Shutting Down Social Media? An Enlightened Point of View
I’ve often touted Paul Levy’s “Running a Hospital” blog as the best in the business, and last week he cemented that position IMHO with his post on blocking social media. We’ve written about that before, but Levy offers the highly credible point of view of a hospital CEO.
We argued in our post back in early September that social media constitutes a basic form of communication that many hospitals and health systems are trying with their own audiences, so it didn’t make sense to block that communication from your own employees. Levy takes it a step further by saying that blocking such media inhibits the growth of community and discourages useful information sharing:
Any form of communication (even conversations in the elevator!) can violate important privacy rules, but limiting people’s access to social media in the workplace will mainly inhibit the growth of community and discourage useful information sharing.
Some argue that staff will waste time on social media. If that’s the concern, and managers aren’t able to properly manage their people to ensure they meet their goals and get their work done, then you should remove telephones from their offices as well. After all, I’ve known plenty of people who wasted away the day chatting with friends and family.
Thanks to Paul Levy for playing a leadership role on this issue. If you haven’t read his post, or don’t read his blog, we highly recommend it. He’s an enlightened and refreshing point of view on a wide range of topics of importance to healthcare.