New resources, with Ontario case examples, show the way: eToolkit, 1st dynamic directory of healthcare social media users in Canada, and 2-part guide with field-tested takeaways from CAMH and Providence Healthcare

"The benefit of directly listening to patients and involving a diversity of voices is the opportunity for insight into the lived experience of the people that we're providing service to. It's very difficult for someone to sit in a boardroom and decide how best to deliver care and services to a population."
--Rob Fraser, RN, & member of the project's advisory council--

The Change Foundation and the Health Strategy Innovation Cell have released the second installment of a suite of timely, interactive resources for healthcare organizations to help them better understand social media - its potential and limitations -- and prompt them to use these tools to capture and improve the patient experience.

The resources include Using social media to improve the quality of patient experience: A Guide to Current Practice and Future Promise, and an eToolkit hosted by The Innovation Cell. They are the result of a two-year collaboration that included work with Ontario field partners, The Centre for Mental Health and Addiction (CAMH), Canada's largest mental health and addictions teaching and care delivery institution, and Providence Healthcare, a Toronto-area teaching hospital specializing in rehabilitation and geriatric care. The Change Foundation funded the project and worked closely with the Health Strategy Innovation Cell and its advisory council throughout the unique initiative.

New resources shared today:

Using social media to improve the quality of patient experience, Part 2 - Exploring Two Case Examples and Imagining the Future, offers practical takeaways for organizations using or thinking about using social media in their quality improvement efforts. Over 10 months, the Innovation Cell worked onsite with the field partners to test the possible intersection of social media and efforts to improve the quality of patient/caregiver experience. Before the project, both organizations were just testing the social media waters. Afterwards, both reported a much greater understanding of the implications and opportunities presented by social media and increased capacity to make well-informed and strategic decisions about its uptake. Both organizations moved quickly to reflect and build on what they gleaned.

Susan Pigott, the VP of Communications and Community Engagement from CAMH, said her organization has used what they've learned to advance and enrich their plans for uptake: "We applaud The Change Foundation and The Innovation Cell for encouraging healthcare organizations to think about the ways in which social media can improve engagement and drive quality improvement. This is an area of great interest to CAMH and our participation in this project helped us learn much more about existing tools and methodologies for tracking and making sense of the information being conveyed. We now have a clearer idea of how to proceed to play an appropriate role in the dialogue."

Practical takeaways for healthcare organizations:

• Plan to integrate social media strategically. Try it out in a prudent and phased approach - across divisions, units, programs - wherever it can help the organization meet its goals.
• Target your online "listening" strategies to understand and engage with different audiences.
• Move from a "numbers model" (e.g. counts of web hits) to a "relevance model" in measuring online engagement, using a variety of free or paid tools that can inform you about trends in online conversations about issues important to your organization.
• Use social media tools for collaboration among your staff, to foster discussion and innovation about ways to improve the organization's service delivery.

e-Toolkit Canada's first open and user-editable directory, hosted by The Innovation Cell.

The e-Toolkit holds all the content from the guide and will host real-time updates on what's trending in discussions in the field. It includes Canada's first open and user-editable directory of healthcare organizations using social media. The resource, which integrates social media tools, will allow healthcare organizations in Canada and abroad to collaborate with like-minded organizations to share 2.0 learning. "This site is a great leap in closing the gap between patient knowledge and provider organizations, check it out," tweets ethnographic researcher Mette Terp Hoybye, from Standford University, (Palo Alto, California) in response to the work.

Also see new video views from partners and participants reflecting on key project learning and the promise and potential of social media to improve patients' healthcare experience.

Front-row insight from our CAMH field partner:

• Manuel Gitterman, Director of Operations, Policy, Education & Health Promotion, Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH)
  And,
• Pat Campbell, CEO, ECHO: Improving Women's Health in Ontario
• Rob Fraser, RN, Founder, Nursing Ideas & Commissioner, National Expert Commission at Canadian Nurses Association
• See all interviews

Previously released:

Part 1, Introduction and Key Issues in the Current Landscape, includes scans of the fast-changing social media environment. For the social media novice and initiated alike, the guide reports on how healthcare organizations are using social media, probes the link to quality improvement, features leading practices, opportunities and limitations, and addresses head on issues such as privacy, data control, ethics, and return on investment.

See previous video views from partners and participants: Melanie Barwick, Cathy Fooks, Neil Seeman, Tom Sommerville.

Learn more. http://www.changefoundation.com

Are you using social media to improve health-care? Join the Twitter discussion on this new release: #hcsmca.

For more information:
Anila Sunnak
The Change Foundation
asunnak@changefoundation.com
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