Has video marketing gone too far?

I recently read an article, online of course, about a hospital in Memphis using YouTube in a very, um, innovative way.  With the permission of their patient, Methodist University Hospital had a live webcast of a woman’s craniotomy.  The surgery consisted of an awake patient and surgeons prodding and cutting inside her brain to remove a tumor.

Understandably, there are ethical implications to the medical profession using online videos to market their hospitals and surgeons.

According to the hospital’s marketing director, the goal is to educate the public and also to showcase their reputation.

There’s also Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit using Twitter and sending tweets from the operating room.

According to the article from the NYtimes.com, over 250 hospitals use social media sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook as part of their marketing strategies.

Don’t get me wrong…I’m all for using video and social media to promote your business.  And I understand the natural desire of us as humans to want to know intricate details of others lives, but, personally, I think this goes a little far.  Patients do give consent, but I sure don’t want my doctor thinking about what he or she will “tweet” on Twitter after my surgery while I’m under the knife.

If I could offer a suggestion, I would have a staff member, armed with a Flip digital video camera, visit patients before and after surgery and get testimonials on the care they got from their doctors and surgeons…even the nurses and how good/bad the food was during their hospital stay.

As for Twitter, maybe at the end of the day, an intern or resident could tweet about the interesting cases they saw or how Dr. Jones did a great job treating an anonymous patient’s condition.

One thing the article does indirectly show is that the public is ready and waiting for businesses, even hospitals, to show up where they are already “hanging out” online.  YouTube, Facebook, Twitter…these are the new “water coolers” of today.  And the sheer fact that hospitals are spending their resources to reach out to potential patients should be a strong indication that consumers of these marketing techniques exist…and they’re not just the under 18 crowd, like some would like to think.