Health Care Study: Using Social Networks to Discuss Conditions with Fellow Patients

About one-third of Americans who go online to research their health currently use social networks to find fellow patients and discuss their conditions.

According to a new Issue Brief by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions, "Public, Internet-based social networks can enable communication, collaboration and information collection and sharing in the health care space."

In the brief, “Social Networks in Health Care: Communication, Collaboration and Insights,” they also report that 60% of physicians and 65% of nurses are interested in using social networks for professional purposes.

"Social networks hold considerable potential value for health care organizations because they can be used to reach stakeholders, aggregate information and leverage collaboration."

Read the full document (PDF).

Healthcare: Government Web Sites Outperform Priviate Sector

Government websites outperformed private sector Web sites in a healthcare benchmark report released by ForeSee Results. Nearly 40,000 visitors were surveyed on healthcare websites during the month of October, 2009.

Key Findings

• Government healthcare sites outperform all measured private-sector industries. In aggregate, government healthcare sites (79 on a 100-point scale) are performing better than any other category of healthcare site measured in the ForeSee Results benchmark. Pharmaceutical Web sites come in at a close second with an aggregate score of 78. Hospital Web sites score 73 in aggregate, and health insurance Web sites trail substantially, with an aggregate score of 64.
• A satisfied online customer is a valuable, profitable customer for healthcare organizations. Public image is only one reason why healthcare companies should be concerned with online customer satisfaction. Highly satisfied online customers are significantly more likely to become repeat customers, purchase more services, use the Web site as a primary resource, and recommend both the company and the website. Because customers purchase additional services and recommend that their friends and colleagues do the same, improving the online experience leads to increased revenue and cost savings.

Why Should Web Sites Care About Visitor Satisfaction
On average, when compared to less satisfied site visitors (satisfaction of 69 and lower) highly satisfied Web site visitors (80 and higher) are:

• 139% more likely to return to a Web site
• 169% more likely to recommend the Web site
• 153% more likely to use the website as their primary resource for interacting with a healthcare organization, instead of using more costly channels like call centers or office locations.

"Health insurance companies have the most room for improvement and also the most to gain from focusing on the customer experience, because improvements can directly and quickly impact their bottom line," said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results. "Meanwhile, because of a long and focused effort on online satisfaction over nearly a decade, government-run healthcare Web sites are leading the pack and provide a positive example of how focusing on the customer experience has tangible results."

Read the full report 2009 Healthcare Benchmark (PDF) from ForeSee Results.

How The Mayo Clinic Uses Social Media

Lee Aase's presentation at the Community 2.0 conference in San Francisco discusses Mayo's efforts to use social media to increase brand awareness. Lee is the manager of syndication and social media of the Mayo Clinic.

Since word-of-mouth was found to be the top source of information influencing preference for the Mayo Clinic, extending this to social media was the logical next step.

The presentatin includes claims such as “Total Cost for Mayo Clinic Facebook, YouTube and Twitter $0.00.” that overly minimizes the time cost of employees to develop and maintain their online efforts.

Energizing Word of Mouth through Social Media

View more Microsoft Word documents from Lee Aase.