Social media is a tool that can provide healthcare professionals with opportunities to connect with potential patients from all over the world. It can also help doctors and medical professionals communicate more efficiently with patients they already have. Using social media properly can help these professionals build a positive reputation for an individual healthcare provider or an entire healthcare center. Consequently, if social media is misused, it can also ruin a medical professional or hospital/healthcare center’s reputation.
Hospitals should go online by providing specific webpages and social media accounts to advertise the services they offer. These webpages can build a reputation of a healthcare provider by discussing what services they offer to their patients. This power to connect with more potential clients helps to build the hospitals’ and doctors’ reputations. The power of social media’s influence will undoubtedly continue to grow as social media becomes more and more popular. When used properly, social media can be an asset to connect healthcare providers around the world. It can connect patients with their healthcare providers before they ever even meet.
1) Social Media Can Help Patients Find You:
Patients can look up your information online to find specialties and services that your hospital/healthcare center offers. They can also use social media as a means to learn more about the doctors working there including their specialties and educational backgrounds. Surveys have said that 44% of people between the ages of 55-65 will look online to find more information about a hospital or doctor before consulting them for treatment.
As a healthcare provider, it’s up to you to use social media to encourage both current and future patients to connect with you and your practice. Encourage them to ask questions that they may have about treatments, specialties, and services they are seeking. Answering questions promptly as well as professionally allow you as a medical professional to show genuine concern for their patients. It also allows any concerns the patient may have to be handled immediately.
2) Create A Genuine, Proactive Reputation:
Encourage existing clients to leave comments and reviews on social media about the care they receive. Doctors may receive negative comments from time to time, but answering these messages promptly and professionally can help solve problems. It can leave patients satisfied and compelling them to return in the future. Remember the best method to handle complaints is not through social media. Personal and direct private messages tend to work best. Showing professionalism and a genuine care for the patient’s concern can help remedy any issues soon as they arise.
Proactive and strong communications help resolve any negative comments that may be put on your social media accounts. This can help improve customer satisfaction in the future. In many cases, patients whose concerns are heard and are responded to in a professional manner will come back to receive treatment in the future. The biggest key to providing premiere customer service when resolving complaints is to really listen to the person and what their concerns are brought up. It is worth considering not taking legal action immediately but letting the situation resolve itself. Oftentimes, it will.
3) Educate Your Patients:
Patients ages 55-65 are also turning to social media for more information on health conditions than ever before. This is the age-range when medical conditions generally tend to start effecting people. People want to learn how to treat their conditions and want take more control over their health. This trend is likely to grow as the internet continues to reach more and more people. Catering to patient’s desire for genuine, truthful information can also help build your reputation as a healthcare provider who cares to provide their patients with quality information.
Patients will trust healthcare professionals who take the time to provide extra information they feel they can relate to. They will put the faces of doctors they see in the office with the information they receive on your websites or social media page. They will come to trust you and the information you provide. They may even refer people they know to your practice for future treatments. Use regular, informational posts on social media to keep connected with your patients as well as to reach new patients looking for a quality healthcare provider.
4) Be The One From Whom Future Professionals Can Look Up To:
Many medical students are teaming up with local professionals and use live-streaming technologies on platforms like Google+ or other similar sites as they watch procedures being done in live time. This allows the surgeons to comment on the procedures they are doing to help the medical student learn. This allows the students to ask questions as well as the procedure happens in real time. Platforms like Google+ or other similar platforms allow all of this to happen without requiring students to be in the room as the procedure happens.
5) Hospitals Posting Live Procedures To YouTube Or Twitter:
Healthcare social media sites can help educate patients through posted clips of live procedures on their websites. This allows patients to see what will be happening and what to expect before they even undergo the procedures themselves. The use of social media in healthcare can connect patients with these educational tools to help them know what to expect during their procedures. It allows them to have peace of mind knowing that what will happen before they even have a procedure done.
6) Crowd Sourcing Diagnoses:
Sites that provide crowd sourcing tools are becoming an increasingly popular way to help people from around the world share their as they seek a diagnosis. Comparing your symptoms with those other people are suffering can help people determine which conditions they may have. This is especially helpful with more rare conditions that doctors may have more difficulty pinpointing during an office visit. Healthcare professionals are also getting onto these sites where they are opening themselves up to emails, messages, and questions about symptoms people are experiencing. Healthcare professionals can help by offering their expertise as to what that person might be suffering. Social media and healthcare professionals around the world can connect through these platforms. They can help people receive information they may otherwise may never be able to access.
7) Professional Speakers:
Position yourself to speak as an expert on certain health-related topics through authentic blogs containing videos that can be posted on social media sites. This is a great platform to help reach audiences around the world through informative podcasts and videos. Focus on new topics each day/week/month/etc., and post a variety of practical information on things people want to learn more about. Some ideas of topics you may cover include fitness, health, nutrition, and wellness. This information is geared towards helping people live healthier day-to-day lives. Practical advice that can be implemented into someone’s existing lifestyle and to help them fight against common illnesses/health issues/diseases/etc. are the most practical posts to include on your blog.
Conclusion:
Social media is a force that is here to stay within the medical field. It is up to doctors and healthcare professionals to learn to use these services in the best way they can. Proper use of such sites and tools can help a business or practice grow. When handled appropriately, social media can have positive effects for healthcare professionals through as they build a positive online reputation. Many international sites from places like India can even offer tourism benefits every patient should know about before visiting. These sites can promote special services offered by each medical professional and their hospitals/facility before the patient even arrives. These kinds of resources ultimately work in favor of the patient who can learn more about the people who will be caring for them before they even travel for treatment.
