How can healthcare providers engage patients online? Social media is one vehicle that can be particularly beneficial for providers — including ambulatory surgery centers and endoscopy centers — going forward.
Here are five things to know based on an infographic from HIT Consultant:
1. Three out of four adults with a smart phone use the phone for location-based searches to find recommendations or reviews. Around 4.8 billion people own a mobile phone.
2. Facebook has around 158 million users in the United States, and 23 percent of people use social media to follow their friends' health experiences.
3. Almost all — 90 percent — of people age 18 to 24 years old trust the information they find on social media; 56 percent of the people age 45 to 64 years old trust information on social media.
4. Around 80 percent of internet users look online for healthcare information. The search breakdown includes:
• Diseases: 66 percent
• Medical treatments: 56 percent
• Doctors: 44 percent
5. In 2012, health related searches were up 47 percent on Google over the year before.
6. Eighty-one percent of people clinic on sponsored links looking for health information.