Social Media Management for Hospitals

Does your hospital have a social media presence?

I remember a time when the image of our hospital was that of "the hospital of last resort" for patients in life-threatening conditions when more often than not, doctors could not longer do anything because the patients are referred too late... I've heard of monikers like "The Mona Lisa Hospital" because they lie there and they die there.  However it was the COVID-19 pandemic that accelerated the hospital's social media presence due to daily updates on patient census and the emphasis on quality data management as well as transparency and accountability.

Creating a social media account for the hospital is both a privilege and a great responsibility.

When our hospital first created an official Facebook account in 2018, people were always posting their complaints and even wishing that the government close down the hospital.  However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we need to do what we can to intensify public information dissemination and to use what we have.  So we started Facebook Live sessions, and The Sotto Live Productions was born with its first ever broadcast on March 25, 2020 hosted by Dr Helen Madamba and Atty Rey Cris Panugaling with our very first guest Dr Van Philipp Baton from the Department of Health Central Visayas Center for Health Development, discussing responsible social media use.  Initially planning to conduct these sessions once a week, there was pressure to provide updates on a daily basis.

Later on, the hospital hired designated communications team to manage internal and external communication of the hospital.  It put pressure on data managers to ensure quality and accuracy in the information posted on social media accounts of the hospital.  It allowed the patients and stakeholders to peek into the hospital activities and to be more aware of the real situation on the ground to adjust their behaviors appropriately, but it also allowed supporters to provide feedback to the hospital for areas for improvement.

T1.  Do you think hospitals should have a social media presence?  Why or why not?

Social media has a lot of benefits connecting patients and their healthcare workers together despite geographic barriers and quarantine issues during the pandemic.  Patients are able to join virtual communities, consult with their healthcare providers and even participate in research.  Healthcare workers use social media to promote patient health care education.

T2.  What are the risks and benefits of hospital social media accounts?

#HealthXPH has always promoted healthcare providers to have a social media presence and advocated for hospitals to develop their own social media policies.  Dr Iris Isip-Tan helped author the social media policy for their hospital, but for those who also want to do the same, this needs to be adapted and approved by the hospital administration, disseminated to the entire staff with corresponding penalties for violations.

T3.  What tips can you give for social media management of hospitals?

Join us tonight on #HealthXPH at 9PM MLA time to discuss about social media management for hospitals!

Use of Social Media by Healthcare Professionals

Public Health Education and Promotion. When COVID-19 crisis hit Cebu City sometime in March 2020, I personally felt frustrated that most of the infomercials online educating the public about transmission of the novel coronavirus was in Tagalog. Not everyone could understand Tagalog. This was a hindrance for me since I had yet to learn how to speak Cebuano. So I challenged Atty Rey Cris Panugaling to create a program to educate the hospital employees as well as our patients on what COVID-19 was, how it is transmitted and what the Department of Health and our own hospital was doing about it - to gather public support for frontline healthcare workers.

Since then we've aired more than 100 episodes of our SOTTO LIVE FB program to connect healthcare workers with patients and their families... and I learned to speak conversational Bisaya or Cebuano, the local dialect!

SOTTO LIVE has evolved to different shows on a daily basis with Debunking Myths on Mondays, Mental Health Check on Tuesdays, The Doctor is Here on Wednesdays, SOTTO NATIN 'TO on Thursdays and SOTTO LIVE Reports on Fridays.

Teaching, Learning and Patient Care. Today the Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society (POGS) Committee on Information, Communications and Technology launched its #virtualPOGS webinar 1.0 as a guide on how to behave online as well as how to access the society's website in preparation for our annual convention.

Moving Forward. I look forward to my own lecture for #virtualPOGS WEBINAR 2.0 of the POGS Committee on Information, Communications and Technology on September 10, 2020 from 10:00 am to 12:00 nn. This will be the FIRST TIME for me to give a lecture to a National POGS audience, and it's on social media! Do support me please!

Health Professional Education. Last week, we were required to attend a workshop on how to use google classroom for our medical students: how to create a class, how to add students, how to make assignments as well as quizzes. Amazing how programs like these make checking student work and grading them easy as a peach! It seems the faculty (and parents of students) have a more difficult time adjusting to online classes compared to students themselves!

 

During last year's #HCSMPH2019 keynote speaker Jojo Fresnedi spoke about social media being the medium of this era. We realize that #HealthXPH has long identified that social media is here to stay and that we aim to make the impact of social media on healthcare a positive one, where healthcare workers, policy makers, students and patients can connect and have online conversations on healthcare.

How has the new normal forced you and those around you to embrace digital technology?

How do you use social media today?

Who do you follow on social media for guidance and why?

Healthcare Provider Engagement in Public Health thru Social Media

A few days ago, we concluded our quarterly maternal-perinatal statistics - a coordination meeting jointly organized by the VSMMC Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Department of Pediatrics, in coordination with the Department of Health.

