By Amy Dawson, Senior Vice President/Healthcare Account Director

8 in 10 Internet Users Go Online for Health Information

More physician practices and hospitals are starting to embrace Facebook as an important tool in their arsenal of marketing tactics. As marketing dollars shrink, competition intensifies, and more people look to social media as a way to become informed, empowered healthcare consumers, any hospital or practice would be wise to consider how social media can enhance their existing marketing plans. We’re now in the era of Health 2.0 - using social software and its ability to promote collaboration between patients, their caregivers, medical professionals, and other stakeholders in health. It’s really pretty cool when you think about it.

Consider this: eight in 10 Internet users go online for health information. Sure, there are things to consider like staffing, HIPAA, content and more, but can you really afford to be absent from this space and let your competitors be the only voice in the discussion?

I’ve spent the last week looking at a variety of healthcare brands - both hospitals and physician practices - and how they’re using Facebook as a marketing and commnications tool. Some are early adopters and recognize that as their younger patients age, more of them will seek information online rather than schedule an appointment with their doctor. After all, it’s faster and easier than ever to get information online. One caveat here - accessing information online doesn’t replace the value of seeing your physician face-to-face but can certainly help you ask the right questions.

Here are a few examples of Facebook tactics used by healthcare providers that I think are pretty interesting:

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By Amy Dawson, Senior Vice President/Healthcare Account Director

Finding a good doctor is a chore, isn’t it?

You can ask friends, family members or co-workers for recommendations - they’re usually reliable sources. The problem comes when you go to learn more about a doctor online. Many primary care doctors (family practice, internal medicine and pediatrics) have no Web presence. And if they do, the site is often hard to navigate and usually lacks substance. Typically a doctor’s site lists just office hours, location and maybe - if you’re lucky - a really bad, outdated head shot.

Finding a doctor online is incredibly frustrating - it shouldn’t be.

I can prepare my will and invest my life savings online but I can’t learn much about a doctor to whom I will trust my health and maybe even my life. This really amazes me, given that so many people are going online for health information. And, they’re looking to their doctors as for help.

People Look to Their Doctor First

As ringmaster of the three-ring circus I call my family, I must make the best use of my limited free time, so I tend to do as much as possible online. It’s so convenient. People want to be able find information about a doctor online. Not just where they went to medical school. I want to know their hours, how to make an appointment, insurances accepted.

I’d like to know if a pediatrician is married and has kids - I’d probably relate more to a physician who is a parent more so than one who isn’t. Does that doctor have a special skill or interest? For parents with special needs children, does the pediatrician have a comfort level with Down syndrome, ADHD or cerebral palsy? Does a neurosurgeon I’m considering specialize in spinal surgery, or does he do everything? Can you show me an animation or video of the procedure you’ll be doing on me so I am less anxious about it and my family knows what’s happening, too?

As more and more consumers take an active role in healthcare decisions, they’re spending time researching information online. I talked to some friends whose son really needed back surgery and they had researched a lumbar disc replacement procedure recently approved by the FDA.

In an effort to help them, I researched three different hospital systems and several physician practices online to see if anyone locally performed the procedure. Nowhere could I find any information except on the site of one multi-specialty group practice. So where did my friend’s son go? Yes, to that practice and with an excellent result after surgery. A good online experience led to a good offline experience.

Why can’t they all be that way?

My dentist offers a secure site where I can look up all of my family’s upcoming appointments, confirm them online, see my benefits and financial information, pay my bill, provide feedback and refer a friend. They, too, offer a great experience both online and off, so that tells me they care not only for my health, but they make it easy by respecting my time and valuing me as a patient. I’m theirs for life.