Handling the News You Don't Want to Hear

Every day people say great things about your hospital or healthcare system. "They saved my brother's life", "They are some of the nicest people around", "We've had our babies there and it was a great experience". They say it in the grocery store, in church, during poker night, and at the salon. But, rest assured, a few people will say things you don't want to hear. They cite poor customer service, a bad clinical outcome, speak poorly of your billing department, or worse. When held to a simple one on one conversation the comments are minimally harmful, but in the world of social media they can be devastating. Depending on the forum (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc.) and the size of the audience these comments could go viral and be seen by thousands. And that is where you have to ensure that you are putting your best foot forward. In the world of social media you cannot control all conversations that mention your organization. But you can take the two critical steps to manage the situation: monitor and respond appropriately. We talk extensively about both monitoring and responding in our other blogs and literature on this Web site. But I do want to tell you about an example that scared me enough to want to share it. Recently, when looking for good examples of hospitals leveraging social media for a presentation I am making, I came across an unnamed organization’s social media page. This particular page does not look as if it is representative of the entire organization but probably managed by a department or service line. As is typical, the posts were mostly good stories about positive patient care experiences by happy patients and families. But a few were from disappointed patients and one, in particular, was from a person who was enraged by how she was being treated at the billing office. After several posts by the same enraged patient, the moderator raged back by telling her, "You've had your say on our page and now we are all tired of hearing about this. Please take your issues up with our billing department and any more posts here by you will be deleted!" Note that this was only one of many "loud" posts by the moderator on the site. While I am sure that the moderator was emotional and the organization was angry about having this content posted on the page multiple times, it showed a face of the organization that they likely did not want everyone to see. Without knowing all of the details of this particular situation, I blame it on oversight. I see it happen all of the time where a particular department or service line cannot understand why they can't have their own Facebook page or Twitter account and they forge out on their own, or worse, forge out with permission and no oversight. Owners of social media accounts must realize that with ownership comes responsibility. And part of that responsibility is making sure that they do not cross the line or put a bad face on the organization in front of potentially thousands of people. It's one thing to have a customer service misstep in front of a room full of patients. It's another to have a misstep in front of thousands of Facebook or Twitter followers. In writing. Writing -- that can be copied and re-tweeted to thousands of others. I am not discouraging the use of social media, but rather advocating a clear set of organizational rules, policies and procedures for dealing with social media and setting a bar for appropriately responding to potentially negative comments. This requires organizations to take a thoughtful approach and those desiring to engage social media must be willing to take on the responsibilities that come with a fully engaged social media presence. Hospitals without enforced social media rules face potential peril through the unauthorized and ungoverned communications of others.