title: Use of social media by Western European hospitals: longitudinal study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients increasingly use social media to communicate. Their stories could support quality improvements in participatory health care and could support patient-centered care. Active use of social media by health care institutions could also speed up communication and information provision to patients and their families, thus increasing quality even more. Hospitals seem to be becoming aware of the benefits social media could offer. Data from the United States show that hospitals increasingly use social media, but it is unknown whether and how Western European hospitals use social media.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify to what extent Western European hospitals use social media.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this longitudinal study, we explored the use of social media by hospitals in 12 Western European countries through an Internet search. We collected data for each country during the following three time periods: April to August 2009, August to December 2010, and April to July 2011.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We included 873 hospitals from 12 Western European countries, of which 732 were general hospitals and 141 were university hospitals. The number of included hospitals per country ranged from 6 in Luxembourg to 347 in Germany. We found hospitals using social media in all countries. The use of social media increased significantly over time, especially for YouTube (n = 19, 2% to n = 172, 19.7%), LinkedIn (n =179, 20.5% to n = 278, 31.8%), and Facebook (n = 85, 10% to n = 585, 67.0%). Differences in social media usage between the included countries were significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social media awareness in Western European hospitals is growing, as well as its use. Social media usage differs significantly between countries. Except for the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, the group of hospitals that is using social media remains small. Usage of LinkedIn for recruitment shows the awareness of the potential of social media. Future research is needed to investigate how social media lead to improved health care.
authors.affiliation: Radboud REshape and Innovation Centre, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Nijmegen, Netherlands. t.vandebelt@reshape.umcn.nl
authors.forename: Tom H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Van de Belt
authors.forename: Sivera A A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Berben
authors.forename: Melvin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Samsom
authors.forename: Lucien J L P G
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Engelen
authors.forename: Lisette
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schoonhoven
mesh_terms: D005060:Europe; D006739:Hospital Administration; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*