Social media has become ubiquitous. Consumers expect to be able to communicate directly with the major brands in their lives, whether it’s their favorite wine, retailer, celebrity, sports figure, or broker. They are using hashtags to actively participate during live sporting events or TV shows (#GoMets, #Scandal) right from their sofa.
But what about one of the most important relationships of all, their doctors and hospitals? Can doctors tweet with their patients? Should they? How can healthcare professionals use social media to attract new patients and educate consumers on health related issues while complying with stringent regulatory requirements? To answer these questions and more, I recently spoke with Dr. Kevin Campbell, MD, FACC, an internationally-recognized cardiologist and social media evangelist. Dr. Campbell is on-air medical expert for WNCN and a national Fox News guest who has written two books, including “Women and Cardiovascular Disease: Addressing Disparities in Care.” Below is an edited version of that conversation.
Q. Dr. Campbell, how is the healthcare landscape changing?
A. Medicine still is about, and should be about, caring for patients and patient-centered activity. However, large healthcare groups or organizations are buying up individual physicians’ practices and there’s more competition now. The Affordable Care Act may limit the choice of doctors and networks, but in general, patients are now consumers of healthcare and have a choice of the hospital or hospital system they use. Consumerism is now important in medicine. Your job as a physician is to create the ultimate experience for patients, from the minute they check into your office to the minute they’re discharged from the hospital. And that doesn’t just include fantastic medical care, it includes how they interact with the front desk staff, what the workflow is to get them into a room and to get them ready for surgery, and then how they’re treated post-operatively.
Q. How can physicians appeal to these new “consumers” of healthcare?
A. As nearly 70 percent of all patients go to the internet either before or after a doctor’s visit, doctors need to set themselves apart from other physicians or other healthcare groups, possibly by using social media. Physicians can use social media to share unique services that they or their groups offer. They can talk about outcomes, such as “we have a wonderful success rate with procedure x, y and z”, or specific services such as “we have an easy screening program for colon cancer that meets all the guidelines of the American Cancer Society and the American College of Gastroenterology”. Share the things that make your hospital better – the people, the activities, your philanthropic activities. See an earlier post, “Can Doctors Improve Patient Outcomes With Social Media” for more details.
Q. What about specialists, such as anesthesiologists?
A. In general, anesthesiologists have very limited interaction with patients. Patients may see an anesthesiologist a few weeks before a procedure to be assessed for anesthesia risks, for an anesthesia plan and to be cleared from a cardiac standpoint for surgery. The next time patients see the anesthesiologist, they are being put to sleep. There’s no real follow-up because patients follow up with their regular doctor. For anesthesiologists, it’s important to recognize that you can help allay patients’ anxiety with more information. For example, produce a series of YouTube videos about what to expect on the day of surgery, the induction process and recovery from anesthesia. As a patient, if you’re partially informed, you have a better idea of the questions to ask, and ultimately, I think your anxiety level is much less. And we know that less anxious patients tend to do better in surgery.