Why is my hospital not on your list?

Update Feb 26, 2009 – I’ve thought about this over the past few days, and what I said in this post makes no sense. Obviously, I was  wrong – if  Paul Levy isn’t an official spokesman for BIDMC then no one is.

Paul – I apologize for not thinking clearly on this.  Your blog is on the list, it should have been there from the beginning.

(Update Jan 25, 2009 – BIDMC has a new Twitter account)

Earlier today, John from Chilmark Research posted a question about the Hospital Social Network List:

“Curious though in how you define a hospital’s presence. For example, BIDMC here in Boston is not listed on Twitter, yet CEO Paul Levy and CIO John Halamka both have Twitter accts, As spokespersons for this hospital, would they not then be consider using Twitter as an institution”

It’s a good question, and the Levy / Halamka twitter accounts are the strongest challenge to my primary listing rule:

The account must be the “Official” presence of the Hospital on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.

A personal account, no matter how prestigious, is not the same as the institution standing up and getting involved in social networking. I created this list for a very small, specific audience – the people who run hospital web sites. These folks are working hard to get their organizations engaged with the web in a way that goes beyond traditional marketing.  This list is ammunition for them to show this is not something new, that over 150 hospitals use these tools.

I admire the blogs and twitter updates of Paul Levy and John Halamka, they are truly leaders in this space, but it’s not the same as an official  BIDMC presence.

On the other hand, I think a well-defined restricted list has value, and will complement lists that are more open. (Like the one from Dawson Costelloe)

As always, your comments are welcome.

Tagged as: facebook, Hospitals, social networks, twitter, youtube