Last week, I called my doctor’s office to reschedule a check-up and was placed on hold for 9 minutes before speaking to the appointment desk.  NINE MINUTES.  While waiting for assistance, I contemplated hanging up and trying again, but my stubbornness outweighed my annoyance.  (Apparently, I’m more patient than most:  According to a study by one physician practice, 65% of patients placed on hold would hang up within two minutes.  Furthermore, 90% would hang up after four minutes.)

Listening to 540-some-odd seconds of soft rock hits from the ‘80s further solidified my opinion that all medical offices should at least be able to manage nonmedical issues via the Web in some form or fashion.  While my doctor’s office has used electronic medical records for years, it is behind the times when it comes to patient communication.  More and more, doctors are using Facebook and email to interact with patients.  Personally, I try to keep my Facebook friend roster strictly social:  No parents, bosses (sorry, Carol!) or clients allowed – and now, no medical professionals either.  But while I won’t be ‘friending’ my doctor on Facebook any time soon, I would love to be able to communicate online with the practice about administrative issues such as billing and appointments.  I’m convinced that online access would lead to greater office efficiency and an improved patient experience. 

So the next time I’m in the market for a new doctor, you can bet I’ll be adding “Web-friendly” to my list of criteria.

This summer, Coleman, the outdoor-equipment giant, dubbed its campsite “the Original Social Networking Site.”  More than a cute marketing concept, this claim practically lays down a challenge to our Facebook-Twitter-YouTube-obsessed culture to put down the computers and cell phones and get back to “real” social networking – the kind where people actually do things…together…in person.

So this past weekend, I took Coleman’s challenge: I grabbed some friends and went camping in Middle-of-Nowhere, Mo., where cell phone/Wi-Fi service was nonexistent.  For a full 48 hours, I was unable to check my email, update my Facebook status, send a text or even make a phone call…and to my great relief, I was okay. 

Perhaps it was because I was too preoccupied with activities like building a fire so I could, you know, EAT, but I didn’t once feel the urge to post “Gathering kindling and hoping the rain stops soon” as my Facebook status.  And I didn’t wonder who had emailed me or if I was missing an important text message.   As it turns out, I CAN live sans social networks or cell service (at least for a few days, anyway)!

I take pride in this personal victory considering the New York Times article I ran across last week that revealed many Americans are hopping online soon after, if not before, hopping out of bed each morning.  Whether it’s texting over toast or social networking instead of reading the morning newspaper, this is a trend with which I am all too familiar; I check my email, Facebook and Twitter account via my Palm Pre before my head is even off my pillow every morning. 

But after this weekend of “roughing it,” I can at least take comfort in knowing my morning Internet craving can be overcome.  And you can be sure I’ll keep visiting the “original social networking site” in the future to keep my online habits in check.

This August, an estimated 25,000 visitors from across the United States will flood Stanford University and the San Francisco Bay area for one reason:  to cheer on the more than 10,000 athletes who will be competing in the 2009 Summer National Senior Games. 

The National Senior Games, which is the largest multi-sport event in the world for men and women aged 50 and older, runs from August 1-15.  Athletes will compete in 25 Olympic and traditional sports, including swimming, basketball, cycling, track & field, and archery.

The event is sponsored by our client Stanford Hospital and Clinics and their new Outpatient Center.  In addition to providing medical care to the athletes and urgent care for spectators during the Games, Stanford will present free lectures and activities to the public.  Topics range from maintaining health for active living to achieving peak performance for competitive athletes.

Admission to the Games is free, so if you’re in the area, stop by and cheer on these inspiring men and women!  They are a great reminder for us all to celebrate health and fitness at any age.

Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital marks yet another Dobies client that has been named one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals for 2009 by U.S. News Media Group.  Lucile Packard placed within the top 20 in eight specialties; 160 hospitals were considered.  The specialties receiving top rankings are:

  #5 – Heart and Heart Surgery including tetralogy of fallot surgery and pediatric heart transplant
  #5 - Neonatal Care
#11 – Cancer including pediatric leukemia, pediatric Hodgkin’s disease and bone marrow transplant
#14 – Diabetes and Endocrine Disorders
#14 – Digestive Disorders
#15 – Respiratory Disorders including pediatric cystic fibrosis and childhood asthma
#20 – Kidney Disorders
#20 – Neurology and Neurosurgery

The rankings will be featured in the August issue of U.S. News & World Report.

About Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital:
Associated with the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., provides a full range of medical and surgical services to children and expectant mothers from all over the United States.  For more information, visit www.lpch.org.

At Dobies Healthcare Group, we are proud to work with some of the finest hospitals in the country. So we weren’t surprised to hear that U.S. News Media Group recently ranked our client Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin among America’s best children’s hospitals for 2009. Eight specialties at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin placed within the top 30 of the 160 hospitals considered. The specialties earning top honors are:

#8 — Heart and Heart Surgery
#9 — Digestive Disorders including pediatric inflammatory bowel disease
#20 — Urology
#25 — Respiratory Disorders
#28 — Cancer including Ewing sarcoma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma
#29 — Neonatal Care
#29 — Neurology and Neurosurgery including epilepsy and pediatric spina bifida surgery
#30 — Kidney Disorders

The rankings will be featured in the August issue of U.S. News & World Report.

About Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin:
As a member of the Children’s Hospital and Health System, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee provides premier services, treatment and specialties to the children of Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and beyond. Visit their blog to learn more.

