Pablo Medina Aguerrebere's research while affiliated with Canadian University Dubai and other places

El brote de COVID-19 ha empujado a los hospitales a trabajar de una manera diferente (cibersalud, redes sociales, aplicaciones móviles) y enfrentar diferentes desafíos (noticias falsas, marcos legales, falta de recursos humanos y materiales). Muchos hospitales no pudieron integrar las iniciativas de comunicación corporativa en sus planes de crisis, lo que les instó a varios problemas relacionados con la desinformación, la falla en los procesos internos, las quejas legales de los pacientes y algunas muertes evitables. Este artículo analiza cómo los hospitales deben gestionar la comunicación corporativa para mejorar sus procesos internos, proteger su marca y enfrentar futuras crisis de una manera más eficiente. Para ello, realizamos una revisión bibliográfica sobre las estrategias de comunicación corporativa de los hospitales, sus iniciativas para enfrentar el COVID-19 y su uso de las plataformas de redes sociales. Por último, presentamos un Decálogo de Comunicación para orientar a estas organizaciones en la gestión de la comunicación corporativa a largo plazo. Concluimos que los administradores de hospitales deben utilizar la comunicación corporativa como una herramienta de gestión para promover la salud pública, acelerar la transformación digital del hospital, mejorar los procedimientos internos y fortalecer la reputación y credibilidad de su marca como fuente de conocimiento científico.

Using mobile apps as a corporate communication tool helps hospitals to improve their health education initiatives. This paper aims to analyze how these organizations can use mobile apps to implement health education initiatives addressed to patients. To achieve this, we conducted a literature review (health education, mobile apps, role of doctors and patients), and we resorted to using 38 quantitative indicators to evaluate how the 100 best hospitals in the United States manage mobile apps for implementing health education initiatives addressed to patients. Our results prove that 95% of hospitals displayed general mobile apps for patients, but just some of these organizations proposed mobile apps for patients suffering from non-communicable diseases, including: heart diseases (9.47%), cancer (7.37%), chronic respiratory diseases (3.26%), and diabetes (3.16%). We concluded that hospitals should create a department specializing in designing mobile apps that are adapted to patients’ medical and social needs, and that are also consistent with public health priorities.

Cancer patients face complicated situations from an emotional, social and physical perspective. Hospitals help them through implementing corporate communication initiatives based on social media platforms. This win-win relationship allows hospitals to reinforce their brand reputation. This paper aims to better understand how cancer hospitals manage social media platforms for enhancing their brand as well as their relationships with stakeholders. To do that, we carried out a literature review about corporate communication in health organizations, as well as a content analysis about how the top 100 American cancer hospitals managed their corporate website as well as their corporate profile on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube for branding initiatives. Finally, we proposed the Reb Model for Branding Cancer Hospitals. We concluded that thanks to social media, cancer hospitals can reinforce their brand because these platforms allow them to promote human values, improve their internal processes and become a true source of scientific information.

Cancer hospitals resort to social media platforms to make their corporate communication initiatives more dynamic and this way better satisfy their stakeholders’ needs in terms of medical information and emotional support. Nevertheless, these organizations also face different barriers such as new patients’ medical demands, legal issues, privacy or the difficulty to disseminate scientific content. To overcome these barriers, more and more hospitals integrate social media platforms and artificial intelligence-based tools into different medical protocols, and this way they proposed to patients a unique medical service, which positively impacts on patients’ satisfaction and the hospital’s corporate reputation. This literature review paper aims to analyze how artificial intelligence and social media platforms used in an integrated way help cancer hospitals to implement more efficient corporate communication initiatives in order to build a more reputed brand. To do that, we conducted a literature review about cancer hospitals’ corporate communication strategies, social media platforms and artificial intelligence in cancer hospitals; and then, we proposed ten managerial implications for helping cancer hospitals use both insights (social media and artificial intelligence tools) for building a reputed brand.

Introduction: Hospitals face a constantly changing context that leads them to accelerate their digital transformation: cyberhealth, new business models, global competition, etc. In this framework, social media platforms have become a useful tool for transforming hospitals and enhancing their public image. Objectives: This paper aims to analyze how the world’s best hospitals manage social media platforms to disseminate brand related content and this way reinforce their reputation. Methodology: To do that, we carried out a literature review about health communication, social media and brands; then, we analyzed how the world’s 100 best hospitals managed their social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube) as well as their own corporate websites for promoting their brand; and finally, we proposed different managerial implications. Results: Most hospitals resort to their corporate websites (76%) and corporate profiles on Facebook (78%), Twitter (73%) and Youtube (78%) for branding initiatives. Conclusions: Hospitals should prioritize a corporate communication approach, focus on useful content for each stakeholder, and promote learning sessions for helping employees become brand ambassadors.

