How to Overcome Obstacles in Healthcare Implementing a Social Media Program

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this healthcare social networking series, I see a great deal of opportunity in social networks being leveraged in the Healthcare industry.  Whether it’s building a relationship with future employees or current ones, social media technologies can be used to foster an employee and employer relationship that creates channels of communication instead of traditionally shutting them down. 

As an employee, one of my biggest frustrations with an organization was the feeling that no one was listening.  With social media the conversation and engagement is always flowing and organizations can use Big Data to help uncover employee or candidate trends and employee trends that help refine and support our current workplace communication efforts. 

Healthcare like Finance are two of the highest regulating and monitoring industries making organizations slow to adopt social media.  I see obstacles as an opportunity for competitive advantage because if everyone was doing something, it wouldn’t be as effective.  And we’ve already seen that social media is still relatively new to Healthcare from the 2011 Deloitte Report with 14% of U.S. hospitals using social media and social networking as an external facing marketing and communication tool. 

Chances are you have an interest in using social media at your organization.  Maybe it’s working with Talent Circles and building a talent network to create a candidate experience and community your organization owns and can source from.  Or maybe you are looking to make a case for launch an internal communication network using platforms like Yammer, IBM Connections, Jive, or Chatter.  Whatever your reason, developing the dialogue with senior management and overcoming corporate hurdles can be over half the battle. 

HIPPA Privacy Concerns

HIPP is a common obstacle for anyone wanting to communicate in the healthcare industry.  Communications between health care providers and their patients are subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which limits insurance plans, hospitals and physicians from answering questions on a specific patient’s health information across a social network.  Concerns like this don’t impact an external talent network as the large majority of community members are potential employees who do not have access to patient records.  Talent network members who are company representatives can be easily controlled and monitored. 

One of the benefits I see to establishing an internal social network is that information, messaging, and conversations unlike traditional social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are kept in house.  Organizations allow for a place of discussion like the break room water cooler making it less likely employees will share opinions, patient information, and other news outside of the internal social network. 

Establishing a Cost Baseline

One of my favorite ways to get executive buy in for a project like leveraging social media is to launch a pilot program where the risk is minimal, participants are hand selected, and we establish a 90 day window where the new program is tested before being implemented on a larger scale.  This helps us determine the real cost, change our approach based on the pilot, and determine the cost baseline for the project. 

Company executives are much more comfortable piloting a program first and dipping their toe in the water.  For many executives, social networking is still considered a fad.  By demonstrating the business case for social media beyond traditional marketing and communication, you can show them real value. 

Resources

According to a Greystone report, two-thirds of surveyed hospitals have not developed a plan on how to use their existing social networking sites and 70 percent of hospitals have less than four people devoted to social networking.  Maybe your organization has tried to launch a social media program in the past with mixed results.  Chances are your recruiting and human resources teams are already using social media in small amounts.  Whether it’s job distribution using social media or sourcing on LinkedIn, these are HR-focused social media activities, and my opinion is that your external recruiting network and your internal social network projects should be developed, executed, and maintained by HR.  Be prepared to discuss time commitments and who is responsible for the development and continued management of your social networking program. 

Overcoming obstacles when establishing your social networking program at a healthcare facility, hospital, or wherever is not easy.  With a little preparation, research, and planning you can implement a customized community that dramatically impacts your organization’s bottom line. 

Read Part 1 of our Healthcare Social Networking Series.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media.  She’s an author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @blogging4jobs. 

Photo Credit. 

Social Networks Drive Innovation, Recruiting Efforts & Collaboration Especially in Healthcare

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

When it comes to social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn big brands are using them to connect, engage, and build relationships with consumers, end users, and raving fans.  Even the healthcare industry has gotten the social networking bug using Twitter to update patient’s families and even YouTube to share patient care and experience stories. 

Study Shows Doctors, Nurses, & Hospital Employees Use Social Media 

A study released by Deloitte in 2011 found that more than 700 of the U.S.’ 5,000 hospitals have a social media and social networking presence to enhance their ability to market and communicate to stakeholders.  So why wouldn’t it make sense for one of the most competitive and fastest growing industries to dive into using social media to help fuel their healthcare recruitment and employee retention efforts? 

Interestingly enough in that same Deloitte study, sixty percent of physicians surveyed and 65% of nurses are interested in using social networks for professional purposes.  Positions like doctors and nurses are very much in demand and often times the a very specialized position vacancy can impact the hospital, department, or healthcare organization negatively costing them two to three and half times the open position’s salary. 

Internal & External Social Networks for Healthcare  

Social networks are used by organizational including healthcare traditional two different ways:  1) Internal or 2) External.  Internal social networks serve as an internal Facebook that is customized, hosted, and monitored by the hospital allowing for news, information, collaboration, and resources to be shared.  External social networks are those outside of your company portal and are outward facing.  These often overlap with many of your current marketing and patient engagement efforts except these conversations are centered around either information for current employees or career resources and job information to build relationships centered around the employer brand. 

Chances are many of your communication tools and resources are already available online.  Maybe it’s the hospital portal or an online-shared drive to store files, documents, and important spreadsheet information.  Internal social networks can do all those things just like your portal, but one thing is missing, the engagement factor.  Learning and relationship happens with communication, banter, and a back and forth between professional colleagues, peers, and friends.  We learn, grow, and absorb making us enjoy our work even more because we like and are learning from the people we are working with.  And because we enjoy our job and friends, we are engaged, productive, and active employee who plans on staying gainfully employed at your hospital or healthcare facility.  

Take Ownership of Your Candidate Pipeline & Talent Network 

One of the challenges of traditional external facing social networks is we don’t own or control the future of the community or the direction of the company where we have spent time, money, energy, and effort to grow that network.  Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn own the data and control the information much like traditional resume mining job board systems leaving recruiters and HR teams at the mercy of the network.  While these systems are important to share job openings and for relationship building, organizations should take heed and continue driving their candidates to resources hosted within their own website or career page. 

While HR teams and recruiters are always hiring and on the look out for good talent, these special relationships need to be further developed, evaluated, and fostered outside of a traditional hiring system or software like the ATS (applicant tracking system).  This is where I believe a talent network comes into play and offer an invaluable opportunity for nearly any industry but especially healthcare to build a candidate pipeline that fosters candidate relationships and anticipates hiring needs before they actually happen.  

Check out Part 2 of our Healthcare Social Networking Series. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media.  She’s an author who writes at Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @blogging4jobs. 

Photo Credit.