Centre for Health Communication and Participation, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia.
La Trobe Rural Health School, La Trobe University, Bendigo, VIC, Australia.
Int J Health Policy Manag. 2022 Oct 19;11(10):2287-2298. doi: 10.34172/ijhpm.2021.151. Epub 2021 Nov 3.
Social media can be used to engage consumers in hospital service design and quality improvement (QI) activities, however its uptake may be limited by a lack of guidance to support implementation. This article presents the perceived barriers and enablers in using social media for consumer engagement derived from an interview study with public hospital stakeholders.
Semi-structured interviews with 26 Australian hospital service providers and consumer representatives. Data were analysed using a deductive content analysis method.
Data were collected between October 2019 and April 2020. Facebook was the platform most commonly used for consumer engagement activities. Barriers and enablers to social media-based consumer engagement were identified. The barrier themes were (1) fears and concerns; (2) lack of skills and resources for social media engagement; (3) lack of organisational processes and support; and (4) problems with social media platforms and the changing social media landscape. The enabler themes were: (1) hospitals facilitating access and use; (2) making discussions safe; (3) cultivating a social media community; and (4) building on success.
Using social media to facilitate consumer engagement in hospital service design and QI activities is feasible and acceptable to service providers and consumers. Hospitals and their executives can create a supportive environment for social media-based engagement activities through developing clear governance systems and providing training and support to all users. Consumers need to be involved in co-designing social media-based activities and determining which forms of engagement are accessible and acceptable. For some consumers and service providers, barriers such as a lack of resources and distrust of social media companies might mean that social media-based engagement will be less acceptable for them. Because of this it is important that hospitals provide complementary methods of engagement (eg, face-to-face) alongside social media-based methods.
社交媒体可用于吸引消费者参与医院服务设计和质量改进（QI）活动，但由于缺乏实施支持的指导，其采用可能受到限制。本文从访谈研究中得出了公众医院利益相关者对使用社交媒体吸引消费者参与的感知障碍和促进因素。
对 26 名澳大利亚医院服务提供者和消费者代表进行半结构化访谈。使用演绎内容分析法分析数据。
数据收集于 2019 年 10 月至 2020 年 4 月。Facebook 是最常用于消费者参与活动的平台。确定了基于社交媒体的消费者参与的障碍和促进因素。障碍主题包括：（1）恐惧和担忧；（2）缺乏社交媒体参与的技能和资源；（3）缺乏组织流程和支持；（4）社交媒体平台问题和不断变化的社交媒体环境。促进因素主题包括：（1）医院为访问和使用提供便利；（2）使讨论安全；（3）培养社交媒体社区；（4）基于成功建立。
使用社交媒体促进消费者参与医院服务设计和 QI 活动对服务提供者和消费者来说是可行且可接受的。医院及其管理人员可以通过制定明确的治理系统并为所有用户提供培训和支持，为基于社交媒体的参与活动创造支持环境。消费者需要参与共同设计基于社交媒体的活动，并确定哪些形式的参与是可访问和可接受的。对于一些消费者和服务提供者来说，缺乏资源和对社交媒体公司的不信任等障碍可能意味着他们对基于社交媒体的参与不太接受。因此，医院提供社交媒体和面对面等互补方法的参与方式非常重要。
