MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. McKinley Glover IV,  MD, MHS                                       Department of Radiology Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Glover: An increasing number of hospitals and health systems utilize social media as a way to connect with healthcare consumers. The simplicity of social media as a healthcare information resource—in comparison to more challenging and conflicting modes of public reporting of healthcare quality data—may add value for consumers seeking to make healthcare decisions. The correlation between ratings on social media and more conventional hospital quality metrics remains largely unclear, raising concern that healthcare consumers may make decisions on inaccurate or inappropriate information regarding quality. The purpose of this study was to determine whether hospitals with lower readmission rates were more likely to have higher ratings on Facebook than hospitals with high readmission rates. The study found that hospitals in which patients were less likely to have unplanned readmissions within the 30 days after discharge had higher Facebook ratings than were those with higher readmission rates. “Since user-generated social media feedback appears to be reflective of patient outcomes, hospitals and health care leaders should not underestimate social media’s value in developing quality improvement programs.” (more…)