I learned of our hospital’s plans to block employee access to Facebook rather casually, during a meeting with our department leader. I showed her an ad we were running that had the Facebook, Twitter and YouTube’s logos at the bottom, and she says, “Should we be promoting these, since we’re going to be shutting down access in the hospital?”

“Whhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa?”

She showed me a colorful bar graph that our IT Director brought to a recent Exec Team meeting. In one month, more than 1,200 hours of “Browse Time” on our hospital’s network was spent on Facebook. The next closest was Play.It (streaming radio/media) at 820 minutes.

So, in the absence of a social media sympathizer at the meeting, the fate of Facebook was sealed: Block it. No exceptions.

But after much scrambling and pleading, social media was granted a temporary stay so that I could argue on its behalf. I did research and pulled together packets of other hospitals’ social media policies, articles and visual aids to help make my case.

What I learned through all of this research is this simple, obvious lesson: If you don't have an explicit policy, you can't hold anyone accountable.

Some of the fault lies with our department. We aggressively pushed our social media program out to the community, but we ignored our most important audience: Employees.

We never educated our employees about our hospital’s presence on the Web. We didn't show them how they could contribute to it or take part in it.

Lesson learned.

Now, with the help of our IT department, we're creating and shaping our own policy informed by common sense. For instance, when you're taking care of patients, you shouldn't be on Farmville or Facebook. We're making social media part of our new employee orientation, and engaging our internal audience to help contribute to it...responsibly.

Want some more info? Check out these links:

1. Techrepublic.com
2. StopBlocking.org
3. Running a Hospital (blog)
4. A pretty great internal policy from Sutter Health

It started with a politely worded e-mail from our Web agency stating that we received “some negative feedback” on our Facebook page. But what we really got was a lesson in customer service for the social media age.

Here’s what happened:

About a year and a half ago, our hospital launched a comprehensive social media program, which included a Facebook page. Our page boasted a modest number of fans, updates from our blogs, event announcements, and positive news.

Then, we moved into a new hospital.

Maybe it’s the newness of the hospital that got to our fans. Maybe the kinks still need to be worked out. Maybe it’s that while we didn’t move far, we are seeing a different group of patients coming to us. They are wired. They are motivated. They have expectations. They have iPhones.

In recent weeks, we’ve seen a few negative posts appear on our Facebook page, which concerned (read: freaked out) a few hospital leaders. One of the posts this week; however, created dialogue among other users who also had negative experiences. As I read the string, a small amount of concern crept in (OK, OK, I freaked out) as to what we should do.

We came up with a novel concept.

What if we...responded?

A process was created:
• Send negative comments to proper departments right away. Then, follow-up with the department to make sure someone contacts the user soon (within 24 hours of the posting).
• Respond to the user with an apology and an assurance of a follow-up.
• Keep the negative comments up, unless they violate Facebook privacy policies (e.g. abusive comments, calling out employees by name, etc.).

Would it work?

Well, we think so.

Later, we received a nice post from the patient thanking us for following up, responding to her post and doing the right thing for her and her family.

Next Week: Why Blocking Employee Access to Facebook is a Bad Plan...

The amount of printed materials that exist in healthcare organizations is staggering. Just think about how many community newsletters, brochures and flyers go out to your audience.

Is it really necessary?

Since we recently changed our address, logo and contact information, I’m suddenly aware of how much printed material we produce. Luckily, we have the chance to make a fresh, green start.

Step 1: Assess print needs. You'll start to see a lot of single-panel brochures creep out from the 1980's. But does every department require printed information? Maybe back then, but certainly not today, right?

Step 2: Cut costs. Think about posting info to your Web site, instead of printing 10,000 brochures about your aquatic therapy services, for instance.

Step 3: Find a better way. Why not post pdfs and have managers and employees print them out for patients or visitors upon request? Why not integrate info into one, all-encompassing capabilities brochure?

Step 4: Communicate the “why.” Marketing materials (especially printed) can be crutches for a lot of departments. I’ve heard comments like “But we’ve always had these brochures” or “We do a flyer for this every year.” OK, fine. But we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t look at the “why” and figure out if there’s a more effective, responsible way.

