Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Post Your Prices Online - September 2013 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribe

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

Issue link: http://outpatientsurgery.uberflip.com/i/168873

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 27 of 154

OSE_1309_part1_Layout 1 9/6/13 12:31 PM Page 28 BUSINESS ADVISOR anything. Use a blog and social media accounts to push the personal information and negative reviews down where people are much less likely to find them. Patients will expect answers to medical questions. This concern manifests in 2 ways. One is a concern about the legal ramifications of discussing medical conditions online (see my next topic for my thoughts). The other aspect of this issue has more to do with boundaries. Many doctors fear patients will contact them through their sites or Twitter or Facebook and expect answers. Worse, those patients would expect those answers quickly. I think the question of boundaries for current patients is critical to decide before you start. There can be many benefits to choosing to interact with patients online. Examples include notifying patients of changes in office address or hours, offering answers to frequently asked questions and more. You might need to build in some kind of security system and ensure information gets into the patients' medical records. Many doctors and groups have their sites set up to allow this interaction. I choose not to use my blog or social media accounts for current patients. I make that clear on my contact page and in any answers I give if they do contact me. It is a personal decision that I feel is best for what I want to do online. Again, answer that question from the start. 3 Readers will ask for medical advice. It's true. As your platform grows, readers will ask you medical questions. I get 25 to 100 questions per week from all over the world. Almost all of them have seen an orthopedic surgeon already, which suggests we need to do a better job of explaining injuries and illnesses in our offices. 4 2 8 O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2013

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Post Your Prices Online - September 2013 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribe