Thursday, February 26, 2009

Speaking of Twitter

Did you read this story?

9 comments:

Lonnie E. Fuller Jr., MD said...

TwÍtter will become a great way to get generalized information to patients. Flu shot reminders, clinical updates for patients with diabetes, reminders for mall walking clubs, new providers or hours in a practice. Why pay for mail or staff phone time?

Anonymous said...

The first is that it is accurate and true and that many people believe it can say what they want, obviamnte but we believe it is the content?

Marty Bonick said...

Paul, I think this is a great example of how health care is evolving and I would dare say it may further influence greater transparency in all that we do. There are no walls to hide behind in the digital age! While controversial to some who may wish to censor this activity, I believe it is a true movement that we have the opportunity to contend with. Those that figure out how to leverage the power of the internet and social media to their benefit will be the leaders of tomorrow in our ever changing health care world. Just yesterday we were able to enhance our customer service by finding a woman in our waiting room who was twittering that she couldn't find our wi-fi and one of our staff found this and tweeted back to her to help her out. She certainly wasn't expecting that kind of service!

As a fellow CEO of a large academically affiliated hospital in the mid-West, I have been quietly following your blog since I read about in on an airline magazine a couple years ago. I just celebrated my first anniversary at my hospital and have to say thank you for sharing your playbook in the amazing turn-around that you have been leading at BIDMC. I walked into a very similar situation and handed out your employee letter and HBR article to my new management team when I arrived. I let them know that if you could overcome the odds of what you walked into, we could certainly do the same - I'm pleased to say we have had a very successful first year in our journey thanks in large part to your great leadership philosophy.

Internally, I have referred to you as the "mentor I have never met" and maybe someday that will change, but until then I have embarked on my own experiment with my team and launched my own blog this year as another management best practice (citing you with appropriate credit of course!). Here's hoping that we will achieve similar success on behalf of the good of our patients. Thank you!

Feel free to check us out!
www.hlifeblog.com
Twitter @martybonick
Twitter @jewishhospital

Anonymous said...

The web team at Henry Ford really hit one out of the park with their live tweeting. I was proud to be featured in the CNN video on the story (its a cameo role, but there nonetheless).

The live surgical event may be a flash in the pan, but its indicative of a larger trend. That trend is something your blog is very much on the forefront of - establishing that personal connection between the hospital (and its leaders) and its constituents (patients, employees and physicians).

Its the right time for healthcare to be cultivating its image (and making sure its culture matches that image) ... kudos to the Henry Ford team for bringing it to light.

Personally, I've been exploring the ideas in the form of a white paper.
http://www.nickdawson.net/socialpulse/

...working on ways to integrate the ideas into the health system I work for.

Anonymous said...

I bet this is almost as safe as text messaging while driving. Absurd. Maybe the operating room team should concentrate on not killing the patient and leave the self glorification to others.

Anonymous said...

Anyone interested in finding good health care folks on Twitter should check out these two resources:

1. Over 300 Doctors, Medical Students and Medicine related Twitter accounts:
http://tr.im/gSMT

2.Omnee, the organic Twitter directory service. Many health and medical related listings of twitter accounts.
http://tr.im/gSNk

Also, I maintain of list of hospitals on Twitter here:
http://twitter.com/hospitalgroup

Anonymous said...

Dear Marty,

Thanks so much for those kind comments. Best of luck in the blogosphere.

Bob Coffield said...

Here is a link to some background info on the live tweeting of surgery that has occurred over the last few months - both from the patient and provider side. Also, a few comments on the legal implications. Fascinating use of Twitter.

http://healthcarebloglaw.blogspot.com/2008/11/implications-for-live-tweeting-surgery.html

Jeanne said...

I just stumbled upon this post containing the twitter message I sent you awhile back. I'm glad you found it helpful. :)

Jeanne