A new report claims hospitals put both their patients and reputations at risk by ignoring social media.
A white paper by Hewlett-Packard Social Media Solutions states that it is a hospital’s responsibility to meet patients wherever they are searching for health information – including online – and to provide patient education materials that are accurate and easy to understand.
It states that hospitals and other providers can help reduce the potential for harm from misleading or wrong health information transmitted through social media by providing reliable information and/or educating patients and helping to guide them to reputable sites.
The paper argues that not only does social media activity afford hospitals an opportunity to increase health literacy, it also positions them as experts in their specialized fields. Social media can also reveal what their patients are saying about them – both positive and negative.
Nucleus Medical Media is referenced in the report as a trustworthy and reliable source of accurate medical content for hospitals to use in their social media including medical animations and illustrations.
“Nucleus content can help hospitals enhance the quality of care, maintain good PR, and mitigate the risk to their reputations that ignoring social media poses,” said Kim Carbonara, national sales manager for Healthcare. “The Nucleus YouTube channel has a community of over 85,000 subscribers who use the comments section to discuss their medical experiences and encourage each other.”
The HP report shows that social media communities, like those that form around the Nucleus YouTube channel, are the perfect way for hospitals to educate patients, increase their market reach and improve their reputation.
Social media, Nucleus Medical Media, healthcare risks