Step 5: Adjust, adjust, adjust. This is important to do after your new fiscal year begins.

Do you have any more ideas? Please share!

I have a small handful of followers on Twitter—a few friends, some business contacts and adult site spammers. This is largely because I have not invested much time to my account. If someone follows me, I think, “Cool,” anticipating the day when I decide to do something with it.

That day has yet to arrive.

Professionally, Twitter is a great communication tool for your hospital. Sherman Health has done a few successful events through Twitter. We have more than 3,300 followers.

But with my own Twitter account, I don't know how to draw the line between my professional and personal life. If I were to follow a hysterical, inappropriately titled feed, would my followers be offended? What if a colleague doesn't like my tweets?

I just want to learn how to draw the line. Maybe it's time I ask the "Twittersphere" (whatever that means) for help with some of these questions.

What do you suggest I do? I'm still not sold on the idea, but let me know @joshmccolough.

And they very well may be. Fine-looking. Skilled-looking. The kind of surgical team that you want to operate on you if you need a minimally invasive hip replacement.

I guess.

But we really wouldn’t know them from any other radiology team, nursing team or rugby team, for that matter.

Over the holidays, I did a lot of Midwestern driving—Illinois to Indiana to Ohio. And when my daughter was either asleep or lost in her Nintendo DS, I have nothing to do but look at billboards and give each my instant, internal critique.

There are tons of healthcare billboards, and they never cease to underwhelm me in their predictability. They tend to fall into a few categories:

• Look at our world-class medical staff. Come use our services!
• Look at our new award. Come use our services!
• Look at our fuzzy image of “compassionate care.” Come use our services!

There's only so many things you can say about your hospital to get people to notice as they drive past 70 miles per hour. Billboards are intended to be quickly noticed.

But do they have to be so easily forgotten?

Working at a hospital, I know that you are under political pressure to advertise what you know won’t make good ads. But billboards especially are expensive. So, try to make the argument that if you’re spending the money, make the billboards worthwhile.

And while your surgical team may be reasonably photogenic, I promise you, they just aren’t board-worthy.

Click here for an example of a worthwhile board.

Shameless plug: We opened our new hospital. It’s awesome. We’re proud. But for now, I'm going to skip what we learned from a marketing standpoint and talk about a simple tool we used for our special events: the online RSVP.

If you have big events and a limited staff, the online RSVP is your best friend:

• First, you'll find out how many people might show up. At our hospital’s community open house, we had about 4,700 people attend. Approximately 2,000 of them registered online for the event. Maybe it's because we were raffling off five iPod Touches for those who RSVP’d online, but so be it because…
• Second, when you have people register online, you can collect e-mail addresses for your e-blast database. This is, of course, opt-in. Of the 2,000 people who pre-registered, more than 1,500 opted-in to receive e-mails.
• Third, it’s convenient and helpful. When people registered for the open house event, they received all of the logistical and parking information for the day in their confirmation e-mail. This helped establish order and gave people a sense of what the day would look like.

Happy Holidays!

I try to have minimal human contact with people who send me bills.

Recently, I received an e-mail from my dentist’s office notifying me that I could now log on to their Web site and check appointment dates and financial information, receive email/text appointment reminders and sign up for their e-newsletter.

Oh, happy day!

I checked out their web site, and was impressed by the online services they offer to patients. Even though the homepage is cluttered, it's one of the most helpful, patient-friendly medical sites I've seen. Is it a coincidence that their office is one of the most popular where I live?

Note to self: Tell our Medical Staff.

I am convinced that the most successful healthcare organizations—from hospitals down to individual physician practices—are also the most “wired” and user-friendly. The more transparent and helpful you can be for the patients (rather than what’s easiest for the doctor and office staff), the more successful you’ll be.

To boot: Each month, they offer all patients who use their online portal the chance to win an iPod.

My teeth have never been healthier.

My biggest weakness as a healthcare marketer: Event planning. A keg of Busch Light and some Doritos is a party where I come from. Anything beyond that is why the world has professional event planners.

At each big event, you've got to hand out some hospital branded items. You know what I'm talking about:

Tchotchkes. Premium/promotional items. Swag. Craptacular.

Right now, I'm planning a new hospital opening in December. It's a monumental event for the community, but also for the Chicagoland region. New hospitals don't pop up everyday around here. There are three major events, all of which demand different varieties of tchotchkes. With the help of professional event planners, creative co-workers and the Internet, this is what we're handing out:

• A Tree In a Box for our Gala Event. This celebrates the “green” aspects of our new hospital (including the 13-acre geothermal lake that will heat/cool it; check that out here), and can be planted—biodegradable pot and all—in the spring.
• Coffee Tumblers. We're stuffing those with chocolates and goodies for our Employee & Volunteer Event.
• Ice-scrapers made from recycled plastic for our Community Event. Hey, it's December in Chicago. It's not like we're going to order sunscreen.

Have you ordered any branded swag that made your organization swoon? Please share.

At a recent healthcare marketing conference I attended in Wisconsin, we talked about social media. I wasn’t surprised to hear this complaint among attendees: “This social media stuff is great, but how do we convince our higher-ups to unblock access to these sites?”

Right.

Let's face it: Healthcare is...conservative. Some new technologies aren’t embraced as much as they are dismissed as frivolous or regarded with suspicion. A lot of these Wisconsin hospitals weren’t allowing access to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube.

Uh-oh.

If you find yourself in a similar position, here are five arguments you can use to get your social networking sites unblocked:

1. Your patients are connected to their families and loved ones by social media sites already. Don't ignore this. Acknowledge their prevalence and integrate them accordingly, or risk falling behind.

2. Dip your toes into social media by offering CarePages to your patients. Demonstrate the value of CarePages—a free service you can offer to your patients that, at its core, is a social media site.

3. With one small hospital team, you can write up a killer policy that will regulate how the Internet is to be used during work hours. The Mayo Clinic offers their social media policies online.

4. Trust the maturity of your staff and leadership. Encourage them to participate. Create a sense of ownership among staff by inviting them to write blogs or post exciting department initiatives or “wins.”

5. Talk to your IT department. Even if they say, "We don't have enough bandwidth to support these sites," you need to make sure this is a real issue or if its part of their reluctance to progress.

What arguments have you used to get your "higher-ups" connected?

To think that it was only a couple of years ago that getting your flu shot was a matter of personal discretion. You either got it, or you didn’t and life went on (hopefully without upper respiratory distress and moderate-to-high fevers).

But times have changed with the mutating virus, and perish the thought of not getting your shot. At our hospital, we have implemented a rather impressive system for choosing to not get your flu shot, including signing a declination form, stating your reasons, and then receiving a friendly reminder that the flu shot keeps our patients and the public safe...just so you know, hint, hint. This is for the greater good, I know—and I work at a hospital, so I know, I know, I know.

What I find most heartening, though, is how quickly we’ve managed to incorporate simple acts of public health into our daily customs. Neighbors ask if you’ve gotten your shot, and tell you where you can get it today. My six-year-old daughter asked me every day until I got it, and every day until I got it, she shook her head and waved a finger at me adding an accusatory, “Daddy.” We’re watching out for one another. She also reminds me what she's learning in school: “Your hands are the germiest part of your body, you know.” I know, I know, I know.

In my spare time, I am an English teacher. The college is on an aggressive campaign to make sure all employees are doing their part to prevent the flu this year. I noticed an increase of “flare” on the employees recently, then received an e-mail that explained: Wear your hand-washing campaign button during flu season, and you are entered to win raffle prizes. The prizes include gift cards to Macy’s, Best Buy, Target and Kohl’s.

I was curious. Maybe we could do something similar at our hospital.

I asked a button-wearer in the teacher's lounge whether or not she has increased her hand-washing habits as a result of the campaign. She shrugged her shoulders, and said, "Probably not any more than I normally did." Then she added, "But I sure would like that Macy's card."

That I should've known.