Hospitals, although conservative in nature and often slow to adopt new ways of communicating, are testing out the social media waters. In fact, as noted in his blog, University of Maryland Medical Center’s web operations manager Ed Bennett records that there are currently 548 hospital YouTube Channels, 1,018 hospital Facebook pages, 788 hospital Twitter accounts, 458 hospital LinkedIn accounts, 913 hospital participating on Four Square and 137 hospital blogs. With these statistics, it’s becoming apparent that even though there is still trepidation and fear of creating hospital-related social media platforms, many organizations are willing to take the plunge. One such hospital is the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute located in Tampa, Florida. The Cancer Center opened its doors to patients in 1986 and has since created an environment where research, education and patient care thrive. From 2009 to 2010 they saw admissions increase from 7,742 to 8,616 and outpatient visits grow from 289,502 to 320,558, proving that they are continuously striving to provide the best possible programs studies.

Although Moffitt Cancer Center is well known throughout the Tampa community and consistently garners attention within the healthcare industry, there is a push to promote the organization to a wider audience and connect with a variety of audience members from patients and caregivers to volunteers and referring physicians. Which leads me to the reason for this blog post, Rhyme & Reason Design, LLC has recently been awarded the opportunity to assist  H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute with their social media activities. As social media partners, we will be working closely with the onsite marketing team, as well as the website agency of record, Bridgeline Digital. Through combined efforts, we will help establish a strong social presence through customized design, a strategic plan and consistent, dynamic communication.

At this point in time we are merely scratching the surface of the social communications platform we will be developing for H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, but we hope that you, our loyal readers, can celebrate with us as this exciting opportunity unfolds.