Hospitals Using Social Media – By the Numbers

The role of social media in health care is growing fast and doctors are getting increasingly more engaged with each other and with the patients they serve. A survey in June 2011 showed that an astounding 1,188 U.S. hospitals were officially involved in social media across 3,952 social networking sites.

Just for comparison, in October 2010, there were 890 U.S. hospitals on 2,337 social networking sites. That means that in just over six months, 298 new hospitals have started social media efforts and 1,615 new accounts have been created.

Put another way, there has been an approximately 70% increase in the use of social media platforms among hospitals in the U.S. so far this year.

Wow.

So, which states are the most engaged?

I did a quick analysis of the data to look at social media platforms per hospital, counting Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and blogs. I found that by that metric, the following states are most active:

Who would have though Arkansas, Vermont, and West Virginia would have the most social media savvy hospitals!

Being a Virginian, I’m a bit sad that of the 18 Virginia hospitals, only 1 has a blog. I hope that is simply a reporting error.

Clearly, there are other things to consider, also, when evaluating a social media presence. Just having a Facebook page, Twitter account, or a blog doesn’t mean a hospital is really doing social media.

It’s about engagement.

Engagement is tough to measure, and we’re just starting to get there in terms of measurability. But, I took a look at the data for Facebook pages for U.S. Hospitals so we could get a sense of where we are.

A survey of 1,074 hospitals in the U.S. with Facebook pages provided some results that showed increasing engagement on Facebook. In just one week in August, those hospitals had the following engagement:

According to aha.org, there are 5,759 registered in the U.S. And, just from this sample of 1,074 hospitals, there were  over 3.1 Million Facebook fans, so I imagine that the number for all U.S. hospitals would be up around 10 Million!

I think that is a pretty strong presence. And, this data doesn’t even include Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs) and VA Hospitals. These facilities are growing their presence as well and we are working to include that data.

Right now, based on this data, I think that Facebook is probably the easiest and most cost effective way to reach patients across the U.S.

But I will add that there’s sitll more work to be done. Even if hospitals did have a cumulative 10 Million fans, there are still 140 Million U.S. Facebook users out there who aren’t fans. I repeat, there are still approximately 140 Million U.S. Facebook users out there who aren’t fans of any hospitals. What an opportunity!

Thanks to Ed Bennet and UbiCare for making this data public!