How to Promote Patient Safety in Social Media: A Comparison between Messages in Social Media and Newspapers

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to evaluate the features of patient-safety related messages in social media and provide suggestions for how to promote patient safety in social media. A hierarchical frame structure especially for patient safety messages was proposed for content analysis. 45 messages from Facebook and 45 reports from newspapers about patient safety were evaluated. The results indicated that messages in social media provided more comprehensive information about patient safety than newspapers. And social media paid more attention on individuals, including doctors, nurses and patients. Furthermore, social media messages provided more positive information than newspapers, such as treatment recommendations and program introductions.