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Earlier this month, the Ponemon Institute released the Second Annual Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy and Data Security, which details the results of their research into the underlying causes and potential repercussions of medical data breaches in the healthcare industry. The study reports that data breaches in healthcare organizations are on the rise, posing greater risks to patient health and pushing the average economic impact to approximately $2.2 million per breach.
There are, however, additional expenses that the healthcare industry incurs beyond a drop in the quality of care and the dollar value of lost productivity, legal fees and administration expenses.
The negative impact of a data breach can diminish healthcare brand reputation, tarnish perception and lead to precipitous declines in patient goodwill. As the report indicates, this can result in patient loss (churn), which healthcare organizations desperately try to avoid considering the lifetime value of a customer is $113,400 and rising. The current economic downturn has accelerated a push for healthcare efficiency and has revived the urgency to reform a badly broken system that is rife with waste and fraud, especially in government-sponsored entitlement programs. More consumers are sitting up and taking notice of mistakes and errors.
The parallel rise in digital communication channels and social media platforms has propelled information sharing among consumers to new levels in our culture, amplifying our voices and rapidly spreading the word about the problems with modern healthcare. Online forums, Twitter tweet chats, blogs, article comments and many other forms of communication have transformed consumers into reporters and journalists who are able to rapidly share their own stories and experiences with mass audiences across the digital landscape. In the past it was possible to quietly sweep cases of medical data breaches under the rug. Today, these stories, their damages and the effect of data breaches on healthcare consumers are shared and spread to thousands or even millions of people across the globe, further damaging healthcare's already precarious reputation.
In an effort to promote transparency, create positive PR and foster goodwill among their community, more healthcare organizations are creating communication platforms for consumers to voice their concerns, express their opinions and share their stories to demonstrate willingness to listen, engage and react. Proactive communication and transparency builds trust and in the rising era of sales and loyalty being driven by peer reviews, healthcare in the aggregate would be wise to quickly adopt this strategy if they intend on building relationships with their customers that last a lifetime.
Consider this. According to a report released earlier this year by hospital research firm YouGov, a hospital's social media connections would strongly affect their decision to receive treatment at that facility. The report goes on to say that:
- 57% of those polled said that a social media connection with a hospital was likely to have a strong impact on their decision to seek treatment at that hospital.
- One in four consumers said that they are likely to connect with hospitals in the future.
- Those most likely to connect are women between the age of 36 and 64.
- 81% of consumers believe that if a hospital has a strong social media presence, they are likely to be more cutting edge, creating a halo effect across clinical functions.
Medical data breaches are a bane to the healthcare industry's reputation and a serious detriment to the goal of building relationships with lifetime customers, especially if the incident is the result of lackadaisical internal security measures or inadequate staff training on how to properly store and access patient records. Moreover, if a healthcare facility does not have the proper social communication framework in place to immediately acknowledge and take responsibility for the error, apologize, and assuage patient anxiety, then patients will step up in the vacuum and talk about the breach and its negative effect. This spreads negativity and possibly false information that could be brand detrimental and irreversible. If healthcare organizations don't steer the communication ship to acknowledge errors and possible repercussions, someone else surely will.
The time has come for healthcare to tighten the screws on patient medical record safety and embrace communication transparency if a problem occurs to build stronger, more trusting relationships with their community.
John Trader is the public relations and social media manager for M2SYS Technology, a biometric research and development company located in Atlanta, GA.
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