Cast & Curious

Tag: social media strategy

  • How healthcare social media campaigns may improve provisions of health in a devolved health system

    The lack or ineffective social marketing strategy (supply side barrier) and lack of information on benefits and availment process (demand side barrier) are a few of the identified restrictions to the use of health services in complex decentralised health systems such as the Philippines.

    The Department of Health (DOH) is the lead agency responsible for the regulation and supervision of the country’s health system. It manages national policies, develops national plans and establishes health technical standards and guidelines to regulate the country’s health sector.

    The Local Government Code of 1991 devolved the provision of health services, particularly at the primary and secondary levels, through the local government units (LGUs). Hence, health service in the Philippines is managed through provincial, municipal and barangay local government offices. Provincial and district hospitals are the responsibility of provincial governments while the Rural Health Units (RHUs) and Barangay Health Stations (BHS) are managed by municipal government units.

    Complex internal developmental differences among geopolitical regions hamper provisions of health two decades after the implementation of the local government code. Less developed regions usually suffers most of the negative effects of institutional fragmentation. These least developed regions also is the least likely to recover or lags behind because it lack or poorly manages resources and is usually inefficient in allocating health resources.

    Cetrángolo et al identified supply and demand side barriers that restrict the use of health provisions in the Philippines. The lack or ineffective social marketing strategy and lack of information on benefits availment process are included in these restrictions. Grundy’s echoed the same observations in a local study.

    This author has practiced for more than ten years in areas with health units ran by local governments and in urban center with health institutions ran by DOH. While there are LGUs with efficient and effective local health councils who clearly benefitted from the devolution of health, other regions aren’t as fortunate. Case in point,  the WHO Safe Surgical Checklist.

    The WHO Safe Surgical Checklist 2009
    The WHO Safe Surgical Checklist 2009

    The WHO Safe Surgical Checklist is the single most cost effective way of minimising post operative complications reducing death and morbidity by at least 36% on the average. No other cheap, readily and sustainably implementable guideline (except maybe the handwashing guide) had so much impact on health as this checklist.  It has been incorporated into standard DOH standards operating room “toolset”, requiring every hospitals with operating rooms to incorporate such checklist in their standard operating room manuals. Yet many hospitals who have operating rooms rarely take advantage of this readily available and cheap guideline. Why is that?

    Cognisant of these complex problems, efforts has been made in the past two decades to either strengthen  or amend the local government code that devolved health provisions to LGUs. Bills calling for returning provisions of health back to the national lead agency (DOH) are now pending in the House of Representatives. It is not the purpose of this article to weigh the complex pros and cons of such amendments. Until such amendments or repeals are enacted into law, we have to deal with effectively delivering health down to grassroots level in the context of a decentralised health system.

    An effective social media campaign may narrow regional differences in the provisions of health and address the two barriers I mentioned at the start of this article.

    Join #HealthXPh this Saturday August 26, 2017 9pm Manila time as we discuss how a social media campaign may improve provisions of health in the context of a devolved health and regional developmental differences.

    • T1. Is there a role for social media as social marketing strategy for effective provisions of health in a decentralised health system?
    • T2. If you are the chief social media strategist what will your primary strategy be?Targeted? Regional? National?
    • T3. How would you measure the effectiveness of such healthcare social media strategy? Indicators? 

    Please give your final thoughts on ways by which social media could be a part (or not) of the social marketing strategy for health units or agencies in a decentralised health system like the Philippines.

    References:

      1. Cetrángolo,O., Mesa-Lago,C., Lazaro,G., Carisma,S. Health Care in the Philippines: Challenges and Ways Forward. 2013
      2. Grundy J1, Healy V, Gorgolon L, Sandig E. Overview of devolution of health services in the Philippines. Rural Remote Health. 2003 Jul-Sep;3(2):220. Epub 2003 Jul 1.
      3. Haynes, A.B., Weiser, T.G., Berry, W.R., Lipsitz, S.R., Breizat, A.H.S., Dellinger, E.P., Herbosa, T., Joseph, S., Kibatala, P.L., Lapitan, M.C.M., Merry, A.F.: A surgical safety checklist to reduce morbidity and mortality in a global population. N. Engl. J. Med. 360(5), 491–499 (2009)
      4. Atienza, Maria Ela L. 2004. “The Politics of Health Devolution in the Philippines: Experiences of Municipalities in a Devolved Set-up.” Philippine Political Science Journal 25 (48): 25–54.10.1080/01154451.2004.9754256

      

  • How should healthcare professionals respond to a medically related social media posting?

    If you were the medical professionals in these two examples, how would you respond to social media postings related to your actions?

    • Case # 1: A medical intern was captured on a cellphone video, was ate bedside of a patient, holding a phone on his left hand and a paper ( a referral letter? ) on the other hand. This video was posted on Facebook with a caption (in Filipino language) “Are all doctors like this?…My patient is near death and he still does this?”
    • Case # 2: A physician regularly conducting medical missions in one hinterland wrote several letters to local government authorities regarding the unusual prevalence of Hepatitis B in one tribe of local indigenous people. He asked for help to the same authorities for years. He related help never came from the government sector. As a last resort, he posted his difficulties on Facebook.  This Facebook postings did receive a ton of encouragement and support. What’s more scathing though is the few “negative comments”. The physician is clearly devastated.

