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Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award – How Social Media is Evolving

Baldrige_Award_LogoIt’s 2009… heck 2012… someone says social media and healthcare – what do you think? Here is what I suspect:

  • Marketing
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Waste of Time
  • HIPAA

Probably some other terms as well – but I think it is safe to say to this point social media has been relegated to the marketing and communications department within the hospital walls. We are starting to see other uses – a new reality:

  • Customer Service
  • Ratings & Reviews
  • Quality
  • Productivity

We need to really focus on how these new tools impact not only the marketing department but how we can use them to impact patient, employee, and physician experience. I was looking over the current criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award – Health Care Sector and it dawned on me. We have many hospitals around the country applying for this prestigious award. How many of those really use social media as outlined in the 2013-2014 Performance Criteria?

Check out the “revisions” for 2013-2014″

“In a series of communications, Baldrige Program Director Harry Hertz has shared that the 2013–2014 Criteria revisions focus on (1) innovation, (2) social media, and (3) work systems and work processes.”

Let’s review the areas called out in the application:

  • Senior Leadership [1.1.b.1] – Category 1 now ask how SENIOR LEADERS encourage frank two-way conversations with both PATIENTS and WORKFORCE though the effective use of social media
  • Voice of the Customer [3.1.a.1] – The original mention of social media from the previous criteria is found in Category 3. It ask how you use social media and web based technologies to listen to PATIENTS and other CUSTOMERS? Then past this how does it vary across the different stages of the consumer life cycle?
  • Customer Engagement [3.2.b.1] – New for this year Category 3 adds a question that solicits more detail on how you use social media to ENHANCE consumer engagement.
  • Measurement, Analysis, and Improvement of Organizational Performance – New for 2013-2014 is the addition of social media around measurement.
    • [4.1.a.2] – How do you use social media to benchmark?
    • [4.1.a.3] – How does the use of social media add to a patient focused culture?

SHI has begun to spend more and more time here. We have clients applying for this prestigious award and we also feel this shows the evolution of social media and healthcare. How does social media start to impact the senior leadership of your organization? We are starting to see just how that might look.

If your organization is applying for Bladrige we would love to hear from you.

/reed

Author Info

Reed Smith