WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and SportsArea hospital turning to social media to help with difficult topics

Area hospital turning to social media to help with difficult topics

Black River Falls (WQOW) - An area hospital is turning to technology to help patients tackle some tough topics.

Social media is changing the way the hospital is connecting patients with doctors.

Black River Memorial Hospital recently held a seminar on a growing women's problem that not a lot of people are willing to talk about. To help open up the conversation, they turned to Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube.

Some subjects are just more difficult to talk to your doctor about. For example, urinary incontinence

"This is a topic that was a little bit suppressed. People are a little bit afraid to talk about it, afraid to go out in public with it. It's kind of one of those things that nobody talks about," says Bob Daley, Vice President of Fiscal and info systems Black River Memorial Hospital.

So Black River Memorial Hospital decided to take action. It's using social media, like Facebook and Twitter, to help patients open up.

"I think people need to have a way that they can ask and using some of the electronic media is a little more discreet," says Kathy Eggebakken, a Physical Therapist at Black River Memorial.

At a seminar this week, they used Twitter to answer questions that anyone had, along with video introductions on Youtube.

"The questions that were asked by the audience members were typed into twitter and to Facebook so people could follow along with the questions as well," says Dr. Josiah Nelson, a urologist.

Black River Memorial is still encouraging anyone who has a question to send them a message or tweet.

"They're able to find out, in terms of problems with things like incontinence, they aren't alone, there are a lot of people that have these issues, and it gives them an opportunity to feel more comfortable addressing these topics," says Dr. Nelson.

The hospital is hoping technology can help more people get the answers they need.

"Hospitals and clinics can tend to be a scary place, and we want to make it as friendly as we can, and this is one of the opportunities we have to make it a friendly place," says Daley.

Hospital staff says this question and answer forum doesn't replace actually going to the hospital if you are experiencing any symptoms, it's just a way to get more information. The hospital is planning on holding more seminars on other difficult topics in the future.

These seminars are just one way the hospital is trying to integrate new technologies into their routine.

To find Black River Memorial on Twitter, click http://twitter.com/BRMHospital.