In the past five years of specialists reaching out to peripheral referring hospitals and institutions, we have seen an improvement in maternal and neonatal service delivery thru the reduction of total admissions and maternal deaths in the apex hospital and the improved functionality of the DOH-retained and provincial hospitals.

Looking at the website of the Department of Health, there are several health programs from A to Z. These are programs meant to improve the health-related quality of life of the general public. Listening to the discussion among DOH health officials, there seem to be a lot of challenges with implementation of these programs, including governance, monitoring, evaluation, research and policy development.

T1. Cite challenges with implementation of public health programs.

In 2018, the AMSA-SOMA (a student organization of the Cebu Institute of Medicine) organized the Public Health Forum 2018 where medical students in Cebu were exposed to the possibility that all healthcare providers whatever their chosen field, can engage in public health - whether in research and epidemiology, health financing, policy development, specialist clinical practice, or rural health development. The following year, medical students were exposed during the Public Health Forum 2019 to the concept of private-public partnership, the role of corporate sectors in health, upcoming the universal health care, macrofinance in healthcare systems, health research and development, and the role of social media in healthcare.

T2. How can healthcare providers engage in public health?

Rosemary Thackeray observed in 2012 that social media use by public health agencies is still in the early adoption stage. Pushing the idea of "click to brick" of continuing online conversations to action plans offline, we may also consider augmenting face to face collaborations for public health programs to improve connectivity between stakeholder online. Public health programs can benefit from healthcare providers engaging with patients and stakeholders on social media.

T3. Can you cite public health programs that might benefit from social media campaigns?

USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE MATERNAL HEALTH

How do we keep our mothers from dying?

Reducing maternal mortality was one of the millennium development goals (MDG) which the Philippines was not able to meet, despite all the government funds allotted for programs and intervention.  In our own local professional society, more than 90% of maternal deaths occur in the overcrowded congested government hospital.  Many of the patients present too late to prevent death. Hypertensive complications and hemorrhage is the most common causes of death. 

In response to the MDGs, the Department of Health (DOH) issued Administrative Order 2008-0029 “Implementing Health Reforms for Rapid Reduction of Maternal and Neonatal Mortality” which provides for several interventions in the Maternal, Newborn, Child Health and Nutrition (MNCHN) program including the Essential Intrapartum and Newborn Care (EINC, also known as Unang Yakap or First Embrace), Lactation Management trainings (LMET), Basic Emergency Obstetric and Neonatal Care (BEmONC) among other programs.  We wonder if any of these efforts are making a dent in improving maternal care.  Health policy groups have studied ten years of Philippine health service delivery and have shown very minimal change in health statistics across all programs.

During a regional conference on research and innovation, we came across the RxBox which contains a blood pressure apparatus, a fetal monitor, maternal tocometer and other functions all rolled into one.  This is expected to empower healthcare workers in hard to reach place with the diagnostic abilities of higher levels of care.  How has this been employed in our communities?

In this era of research, innovation, information communication technology and social media, what other technologies are available which we have not yet maximized to reduce maternal deaths and improve maternal health in your area?

What are the challenges to maternal health in your area?

What technologies are available to improve maternal health?

What is the role of social media in improving maternal health?

Parents' Presence on Social Media

The 3rd Healthcare and Social Media Summit was held in Marco Polo Hotel in Cebu City organized by the #HealthXPH in coordination with the DOST-PCHRD.

"The solution to pollution is dilution."  This was the message of keynote speaker Marie O'Conner, who encouraged healthcare professionals to have a presence on social media to support patients' need for proper medical information, considering that patients are now empowered to turn to the internet for support.

In the same manner that healthcare professionals are encouraged to be online because patients are online, parents are encouraged to also have a social media presence because their children are active on social media.  The youth tend to post online their feelings and emotions, and parents should be able to identify signs of depression to determine what help their children need.

There was a post being shared a few weeks back on facebook which read "if your mother has facebook and she doesn't comment in 15 minutes, she owes you PHP1,000..."  This message proves a point that some parents create facebook account to be able to follow their children and remain connected.  Not a bad idea.  In this day and age where everything comes and goes and life passes with dizzying speed, social media is a way to be connected.

Therefore, parents should be on social media because that is where your children are.

Watch out for the next posts on pearls of wisdom about the healthcare social media summit.

The Role of Social Media in Child Participation Rights

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN CHILD PARTICIPATION RIGHTS

November has been declared as National Children's Month!  The Passage of Repulic Act No. 10661, a consolidation of House Bill 1641 and Senate Bill 332, declared November of every year as National Children's Month.  It was approved by President Benigno S. Aquino III on May 29, 2015.

