Dr. Katherine Cretian wrote an excellent op-ed piece in USA Today on the potential risks of a physician becoming Facebook friends with a patient.
It’s a dangerous two-way street. Would you want your patient to have access to your personal pictures and comments from your friends? Conversely, is it wise for you, as a physician, to have access to your patient’s private life? How would you feel if your patient told you they never touch alcohol, but you find a picture of your patient drinking?
Facebook is an absolutely inappropriate forum for a doctor and patient to be discussing personal medical issues due to privacy concerns (e.g., HIPAA).
At a practice level, Facebook can be an inexpensive marketing tool to your current patients. From your personal profile, you can easily set up a page for your practice. Patients can become a fan or “Like” your page. Once a patient connects to your practice, the practice’s status updates will appear in your patients’ news feed.
Remember: It’s social media.
We’ve seen many medical practices post “practice news” such as specials, holiday hours, or seasonal reminders (“Come get your flu shot.”) While these can be in the mix, remember, people join Facebook to share and interact with others. Letting me know that you will close early on Friday does not invite interaction.
We recommend a mix of messages that could include quick health tips, contests for prizes, local news, local restaurant shopping or family fun recommendations, staff news and photos. These add value to your patients’ Facebook experience and encourage interaction. More importantly, this humanizes your practice and keeps it top of mind with current patients.
If voluntary patient referrals is an integral part of your new patient acquisition strategy, then you will benefit from building a healthy online community in Facebook.
Here are a couple of examples of pages we “like”:
Regions Hospital
Children’s Hospital Boston
Newport Urgent Care (WFD client)