This week, dozens of families with children who have received high-quality care at pediatric hospitals across the nation will meet with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., for Family Advocacy Day.  Among those meeting with legislators will be the Flack family with their four-year-old daughter Madeline.  Madeline has been a patient of our client Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center since she was diagnosed with four congenital heart defects when she was 10 months old.   After seeking the help of the pediatric cardiologists at Le Bonheur’s Heart Institute, Madeline is now living the life of a typical four-year-old, something Madeline’s family credits to the excellent care she received at Le Bonheur.

Visit her family’s blog to learn more about Madeline’s story and her trip to our nation’s capitol.

About Family Advocacy Day:  This event, sponsored by the National Association of Children’s Hospitals, is an effort to ensure that national health reform legislation includes access to high-quality, specialized care and affordable health insurance coverage for all children.

About Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center:  As a leading children’s hospital in the Mid South, Le Bonheur treats children from around the region and country. The Neuroscience Institute and the Cardiac Institute, two centers of excellence dedicated to the treatment and research of pediatric conditions, highlight Le Bonheur’s commitment to improving the health of children in Memphis, Tennessee, the Mid South region and beyond.

Facebook recently announced they will be offering usernames for profiles and pages beginning this Saturday at 12:01 a.m. ET.  This means the URLs for profiles and pages will be able to be personalized to reflect the identity of the user (facebook.com/yourname) rather than the number ID that is currently assigned (facebook.com/profile.php?id=12345678).

Details:

Usernames will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis.

To be immediately eligible for a vanity URL, profiles must have been created before 3 p.m. ET on June 9, 2009, and pages must have been live before May 31, 2009.  This will help prevent “squatting” on usernames.

Pages must have at least 1,000 fans to create a vanity URL.  UPDATE: Pages with fewer than 1,000 fans will be able to create a username on June 28, 2009.

Usernames must be at least 5 characters long and only use A-Z, 0-9 or a period.  For example:  facebook.com/john.doe

Once a username is created, it cannot be changed or transferred so choose wisely and type carefully!

Privacy settings for your username will be the same as privacy settings for your profile name in Search.

Go here to learn more about Facebook usernames.
For more information on vanity URLs for pages, click here.

Recently, brands like Sharpie, Volkswagon and Tropicana have created their own social-networking sites to complement their marketing efforts on mainstream sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  While I understand why companies would prefer social interaction on a more controlled, branded site, I have a hard time believing these sites will achieve much success after the initial glow wears off.  Personally, I would much rather interact with my favorite brands on a site where I have an established identity and a clear understanding of how the site operates (Facebook) than create an entirely new identity on a site I know little about.  Yes, Facebook Connect could make these third-party sites more appealing, but I’d prefer to interact with brands who come to me (in a non-pushy manner, of course) where I spend my time.  See how Adobe successfully engaged Facebookers in their “natural environment.”  I hope to see more brands take Adobe’s lead in the future.

I have a dumbphone.  I’m not trying to be insulting;  I’m just saying my cell is not what they call “smart.”  That is, I have a plain, ol’ run-of-the-mill cell phone that lets me call and text…and that’s about it.  Which is fine, I guess.  I mean, do I really need to have access to my Facebook account 24/7?  Do I really need to be able to Google something anytime I want?  Do I really need to tweet a photo of what I’m doing while I’m doing it?  The answer is yes.  Yes, I do.  I really, really do. 

Why?  Because having on-the-go, hand-held access to the Internet (and thus social networking sites) has quickly become the best way to maintain one’s online presence.  In addition to being able to interact with online communities at a moment’s notice, mobile social networkers are able to update their accounts more often with more relevant/timely content than those with “stationary” access.  And it’s this constant stream of rich, fresh content that makes these sites all the more useful, informative and fun – for the user and for his/her friends and followers.  Simply put, mobile access takes social networking to the next level.

Which is why I wasn’t surprised to see a new study that found that more than half of U.S. wireless customers access content on their mobile phones, and of those people, most spend more time on social networking sites than, say, looking up news and weather.  So as people like me start shopping around to replace their dumbphones with smarter ones, the number of mobile social networkers will only increase…which will improve the quality of content on social networks….therefore making social networks all the more popular.  So for those of you hoping sites like Facebook are just a fad, think again.  Mobile access is just pushing these sites to new heights.

A couple questions for all you smartphone users:  What content do you access via your phone?  And what smartphones do you find cater to social networks the best?  (I have my eye on the new Palm Pre…)

Want to BE a successful blogger?  Then check out some Basic “Be”s of Blogging to find out what it takes to make it in the blogosphere.

1. Be current.
   Don’t let your blog get stale!  Make the commitment to update your blog regularly with topics that are timely.  Set a schedule to post 2-3 times a week and you’ll reward your readers with fresh content that encourages return visits.
2. Be authentic.
   When writing blogs, it’s okay to be informal, and it’s okay to not be perfect.  Getting caught up in editing and word-smithing can inhibit creativity and prevent you from following Blogging Basic #1.   So let your personality shine through and don’t fall victim to paralysis by analysis!  And just in case you were wondering, ghostwriting is a big no-no.
3. Be interactive.
   Remember, blogging is a form of social media.  So, ask questions in your blog to encourage discussion.  Reply to comments (respectfully, of course!) to keep readers involved.  Include links to Web sites that inspired your post to direct your readers to additional information.
4. Be valuable.
   Whether it’s giving helpful hints, releasing breaking news or simply providing food for thought, make sure your blog is of value to readers.  Use your blog to educate, inform and even entertain to get your blog bookmarked.

Check out some more quick tips on blogging here and let me know what you think should be a BE of blogging!