Hospital and Corporate Blogging
Just the other day (Feb. 9, 2005), in my post Hospital Blogging Policies, I asked whether any hospitals or hospital libraries have created any policies or guidelines regarding blogging. Well, on eHealth (a blog and selection of RSS feeds devoted to eHealth and Healthcare Information Technology by John Sharp) wonders how corporate blogging policy apply in healthcare.
Blogging policies need to be created in health care primarily becasue of confidential information and HIPAA protections. Do the corporate blogging policies by Charlene Li of Forrester or Allan Jenkins apply in this context? Certainly avoiding conflicts of interest and citing sources are expected. Because of the litigenous nature of healthcare, extra caution must be taken. An avoiding activities which might interfere with work, especially for those providing clinical care is essential. So where are the positives of corporate blogging in healthcare? Certainly engaging in a dialog with healthcare consumers makes sense. Inviting comments - maybe. More to come on this in the future as these types of blogs are initiated.
Interesting to see that we (librarians) are not the only ones in healthcare looking at the value of blogs.
For John and others, here are some examples of blogging hospitals.
High Point Regional Health System -Offers patient blogs. The hospital introduced the blogs after hospital research showed that writing helps patients feel less anxious. Bloggs are reviewed to make sure it is relevant before posting it to the hospital's site. Readers can add their comments, patients can write about any negative experiences they have at the hospital, and they can post blogs from home.
Akron Children's Hospital -A blog by Ellen Kempf, M.D., director of the Oak Adoptive Health Center at Akron Children's Hospital, on her educational journey to a Chinese orphanage through this online diary.
WindberBlog- (link on left of the main page) The official weblog of F. Nicholas Jacobes, FACHE -President & CEO of Windber Research Institute and Windber Medical Center.
I wonder what kind of intranet blogs can be done at hospitals. Obviosly a blog from the CEO keeping employees informed would be helpful.
Here are some other ideas:
- HR blog during benefits enrollment time, or as other policies are created or changed
- Quality Management blog facilitating the achievement of hospital accreditations and other quality management programs
- Research blogs where labs share and update data
2 Comments:
Some excellent ideas on using blogging in healthcare. I think even more important than the privacy issues is the people that might not like what you have blogged. You have to be careful of what you say about who. People are very sensitive.
John
http://www.crashutah.com/emr
It would depend upon the nature of the blog. Blogs aren't always about opinions. They are a great way to inform people of events. I think blogs within the health care organization would fall into this category. But of course it would be up to the organization to create policies and guidelines as to the type of blogs allowed.
For example, something like an HR blog detailing changes in the benefits or policies. I know within my large hospital system sometimes rumors circulate about happenings at the mothership and how it might effect the other hospitals within the system.
In this instance communication through a blog might be beneficial.
I know if I were permitted to have a blog on my library's intranet page it would be completely different this one. It would be less opinionated and be more of a library news and information resource.
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