1. The rights.  

In 1989, governments worldwide adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, also known as the CRC or UNCRC.  This convention has changed the way children are treated - as human beings with a distinct set of rights.  UNICEF has published a child-friendly summary of these rights.  Article 12 reads that "Every child has the right to have a say in all matters affecting them, and to have their views taken seriously". 

In Cebu, The Share A Child Movement Inc has worked with child rights advocates on room-to-room campaigns in schools to spread awareness on the right of the child.  There are many other child-centered NGOs in the Philippines, advocating not only for child rights protection but also for child involvement in governance.

2. The real situation.  

There are a lot of stories from news articles that abound regarding violations of the inherent rights of the child. There are reports about children videotaped performing indecent acts. Some articles discuss facts on human trafficking in the Philippines.  There have been success stories about Cebu bar owners convicted for qualified trafficking of minors for sex. However, sexual abuse has moved to a different environment, as sex offenders are now online engaged in webcam sex tourism.  Sweetie, is a 10-year old virtual Filipina girl who posed on video chatrooms to entrap pedophiles and sex predators across the globe. This kind of crime "requires a new way of policing". 

Child trafficking is real in the Philippines. Many crimes go unreported because victims lack information on human trafficking, crimes are concealed by victims and violators, or families of victims accept the situation as normal.

3.  Prevention is key.  

The Church also participates in National Children's Month.  This year’s National Children’s Month focuses on child participation rights, with the theme “Bata, Kasali ka, Ikaw ay Mahalaga!" (Child, you are included, you are precious!) It aims to highlight the right of the children to express their views, to be heard, and to actively participate in matters that affect them.

4.  How do children actively participate in matters that affect them?

The major events and activities for National Children's Month Celebration include zumbata, discussion on violence against children, story books for children and talent showcase of children.

For the government, the theme for this year is “Komunidad at Pamahalaan Magkaisa, ang-aabuso sa Bata, Wakasan Na!” (Community and Government unite to end child abuse!) which highlights protection from all forms of violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and discrimination and to encourage stakeholders to promote as well as advocate protection of children at the family, schools, community, institution, organization and other settings.

Share you own ideas on how to promote children's rights and prevent child abuse. 


In what ways can children be involved in decision-making on matters that affect them?
What challenges that hinder children from claiming their rights?
What is the role of social media in promoting child participation rights?

Team work makes the Dream work: #hcsmPH, the "tweet child of mine" perspective

Imitation is the highest form of flattery.  I would think that acknowledgement of that imitation is even better. I am Dr Helen Madamba, a newbie blogger.

I remember locating my friends on Friendster during my college days.  We used to keep in touch through yahoogroups where our email inboxes would be filled with long discussion threads.  By 2008, I slowly switched to Facebook.  In this era of social media, I am more familiar with Facebook, and it was thru Facebook that I first heard about HealthXPH – a group of doctors who tried to video conference online on Google Hangouts on Air (HOA) as early as January 2014.  It was @cebumd Dr Narciso Tapia who told me about twitter, and that I would need a twitter account to join the weekly #HealthXPH tweetchat as they shifted from Google HOA to twitter. 

Dr Helen Madamba, Newbie Twitter.

It was in August 2014 during the 8^th Philippine National Health Research System Week celebration at Radisson Blu in Cebu that I opened my brand new twitter account.  The first person I sent a tweet message to was the @endocrine_witch Dr Iris Thiele Isip-Tan whom I met for the first time that day. 

After that, I started joining the weekly tweetchat.  I quickly got hooked to the mental stimulation in a non-threatening environment.  Everybody is courteous and friendly with one another, each tweet message styled in diplomatic terms, and strategically direct to the point in 140 characters.  After virtually waving hellos to one another and welcoming new guests, a flurry of tweets on the selected topic for the week are exchanged and in no time one hour passes by quickly.  Others continue to linger and debate finer points during the discussion. It’s quite difficult to make them stop and nobody says “time’s up!”

By September 6, 2015, an event was posted on Facebook which introduced the idea of a Health Care Social Media Summit 2015.  There were no details yet on registration fee, venue, topics or speakers – but I instinctively knew that I would be attending, so I hit the “going” button.  Dr Buboy Tapia later laughingly admitted that I was the very first person to join.

I assume that it is due to this overenthusiasm that by January 10, 2015, I had the honor of being a guest moderator for the #HealthXPH tweetchat! We discussed a topic close to my heart – youth! Everybody pitched in to help me develop my chosen topic, so we discussed “Addressing healthcare issues on children’s/teenager’s access to social media”.  Feeling a wee bit anxious and a lot excited, I greeted each person as they joined in the discussion, fast typed to follow the tweets, and then viola!  From a technologically handicapped “I don’t know what twitter is” person, I became an energetic supporter of the #HealthXPH four founders.  I suppose this is the reason why I was the person given the great honor of telling everyone about their story and how #HealthXPH began.

A Series of Fortunate Events.

