CEO blogger reaches a global audience including the media and employees

Last week I sat down with Paul Levy, President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) to learn about how he uses his blog.

I'm fascinated by CEOs who blog and who are active on Twitter @PaulFlevy, especially those from large organizations like BIDMC (7,000 people work there).

See below for a ten minute video discussion I had with Paul.

Paul has been blogging since August 2006. His Running a Hospital blog is popular with healthcare professionals around the world, with BIDMC employees, and with people who work at competing hospitals in the Boston area.

My favorite quote was when I asked Paul for his advice for CEOs about starting a blog:

"It has to be in your voice," Paul says. "It cannot be written by your press and media department, it cannot be overwritten by your lawyers. There has to be a single author for a blog to be effective... Readers want to feel that they know you."

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Direct link to video here.

BIDMC in Boston is an academic medical center affiliated with Harvard Medical School. It is a large organization, with 7,000 people who work there. They see half a million people a year, about 40,000 of them emergency room visits.

Here are some video highlights of our conversation.

0:30 – 1: 30 - How Paul got started blogging

1:30 - 3:40 - A little about Paul’s large global audience including healthcare professionals, employees, and people who work in competitors at other Boston hospitals.

3:40 - 5:20 - How the blog provides transparency and using actual data to provide an inside view into what goes on at the hospital which leads to accountability

5:20 - 6:50 - What about blogging in a regulated industry?

6:50 – 8:00 - How blog posts lead to instant corrections (vs. print news) and how reporters use the blog for stories

8:00 – 9:30 Advice to other CEOs about blogging.

I first met Paul two years ago when we spoke on a panel together and have been following his blog since. It was great to get together again in person.

Comments

[Bob Williams]

I agree with you that the most powerful quote from this interview was "It has to be in your voice...". This is a difficult concept for many organizations to support because self publishing goes against the traditional way of doing things and is seen as an activity that doesn't promote the team.

As Paul mentioned, there are plenty of things you can write about that don't violate the rules and regulations for his industry or organization. I'm sure he also gets input from his inner circle on content. It sounds like he has established himself as an authoritative voice in his industry and is providing valuable content to his readers to help them solve or think about health care related topics.

Thanks for sharing and all the good information you send our way.

Regards,

Bob Williams

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks for jumping in Bob.

I've found that much of the challenge around speaking in an authentic voice comes from communications people who insist on "messages".

However there is no greater message in my view than keeping it real.

David

[John Patella]

I once served as VP of marketing and PR at a large academic medical center, and have done a lot of hospital PR since opening my own shop, and I really admire Paul Levy's commitment to maintaining his blog.

I'd love to see some of my clients follow his lead, but I would never push them. They really have to want to do it themselves, or else it will be just one more thing for the overworked hospital PR departments to take over once they got too busy or lost interest.

[Michael J. Russell - @planetrussell]

David, thanks so much for publishing this interview with Paul Levy. Folks interested in his work will also want to check out Nick Jacobs' http://HealingHospitals.com (formerly AskAHospitalPresident.com )

Nick Jacobs was the very first hospital CEO to blog - way back in 2005. Paul has graciously acknowledged Nick as an inspiration for starting his own blog, as well.

Full disclosure: Nick Jacobs has been a friend and colleague for nearly 10 years. He and Paul are both health care leaders who are truly passionate about real innovations and reforms. (May their tribe increase!)

[David Meerman Scott]

John - I totally agree. An approach like this would not work if it did not come from the CEO directly.

Michael - Thanks! I did not know about Nick's blog. I will check it out.

David

[Dale Wolf]

Hi David

It has been awhile since we have talked, but I still follow you. In fact, courtesy of Steve Kayser, I have 4 copies of World Wide Rave on my desk to give to our senior executives so they better understand our own social media programs.

Here are a few other hospital CEO bloggers that I follow with RSS feeds to their sites:

•Bill Roper, CEO of University of North Carolina Health Care System
•Dr. Bill Atkinson, CEO of WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh
•Marty Bonick, CEO of Jewish Hospital in Louisville
•Rob Colones, CEO of McLeod Health in South Carolina
•Scott Kashman, CEO of St. Joseph Medical Center
•Todd Linden, CEO of Grinnell Regional Medical Center
•Tom Quinn, CEO of Community General Hospital

In my relatively new role as Director of Marketing at Compass Clinical Consulting, we are trying to be active as bloggers and also on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube etc.

All of these can be linked to from our website www.compass-clinical.com and from our main blog www.better-hospitals.com. My oldest blog is still active since 2005 (www.perfectcem.com).

Blogging has come a long way as a business communications tool. In today's world we have to be masters of traditional and online marketing.

Dale Wolf

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Dale, Great to hear from you.

Thanks for the list. I had no idea there were so many hospital CEO bloggers. Wow. Many thanks for sharing.

David