THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN AN AMBULATORY CLINIC

At Heartland Clinic at Platte CityDavid Voran, MD

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HEARTLAND CLINIC OF PLATTE CITY

Free Standing Clinic30 miles south of St. Joseph

Primary Care1 IM, 1 Ped, 1.7 FPOutreach clinic for specialists

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JUST BEGINNING THE PROCESS

APPLICATIONS

• Message Center– Consumer Messages– Pools

• Healthe (IQHealth) Web Portal

• Physician associated online medical products catalog

• Twitter accounts• Blog accounts

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HOSPITAL JOINING IN

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Twitter and Facebook feeds

• Shopping• Encourage public

participation• Part of the marketing

and outreach department

TYPES OF POSTS

Twitter• Clinic schedule updates• Disease related updates• Healthcare retweetsBlogs• Disease discussions• Healthcare reform

opinions• ObservationsFacebook• Bilateral healthcare

discussion

TWO-WAY COMMUNICATIONS

Good example of comprehensive exploitation of Web 1.x and Web 2.0

MacArthur OB/Gyn in Iriving, TX

Portal with RSS, Twitter, Facebook connections to patients

Leveraged to maximize bi-directional general communications with patients

ISSUES

Our organization, like most hospitals, hasn’t embraced social media as a core process

Blocks Facebook, Blogspot and other useful areas for people inside their network– Security, risk management and productivity

concerns SM requires frequent changes that potentially

impact productivity Hard to track efficacy of SM posts Lack of integration with EMR Inability to charge for interactions Is being used primarily as a marketing tool

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STRONG DEPENDENCE ON PHYSICIANS

IQHEALTH WEB PORTAL

• Implemented 6/2008• Registered 1572 patients

– 30% of all patients seen– 66% of my patients– Physician initiative is the

key

• Patient Communication– More electronic– In Message Center– Phone time reduced

• Some have suggested 3-6 hours per week

DEMOGRAPHICS

Phys1 Phys2 Phys3 Phys4 -

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

1,600

1,800 Pts IQH Pts

OPINIONS

EMR should have social media architecture

Enable patients to expose parts of their record to other patients– Web portals

Enable communication between patients– PatientsLikeMe– Virtual group therapy

Disease Watershed concept– Clinical communications must match

viral, bacterial and social communications in order to maximize benefit

– Social media networks match this process

MORE TO COME