"…Not just an ordinary hospital, we are committed to making our patients have value for their money": a qualitative analysis of social media use in Nigeria's public and private hospitals

Abstract

In this study, we comparatively investigated the extent to which government and private-owned hospitals use social media. Using the constant comparison approach for analysing qualitative data, the study analysed data from multiple focus group discussions with 12 social media handlers from both government and private-owned hospitals in Abuja and qualitative content analysis of Facebook posts and tweets from the hospitals in Abuja. Contrary to previous findings, which assert that government hospitals use social media to propagate government information and private hospitals use social media from the business/capitalist perspective, we discovered they both use social media for marketing purposes- to enhance their corporate image and interact with their clients. The data further revealed that the topic of health education is common; that is, both the private and the public hospitals engage in disseminating health education content. By implication, this research draws healthcare institutions' consciousness, especially government-owned hospitals, to the importance of social media in the health sector.