Roy Lilley (@RoyLilley) writes:

Some organisations think a Twitter account is a management bugle, an extension of the house news-letter or an advert in a magazine. It’s not. Corporate Twitter (and I include the NHS) can be a notice board but more, it is about opening up a channel to listen. 

How about the NHS? Sort out your organisation’s #hashtag and put it on the wall in the lavatories and say; ‘If this place is clean, Tweet it. If it’s not Twitter about it, here’s our #hashtag. If the practice waiting room isn’t up to much, if the receptionist was fabulous or off-hand, if the doc’ was happy or humpy, #hashtag. If the experience on the ward wasn’t right Tweet it at #hashtag. If it was great; #hashtag.

Yes, yes, I know; not everyone has a smartphone. But a lot of people do and there are 10m Twitter users in the UK. Nursing has a huge community of users. There is seldom a silver bullet to fix problems but this can be part of a silver buckshot solution to real time knowledge of what the punters see, experience and think.

The trick to making this work is for the most senior people in the organisation to monitor their #hashtag. They don’t have to reply, that’s the job of the organisation’s fixer (Every place should have one). But it is the job of the organisation’s bosses to be across what is happening and they can be – in real time. A couple of complaints about the same smelly bog warrants a personal visit. A Twitter pic of an inedible meal deserves a personal look. A compliment deserves a pat on the back.

If we really are serious about ‘engaging with the patient’ (which, in English, means listening to the customers who, through their taxes pay for all this) then we really have to make it easy for them to tell us.

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