This paper aims to evaluate how Canadian hospitals manage Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and their own corporate websites to promote their brand and reinforce their strategic positioning. We carried out a literature review about corporate communication, branding and health organizations; and then, we defined 48 key performance indicators to analyze how the best 85 Canadian hospitals managed Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and their corporate website for promoting their brands. We concluded that most Canadian hospitals used their corporate website for disseminating journalistic information; Facebook and Twitter, for interacting with patients; and Youtube, for publishing videos about health education.

Implementing an efficient corporate communication strategy has become a priority for all hospitals interested in building a meaningful brand. To do that, most of these organizations resort to social media such as Facebook, Twitter or Youtube. Thanks to these platforms, hospitals improve and dynamise their relationships with stakeholders, especially patients, employees and media companies. This literature review paper aims to better understand how hospitals should manage these platforms in order to build a meaningful brand based on human values. To do that, we conducted a literature review about different concepts such as corporate communication, brand, social media, and reputation; and, based on this research, we proposed an online communication model aiming to help hospitals build meaningful brands (Medpac Reputation Model). We concluded that hospital organizations should implement professional protocols to analyze the information gathered from social media, prioritize a public relations approach and ban all marketing-related initiatives, and, finally, conduct constantly different research initiatives about the health market.

La comunicación hospitalaria tiende cada vez más a maximizar los beneficios de la gestión de redes sociales y su engagement. Para lograr este objetivo, es clave el estudio analítico. Con el objetivo de establecer recomendaciones centradas en optimizar la estrategia de contenidos en las redes sociales de hospitales e identificar elementos de mejora, se presentan resultados obtenidos con la ayuda de diversas herramientas analíticas aplicadas a una muestra de centros hospitalarios de Alicante (España). Con base en el registro actual de la base de datos ObservaTICs, son descritos los perfiles de Facebook y Twitter, utilizando ratios para la medición del engagement y a través de la revisión del tráfico de sus páginas web. En conclusión, se observa que los centros, si bien pueden mostrar diferencias en cuanto a su actividad y calidad de contenido, requieren una planificación y control de las redes sociales para comunicarse con sus públicos, sus stakeholders y facilitar información útil sobre asuntos de salud que repercute en la reputación de la propia institución y especialmente en la salud de los mismos pacientes. En el futuro es probable que se incremente este tipo de comunicación mediante contenidos enfocados a reforzar los vínculos paciente-médico, así como paciente-hospital.

La implantación de las redes sociales como una herramienta de comunicación institucional, las nuevas exigencias de los pacientes y la mayor competencia entre hospitales han obligado a estas organi­zaciones a repensar sus estrategias de comunicación. La creación de una marca reputada que ayude a consolidar el posi­cionamiento estratégico de la organiza­ción en el mercado sanitario se ha con­vertido en una prioridad estratégica para todos los hospitales. El objetivo de este artículo de revisión bibliográfica es ana­lizar el impacto que tiene en la construc­ción de la marca hospitalaria la comu­nicación interpersonal que el profesional de la salud mantiene en las redes sociales con los stakeholders del hospital. El ar­tículo propone un modelo de promoción de marca basado en la comunicación interpersonal que realiza este profesio­nal en las redes sociales y concluye que los hospitales que desean construir una marca reputada deben tomar medidas económicas y de management, instau­rar planes de comunicación y fomentar la colaboración entre profesionales de la salud y de la comunicación. Hospital Brand Promotion Through InterpersonalCommunication Maintained by Health Professionals on Social Media The implementation of social media as a corporate communication tool, the new demands of patients, and greater competition between hospitals have led these organizations to rethink their communication strategies. The creation of a reputed brand that helps an orga­nization to reinforce its strategic positio­ning in the health market has become a strategic priority for all hospitals. This literature review paper aims to analyze the impact on hospital brand construc­tion of the interpersonal communica­tion between health professionals and the organization’s stakeholders in social media. This paper proposes a model of brand building based on the interper­sonal communication carried out by these professionals in social media, and concludes that hospitals that want to build a reputed brand must take eco­nomic and management measures, implement communication plans and promote collaboration between health professionals and corporate communi­cation experts.