Wednesday, March 23, 2011

How much are Hospitals really using Social Media?

At HIMSS 2011, there was a big emphasis on social media in healthcare.  As an attendee to this conference I utilized the HIMSS social media presencse to stay in touch with daily events.  However, this began me thinking about how much hospitals are actually using social media and which of these tools are actually being used.  With this thought in mind I started collecting information based upon some common "Top Hospital" lists that are published on a yearly basis.

First off, I examined the list of the "Most Wired Hospitals" that was published by Health Forum for the year 2010 and was able to compile the following usage of social media tools.














Next, I reviewed the usage by the "Top Hospitals" as rated by LeapFrog for the year 2010 with the following results.













From these numbers it is obvious that social media tools are being used and especially by the "Top Hospitals" but how does this usage compare to the Top 100 Fortune Companies.  Per a survey conducted by SysComm the Top 100 Fortune Companies have the following usage of social media.

Fortune Global Companies use of Social Media

From a comparison perspective, the Top Hospitals are in alignment with the Top 100 Fortune companies when it comes to social media usage.  I suspect we will continue to see both hospitals and companies continue expand their use of social media tools as they figure out how it can help their respective business.