JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Extant literature has focused on describing the benefits of social media sites for private health organizations. The influence of social structure, organizational and political forces varies between public sector hospitals in countries where there are more restrictions and limited awareness.

Objective:

Competitive pressure and social influence for technology adoption has increased amongst developed, developing, and emerging countries. This study aims to explore how the use of social media can influence patient’s engagement, employee engagement and productivity in the workplaces of public sector hospitals.

Methods:

The study follows a social constructivist approach to understand employee attitudes, motivation, culture, political forces, and the local context. Data were collected from 32 health professionals of five public sector hospitals using non-directive and semi-structured interview methods.

Results:

The results show that the use of social media sites has increased collaboration, coordination, and cooperation amongst health professionals, especially in critical situations. They are more socialized, connected, and engaged which is helpful to exchange useful knowledge using instant messaging apps. Conversely, there are no organizational polices and specific laws and too little support from management and senior doctors to drive the use of social networking sites in public hospitals. The use of social media has enhanced health professional’s engagement and productivity as they are able to share their expertise, knowledge, and level of information with their colleagues, subordinates, and patients.

Conclusions:

The study is an attempt to highlight the steps required to enhance the use of social media to engage employees in public sector hospitals. The results are useful to guide policy makers, researchers, hospitals, doctors, and the Ministry of Health to enhance the positive use of social networking sites in the workplace. The Technology Adoption Model (TAM), Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, and Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory can cover both individual and organizational perspectives that can influence the actual use of social media in health care organizations. The present study has provided social media health organization workplace (SMHOW) model which can guide how individual and organizational contexts can influence the actual use of social media in health care organizations.