Summary
In today's time, patients have
become more aware about their healthcare and are looking for those healthcare options
that can properly engage them towards delivering their responsibilities towards
the patients. Social media like Facebook and Twitter is considered of playing a
most important role in making people aware of the different benefits of
healthcare. Before internet came into existence, people would make their choice
of a right healthcare just by its reputation or after a recommendation from a
friend or proximity (Rozenblum & Bates, 2013). But now people can see the
review of a particular healthcare with the help of social media or through
other sites on the internet and then make an informed decision. Where people
have started making the best use of internet, healthcare companies have been
slow in this field. They need to start thinking about how to use the internet
in marketing themselves. Patients like to answer the different questions
related to their health online and choose their healthcare which best suits
them. This technology should be applied by all the healthcares to succeed in
the market. The public reports which are available on patients' personal
experience, have been a motivation for many healthcare providers and they have
become more oriented towards the care and good for the patients. Nowadays,
internet is used for everything from shopping to finding best restaurant in the
area. Along with that people even use this medium as the most effective way in
finding the best healthcare provider for themselves (Rozenblum & Bates,
2013). Facebook is playing a very important role when it comes to delivering
healthcare information, like exact data about the different facilities that the
healthcare is providing. Blogs have even become a powerful tool in providing
health information as well as engage them with their care. There are many
websites which also allows the customers to describe their experiences with a
particular healthcare provider and also allow them to rate according to the
treatment that they got from a particular healthcare provider. The customers
can also leave their comments and reviews on those websites. This has spread
awareness among people and most of them do refer to these reviews before
contacting a particular healthcare provider. This also helps them to improve
their quality and serve the patients at their best. But this should also be
kept in mind that the ratings as well as reviews may have many flaws and biases
(Rozenblum & Bates, 2013). So, further investigation should be done to
assess the reliability of these healthcare providers. There are many data which
is on the heath related events and on different diseases which has been
efficiently tackled by a particular healthcare provider. These data have been
very useful in further work towards the treatment of those diseases. This
information which are acquired through the internet as well as social media have
become of major value to the public. This has also helped the healthcare organizations
as well as to the possible regulatory bodies in assessing the healthcare
provider (Rozenblum & Bates, 2013). Although it is unlikely for them to
replace more traditional surveys of patients, they will definitely add to the
present surveys which could help them to identify any poor care along the
outstanding performance of the healthcare provider. These internets have made
such a place in human life that existence without it has become impossible.
With the passing years the internet is becoming more users friendly and is full
of such resources which could help a person on his day-to-day life.
REFERENCE
Rozenblum, R., &
Bates, D. (2013). Patient-centred healthcare, social media and the internet:
the perfect storm? BMJ Quality &