By Leanne Drown

You may have heard about Dr. Alexandra Thran, who was fired from Westerly Hospital last year for posting information on Facebook about a trauma patient she’d seen that day. Thran’s posting did not include the patient’s name, but she wrote enough that others in the community could identify the patient. Dr. Thran was reprimanded by state regulators, ordered to pay a $500 administrative fee and must attend a continuing education course.

Dr. Thran’s story is one of many like it, and something that could happen to one of your doctors if they’re unaware of the rules & regulations for interacting with social media. While the FDA has yet to release official guidelines on social media, a simple social media policy can help to protect your employees and your practice in the meantime. If your medical practice doesn’t yet have a social media policy for your employees, it’s time to think hard about this example and get writing. Here are the 9 most important parts of an easily-understood, clear social media policy for your practice:

1. Introduction: Let your employees know why you have decided to write this policy and encourage them to engage on social media as long as they follow the guidelines.
2. HIPPA: Above all, patient information must remain private. Instruct your employees not to share ANY patient information without written permission from the patient.
3. Conduct: Remind employees to be respectful and professional to fellow employees and adhere to your employee code of conduct.
4. Questions: Clearly state who can be contacted with any questions, and remind your employees that “if they have a question about whether or not they should post something, the answer is no.”

Personal social media use

1. Friending patients: Be clear as to whether or not your employees are allowed to become friends with patients of your practice on their personal social media pages. It is generally recommended that patients not befriend (or accept requests from) current patients.
2. Disclosure: Instruct your employees to clearly disclose their relationship to your company if communicating publicly about your company. 
3. Disclaimer: Instruct your employees to use a disclaimer if they publish a blog, post a comment, or share an image that has something to do with your company. e.g. “The postings on this site are my own and don’t represent the positions, strategies or opinions of my employer.”

Company social media use

1. Posting on behalf of your practice: Be clear about whether or not employees are allowed to post on your company blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, etc on behalf of your practice. If you decide to allow them to post, create clear guidelines for content.
2. Interacting with your practice: Make sure to include a section about how employees are allowed to engage with your practice on its social media sites. Tell them if they’re allowed to post photos on your page, tag your company page in their posts, etc.

Follow Leanne on Twitter at @leannedrown or contact her at leanne@massmediacc.com.

Paula Yakubik, managing partner of MassMedia Healthcare Marketing, discusses the importance of having a website, how it can streamline your practice, tips to keep in mind when building a website, and the impact that utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) can have on your website.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   1. How important is it for a medical practice to have a website?

It is vital that in today’s information-driven society all medical practices have an online presence. Before launching any formal marketing plan, you should establish this presence. More and more Americans are turning to the Internet to do their research, comparisons and decision-making.

According to a recent study done by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, in 2010 approximately 61 percent of American adults looked online for health information. Physician practices that integrate an Internet strategy into their overall marketing plan have a better chance of achieving success. Your patients and customers are online looking for information and providers. If you are not there, they will seek out a second source. A well-planned, informative site that is easy to navigate will benefit both the physician and patient.

 2. How can a website help a medical practice cut costs?

A good website can help any practice save time and money. A useful website will cut down on the number of phone calls into your practice by including information such as directions to the office, hours of operation, frequently asked questions, and links to healthcare information that website visitors may find helpful. A medical practice’s website should also include downloadable patient forms that patients can fill out prior to their appointment.

3. What are some key tips to keep in mind when building a website?

First, your healthcare website should be geared towards making your potential patient’s decision easier and both potential and loyal patient’s experience better. Content drives action. The content on your physician website should be built specifically for your target audience. Tell them a story about your services and your practice that they can relate to. What visitors really want is content that first describes the problems they face and then provides details on how your practice solves these problems.To do this, you need to know your audience well.

Next, hire a professional consultant. I know most of you have a cousin or a sister who can throw together a website, but if you are going to do it, do it right. Find a consultant that specializes in healthcare, understands how to market to a specific target audience and clearly understands how a website can increase your practice’s patient volume.