    What’s common in these two examples?

    Trial by publicity spinoff

    First, the healthcare professional’s medical actions went public via a social media site. Second, while both healthcare professionals received encouragements and support, the negative comments hurt more in both cases.

    Negative publicity

    “Negative publicity” is one reason why healthcare professionals shy away from social media. Negative publicity take toll on personal and professional life. The reality is someone- somewhere and somehow, will post something about our medical actions online. It’s simply a question of “when”.

    Key components of a social media response

    A previous tweetchat about protecting online reputation summarises two key components of a social media response- a prompt but well thought out reply. A prompt, well thought out social media response could only come from a personal or institutional social network strategy.

    Social Media Response Strategy

    The recent spate of healthcare related negative comments online urges us to examine deeper these response strategies.  Vanderbuilt University Medical Center developed a Social Network Response Guide for healthcare professionals on how to respond to social media postings related to their profession. You can find that algorithm here.

    Dr. Iris Isip Tan adapted  this Social Network Response Guide for UPCM/ PGH in developing their own social media policy.

    vanderbuilt
    Vanderbuilt University Medical Center Social Network Response Guide as quoted and modified by Dr. Iris Isip-Tan for use of UPCM-PGH in developing their own social media policy ( Photo courtesy of Dr. Iris Isip- Tan)

    The end goal of this guide is for the healthcare professional to have a calibrated response using the strategy of transparency, timelines for thinking and responding, a more personal tone and credible sources.  How we implement this algorithm to our own specific case is one of the main goals of this tweetchat.

    Join us this Saturday July 9, 2016 9 PM Manila time as we discuss how should healthcare professionals respond to social media posting related to the profession
    Our aim for this upcoming chat is to provide template guides for healthcare professionals in responding to social media postings related to our profession.

    • T1: How should healthcare professionals respond if the social media post about him or her is “positive”
      T2: How should healthcare professionals respond if the social media post about him or her is “negative”
      T3: How should healthcare professionals act if you are not directly related to the social media post or posting is not within your area of expertise.

    Join the discussion via twitter, using the #HealthXPh in all your tweets, answering the above topic questions, from 9-10PM Manila time July 9, 2016.

  • Part II: Identifying Social Media Goals for Health Advocacy

    Let me make this clear first. I’m not a social media marketer. I’m a healthcare professional with the passion for healthcare social media.  As a healthcare professional, I want to improve healthcare in the Philippines. This is where social media fit in for me. I use social media to empower healthcare stakeholders. I’m making healthcare, social in the Philippines.

    Some of the concepts I’m using in this talk are straight out from social media marketers guidebook. I know these concepts sound  strange to people in the healthcare industry. Indulge me to borrow some terms from the marketers guidebook, if only to elucidate and achieve my goal for this talk- align social media strategy to advocacy goals and measure social media success. I promise to only give you the most basic and practical concept to guide you on formulating your advocacy’s social media strategy.

    Here are the steps:

    1. Identifying social media goals and aligning this with your advocacy goals.
    2. Deciding your niches or target population.
    3. Determining what metrics to use to measure your social media success.
    4. Deciding on what social media tools to use in achieving your goals.
    5. Determining tools to monitor social media success.

    Social Media Goals

    Social media goals can be categorize into three broad categories.  Brand awareness, lead generation and customer retention are social media goals that can be can be aligned with any advocacy goals. Brand awareness is aimed at generating more exposure for your brand/advocacy. The aim is more people recognizing your advocacy. Lead generation is about finding more advocates and opportunities for your advocacy. Its about getting converts to your advocacy. Customer retention is about keeping your present clients/advocates coming back for more. You can use social media to accomplish all these goals but it is difficult to do all three unless you have a large advocacy campaign budget.  My recommendation is to pick one goal to focus in the meantime. Usually achieving one goal leads to another.  Pick one that you know could demonstrate early success for your group and show this to your advocacy leaders. “Success”will encourage leaders to pour logistics to your social media campaigns.

    So how do you choose which one social media goal fits your advocacy? Let’s do the following activities:

    In the first activity, plot your existing social  media strategy inside any of the three circles of social media goals where you think it belongs. If you don’t have one yet, don’t worry. The next activity will help you build one . Note that any strategy may be placed in between circles if they fall for both or all of the three categories.

    SOCIAL MEDIA GOALS CIRCLE
    SOCIAL MEDIA GOALS CIRCLE

    The endpoint is to select one goal as your primary goal for social media. Also note that it is important to start with a goal that could potentially demonstrate early success.

    The next activity is to do a SWOT analysis of each of your advocacy’s  goals. Remember advocacy goals might be different from your advocacy goals

    SWOT Analysis
    SWOT Analysis

    Look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to all of these three goals. Prioritise your goals based on potential for short or long term success. Then, examine which of these goals would social media make an impact or demonstrate early success. This is basically how to align social media strategy with your advocacy goals

    In the next activity we will further break down these social media goals/strategy in a funnel to add value to our advocacy.