 3

My Background

Pre-1980 Juggler & Street Performer

1980 - 1994 Microfilm Technician Software Trainer

1994 - 1999Web Entrepreneur

1999- CurrentDirector, Web TechnologyUniversity of Maryland Medical Center

Core Web Management Skills

Hospital Social Media Types

Are We Leveling Off?

Where Are Hospitals in the Hype Cycle?

2009

2010

2011

2012 ?

Goal

ubicare.com/engagement

Healthcare Engagement Tracker

1,078 Healthcare Facebook Pages

67% have < 1,000 fans - 41% have < 500 fans.

10th percentile:

• Pages above average 8+ posts per week.

• Pages below average less than 4 posts per week.

Can you average two posts per day?

1,078 Healthcare Facebook Pages:

Healthcare Engagement Tracker

ubicare.com/engagement

Safe and Sound Uses

Customer Service

Community Outreach

Education

Public Relations

Crisis Communications

Recruitment

Brand Monitoring

Many (most?) still block access

FUD -Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

Low clinical participation

Patient / staff expectations

Challenges

“The Placenta Incident”

Opening Access at UMMC

Websense in place since 2004

Blocking Facebook

Most Blogging platforms

Social media widgets

Broke many non-social media sites

Broke patient education / professional resources

Opening Access at UMMC

Why Change?

Patient Satisfaction – #1 Driver

Respect for Hospital Staff

Lessons learned from the first Web cycle

Opening Access at UMMC

The Process – all of 2010

Driven by our CEO

Lots of meetings and memos with

Legal / Compliance / IT / HR

Clinical Leadership

Policies and staff guidelines

Education and training

One Year Later…

Opened access on January 1, 2011 !

Opening Access at UMMC

Results

A “No Drama” launch

Decreased patient complaints

Increased employee awareness

Social media = business as usual

Patient Support Groups

Four groups:

Liver Transplant

Digestive Diseases

Hepatitis C

Trauma Survivors

Patient Support Groups

Outgrowth of traditional IRL groups

Managed by the same group leader, usually a Nurse Practitioner

Mix of Closed & Secret Groups

Set up and sanctioned by the UMMC Communications Department

Patient Support Groups on Facebook

Results:

Activity level varies by group

Support, knowledge exchange

“Does this happen to anyone else?”

Mix of health and other topics

Projects and Events like a group luncheon

Fundraising

Fundraising Event for our Cancer Center

A major Maryland race

Over 2,000 runners

Plus one unexpected guest…

Dozer the Dog

Embed First Video

The Dozer Timeline

Sunday May 15, 2011 - Race day, Dozer joins the fun

Monday: Dozer’s owners contact UMMC We contact local / national news

Tuesday:Post short videoCreate Dozer donation page

Wednesday:Story picked up on personal blogs 495 YouTube Views $390 donations from 14 people

Dozer Donation Page

Umm.edu/Dozer

The Dozer Timeline

Thursday May 19:

Attention on Fox News, ESPN, Runners World, etc.

More blog posts embedding the first YouTube Video

Race officials meet with dozer family, give him a medal

3,517 YouTube Views - $600 donations from 16 people

Friday May 20:

Publish Second Video with text narrative

Web attention from the Today Show, Runners World, and many personal blogs (Runners and Dog Lovers)

65,815 YouTube Views - $1,338 from 61 people

www.umgcc.org/news/dozer-in-the-news.htm

Dozer FacebookFan Page

Created

May 26, 2011

facebook.com/dozerthedogfanpage

What Viral Looks Like

5/15/8

5/155/22

5/296/5

6/126/19

6/267/3

7/107/17

7/247/31

8/78/14

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

9,000

10,000

Traffic to UMMC YouTube Videos1,700 to 2,500 Views per day

What Viral Looks Like

5/15/8

5/155/22

5/296/5

6/126/19

6/267/3

7/107/17

7/247/31

8/78/14

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000 Second Dozer VideoFirst Dozer VideoAll other UMMC Videos

75,000 Views

15,000

13,000

16,000

52,000

GoogleYahooYouTubeSearch13,000

Two videos

Three blog posts

Multiple Twitter updates

Fundraising page

Dozer Facebook page

Response and Results

Dozens of blog / web posts

Over 500,000 YouTube views

$25,000 raised from 400 donors

UMMC Web / Social Media Efforts

Results:

Media relations

Web \ Video production

Social media

Foundation

Lessons Learned

It’s a Team Effort

Recognize the opportunity

Understand context

Don’t hesitate

Be Agile

What’s Your Story?

Ed Bennett

Director of Web & Communications TechnologyUniversity of Maryland Medical Center

410-328-0771ebennett@umm.edu / ed@ebennett.org umm.edu / ebennett.orgTwitter: @edbennett

Presentation and Discussion at:

http://ebennett.org/mayo2011

Credits

Rainbow Photo - ChristopherHarrison.net