Correlations Between Hospitals’ Social Media Presence and Reputation Score and Ranking: Cross-Sectional Analysis

Abstract

BackgroundThe US News and World Report reputation score correlates strongly with overall rank in adult and pediatric hospital rankings. Social media affects how information is disseminated to physicians and is used by hospitals as a marketing tool to recruit patients. It is unclear whether the reputation score for adult and children’s hospitals relates to social media presence.ObjectiveThe objective of our study was to analyze the association between a hospital’s social media metrics and the US News 2017-2018 Best Hospital Rankings for adult and children’s hospitals.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the reputation score, total score, and social media metrics (Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram) of hospitals who received at least one subspecialty ranking in the 2017-2018 US News publicly available annual rankings. Regression analysis was employed to analyze the partial correlation coefficients between social media metrics and a hospital’s total points (ie, rank) and reputation score for both adult and children’s hospitals while controlling for the bed size and time on Twitter.ResultsWe observed significant correlations for children’s hospitals’ reputation score and total points with the number of Twitter followers (total points: r=.465, P<.001; reputation: r=.524, P<.001) and Facebook followers (total points: r=.392, P=.002; reputation: r=.518, P<.001). Significant correlations for the adult hospitals reputation score were found with the number of Twitter followers (r=.848, P<.001), number of tweets (r=.535, P<.001), Klout score (r=.242, P=.02), and Facebook followers (r=.743, P<.001). In addition, significant correlations for adult hospitals total points were found with Twitter followers (r=.548, P<.001), number of tweets (r=.358, P<.001), Klout score (r=.203, P=.05), Facebook followers (r=.500, P<.001), and Instagram followers (r=.692, P<.001).ConclusionsA statistically significant correlation exists between multiple social media metrics and both a hospital’s reputation score and total points (ie, overall rank). This association may indicate that a hospital’s reputation may be influenced by its social media presence or that the reputation or rank of a hospital drives social media followers.

Online Ratings of Urologists: Comprehensive Analysis

“…Further, the use of social media pages (eg, Facebook) can be an effective method of managing online reputation. Indeed, social media presence, such as Facebook followers, has been shown to correlate with US News and World Report reputation score [29]. Finally, utilizing noncommercial PRWs can also be valuable because the percentage of positive comments has been shown to be higher on health systems’ online review websites when compared to commercial PRWs [15].…”

Online reputation management by cancer hospitals: A systematic literature review in the USA and Spain

“…Implementing branding campaigns to improve reputation constitutes a priority for many hospitals in terms of medical service, management, and financial performance (Triemstra;Poeppelman;Arora, 2018). When hospitals enjoy a positive reputation among stakeholders, most patients trust the company because they associate it with high-quality medical care (Mira;Lorenzo;Navarro, 2014), which, in turn, influences their decisions to recommend the hospital to other patients (Noar et al, 2018).…”

“…This platform allows hospitals to revitalize corporate communication (Boudewyns;Hansen, 2015) and become sources of medical information about treatments and diseases (Park; Reber; Chon, 2016). On Twitter, hospitals can build a brand community and reinforce a patient's social needs, such as their emotional support or social integration (Triemstra;Poeppelman;Arora, 2018). On the other hand, health professionals also participate in these communities and integrate Twitter into their daily life to improve the medical services offered to patients (Antheunis; Tates; Nieboer, 2013).…”

“…Facebook has become one of the most important social media platforms used by cancer hospitals to improve their online reputation (Triemstra;Poeppelman;Arora, 2018). Health professionals resort to this platform to communicate with cancer patients about six main topics: (a) the cancer journey, (b) the emotional strains associated with caregiving, (c) awareness about pediatric cancer, (d) fundraising, (e) research support, and (f) gratitude for support (Gage-Bouchard et al, 2017).…”

Dünyada ve Türkiye’de Sağlık Hizmetlerinin Dijital Pazarlanması

“…Dünyadaki en iyi hastaneler sıralamasına sosyal medyayı en iyi kullanan hastaneler girmektedir. (Triemstra, Poeppelman, & Aror, 2018) Amerika'da HealthOntheNetFoundation Code gibi arama çubukları ve sosyal medya bireylerin özel bilgileri, eczanelerin bazı bilgilere ulaşması gibi sorunlar oluşturabilmektedir. ICANN gibi sağlık uygulayıcıları dijital sağlık uygulamalarını güvenilir hale getirtmek için çalışmalar yapılmıştır.…”