The endocrine witch describes the creation of #HealthXPh as A Series of Fortunate Events.  Dr Iris Tan and Dr. Gia Sison had been active on Twitter with the #hcldr tweet chat.  She posted on Facebook that she wished to attend http://www.doctors20.com/ in Paris. Dr. Remo Aguilar (@bonedoc) asked “why not have our own Philippine conference?” A week later, Dr Remo posted about how to become a Google Hangouts hotshot. What followed was a flurry of posts from Iris, Gia and Remo which spilled over to Twitter. And then the hashtag was born … #HealthXPh.

Dr. Remo documented on his blog what #HealthXPH is:

• It’s a collaborative effort of healthcare stakeholders – healthcare professionals, institutions, academe, patients and policy makers.
• It will discuss, use and continually push the boundaries of social media and other emerging technologies in healthcare to impact the Philippine health landscape. 
• It encourages collaboration and application of emerging technologies to improve delivery of healthcare.
• It is open and free to all the stakeholders.  It aims to educate all the healthcare stakeholders.
• Social media is going to impact Philippine healthcare. #HealthXPh wants to make it a positive one.
• Social media and other emerging technology is making it easier for patients to access their healthcare professionals, institutions and policy makers. #HealthXPh will give insights on how to effectively manage this upsurge.
• Social media opens new possibilities to participatory medicine practice in the Philippines. #HealthXPh is taking advantage of that. 

The program for the HCSM Summit read:

“#HealthXPh is a regular weekly tweet chat organized by Dr. Remo Aguilar, Dr. Gia Sison, Dr. Iris Thiele Isip Tan and Dr. Narciso Tapia. Registered on Symplur under the Healthcare Hashtag Project, this tweet chat discusses the impact of emerging technology and social media on healthcare, bringing together not only healthcare practitioners and patients from the Philippines but a global audience as well. “

Learning all about impressions, I am impressed by the “reach” of what we were doing.  We were building a community.  We were protecting the public’s need for accurate real time posts and advocating ethical behaviour online.  #HealthXPH reached 300+ million from January 1, 2014 to February 19. 2015.  Just imagine how powerful this is as a tool for health promotion and advocacies!

By December 2014, we were planning the summit in earnest, confirming speakers, coordinating with sponsors, encouraging online registration and blasting promotions on social media (of course!) and I found myself right smack in the middle of organizing with my online family.  Even during the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges (APMC) Annual Conference in Davao, social media was presented as new innovative technique to aid medical education.

The First Meeting: A Historic Moment

At last, all four founders physically in one place at the same time.  For a national summit, it was quite amazing that #HCSMPH was organized without the organizers ever meeting until the night before the event.  Take note: they had to exchange cell phone numbers before their flights, in case they would not have internet connection enroute!  Meeting up for dinner at STK ta Bay! and for last minute slide preparations and coordination, this historic first photo of the #HealthXPH founders was taken – one for the books!

I knew I signed up for the summit, and declared that I’m game for anything.  In all truth, it was only during that first meeting the night before that it was clear to me what I was expected to do.  It finally dawned on me how I became the “tweet child of mine” – the first sprout from the original four founders.  At the summit, I explained what #HealthXPH was about and how a series of fortunate events led to the First Healthcare Social Media Summit 2015 and Social Media and Medical Professionalism: A Manifesto from #HealthXPh signed by PMA President Dr. Minerva Calimag, our mentor Dr. Ted Herbosa, PCP President Dr. Tony Leachon, our import from Canada Mr. Pat Rich, and all other friends and classmates.

                   

A whole day of tracks where people insisted on a chance with the microphone to ask their all-important questions on use of social media for health promotion, the legal and ethical issues on social media, patient stories, and role of social media in health professional education and research. There was no dead space. There was no need of planted questions at all!  After the adrenaline rush we just wanted to stay seated to conserve our energies: the first official family photo of #HealthXPH with this tweet child of mine, was taken at the conclusion of the Healthcare Social Media Summit 2015.

My UST classmates had a lot of different suggestions for me - still considered a newbie in the field of social media.  YouTube video uploads, blogging site, website, facebook page, instagram…. I’ll get there someday, one step at a time.  A week after the hcsmPH, people were still talking about the summit, most especially during our post-summit Saturday night tweetchat where the numbers say we had 7,676,490 impressions in one hour!

As promised, I launch this blog as minimum requirement for the future plans and dreams, the next big project of #HealthXPH.  Finding an apt title seemed difficult, but I stuck with “Sleepless in Cebu” because I’ve always been having difficulty sleeping at night, and I hope that writing this blog would help – instead of counting sheep, I will count stories.  Stories that keep me awake at night, and stories that motivate me to wake up in the morning.  Henceforth, I am sincerely,

Dr. Helen Madamba, newbie blogger, Sleepless in Cebu.