{"id":761,"date":"2011-09-01T13:50:33","date_gmt":"2011-09-01T13:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leedscd.wordpress.com\/?p=761"},"modified":"2011-09-01T13:50:33","modified_gmt":"2011-09-01T13:50:33","slug":"improving-the-nhs-the-role-of-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2011\/09\/01\/improving-the-nhs-the-role-of-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving the NHS – the role of social media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly\u00a0everyone I speak too recently has a horror story to share about their experiences with the NHS. \u00a0And\u00a0nearly\u00a0everyone has a fairy tale to tell as well.<\/p>\n

For several decades now I have been contracted by various parts of the NHS at different times to provide management development and leadership training, to run assessment and development centres, to develop standards for the board of NHS trusts, to turn HR teams into\u00a0organisational\u00a0development teams and so on. \u00a0And for just about all of that time the training has been done against a permanent backdrop of policy and structural changes that makes real\u00a0learning\u00a0almost impossible.<\/p>\n

So it was with some interest that I read about some work that the National Health Service Social Media Group<\/a> had been doing to explore the potential of social media to transform healthcare. Recently this group have been talking about how the use of video cameras by patients could provide feedback to drive service development.<\/p>\n

I love the idea of social media being used to report on both the good practice and the bad. \u00a0To shine a spotlight on all that we love and hate about how healthcare is delivered.<\/p>\n

But, until we we build a culture where such data can be collected, analysed, reviewed and acted upon by experienced clinicians and managers with the time and resources to provide\u00a0excellent\u00a0management and leadership we run the risk of finding ourselves with ever more tearful and frustrated health professionals.<\/p>\n

And I suspect that it would be the failures and lapses that would get the attention and the resources. \u00a0A culture of name and shame is\u00a0unlikely\u00a0to work in the long run. \u00a0And what would it do to the relationship between patient and staff? \u00a0Do we really\u00a0want\u00a0patients to be policing\u00a0their\u00a0own healthcare experience? \u00a0They can recognise and film obvious lapses of protocol and procedures, but the more subtle stuff? \u00a0And, do we really\u00a0want\u00a0service providers to change what\u00a0they\u00a0do just\u00a0because\u00a0someone is pointing a camera at them?<\/p>\n

At its best great healthcare is\u00a0delivered\u00a0as a partnership between clinicians and patients. \u00a0I find it hard to see how this partnership can really\u00a0thrive\u00a0when when one party is busy filming the other.<\/p>\n

It may have a role in driving out bad practice – but I am not convinced that it can ever drive excellence.<\/p>\n

As Deming has shown us the road to excellence is reached by driving out fear, not by increasing it.<\/p>\n