It is also important to remember that all marketing initiatives should be strategically integrated into your site and should ultimately tie back into the website as it can assist in tracking and measuring the success of marketing tactics.

4. What is SEO?  Does every website need to have it?

Your website should be one of your practice’s greatest marketing tools. If your customers go online looking for your product and services and they can’t find your website, they will seek out another provider or another source. Even worse, what if they type in keywords specific to your practice and your website does not come up. What’s the point of a great website, if no one can ever find it?

It’s no longer enough just to have a great website. It needs to be created and formatted correctly so that your potential customers can find it. We believe if your website does not rank or appear on the first page of a search on Google, Bing or Yahoo, that you are losing potential customers.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies work to get your practice placed on the first page of searches by utilizing keywords your customers are typing in to find you. Web developers and programmers specialize in SEO services. They work with each of the major search engines everyday to make sure they are up-to-date on their unique specifications and that they have a keen understanding of what is new and required of our customers to land on page one. 

Great SEO will increase traffic to your site, which will increase the opportunity for your practice to gain new patients.  

Paula Yakubik is a partner with MassMedia Healthcare Marketing. You can follow her on Twitter @Pyakubik. She can be reached directly at (702) 433-4331 or paula@massmediacc.com.  

Heidi Hurst, MA is the Director of the Northern Nevada Immunization Coalition (NNIC). She talks to MassMedia about the implementation and success of their 2010-2011 flu vaccination marketing and public relations campaign.

Heidi has more than16 years of experience in nonprofit program management. She joined NNIC in 2007 and has since lead the coalition in fiscal partnerships, strategic planning and project management. Heidi specializes in coalition building and advocacy.

How has your experience been using MassMedia’s services (scope of work, outcomes, etc.)?

Overall it has been great. MassMedia’s response has been really fast, which was important to this campaign. The campaign wouldn’t have worked without it. Also, even though there were people in the Vegas office working on the campaign and people locally in Reno working with us, everything felt seamless and ran smoothly.

Why was it imperative to create a marketing outreach campaign for the influenza vaccination?

We wanted to create something new that hadn’t been seen before. The problem with flu season is that it’s always the same message, delivered in the same way and people stop listening. We wanted to give people the message in a new and fun way.

What elements did this campaign include and were they effective?

We thought the billboards were really effective. We received several comments on them. They were colorful and well placed which made them stand out. The blog was also something we received good feedback on and that was nice since it was something new for us. We also liked partnering with the banks in rural areas. It was a great opportunity for regional outreach and it worked. The rural communities were supportive. From publishing stories in the local paper to handing out collateral, it really helped out.

Describe some of the feedback you’ve received in response to the InFLUence Others: Get Vaccinated campaign?

Our coalition members really liked the campaign, which was important to us. We do an annual strategic planning survey and through this we received really great feedback on the campaign, better than we have on previous campaigns. Our coalition members are not marketing people, so if they saw, liked and responded to the campaign that’s a really good sign. They are a sample of the general public who we also received comments from here and there at events.

Also, the campaign was well branded. I just think the play on the title, tagline, the t-shirts, and everything all came together nicely. The fact that the campaign has won an ADDY Award is a testament to that. We have also submitted the campaign to the National Influenza Vaccine Summit and hope to be hearing back from them soon.

What was your favorite part of the entire campaign?

I thought having people hold the “I Can InFLUence” sign and taking pictures of them was a lot of fun. We posted these pictures on Facebook and they were well received. The Facebook flu shot application was also a great element and I was surprised to see how many were sent, it was a lot! Our Facebook fan base and interaction definitely increased during this campaign. We have never had the opportunity to incorporate social media in that way or to that extent, and it was a lot of fun!

What was the biggest challenge for the campaign and do you think it was overcome?

The biggest challenge was the timeline. I remember thinking when I was writing out the RFP that it would be tough, but everyone at MassMedia really stepped up and did an incredible job with it. We basically had everything designed, done and ready to print within the first week; I have never had that happen before.