1.
The power of a tweet chat
for health and care
improvement
Hugh McCaughey
Helen Bevan
Leigh Kendall
NHS England and NHS Improvement
International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare,
11 June 2021
#Quality2021 @HelenBevanTweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

2.
Hugh McCaughey
National Director
for Improvement,
England
@HughMcCaughey
Helen Bevan,
Chief Transformation Officer,
NHS Horizons, England
@HelenBevantweet
Leigh Kendall,
Programme Lead (Social Influence),
NHS Horizons, England
@LeighAKendall
Our team for this session
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS
Plus the @HorizonsNHS team will be
running a live tweet chat for us!

3.
What we’re going to do in the session
• What’s a tweet chat – and why do them?
• Why informal networks and connections matter
• Overview of the #Improve4Patients tweet chats
• Let’s join the tweet chat!
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

4.
Don’t underestimate the power and potential of Twitter
With 400 million active users, Twitter is one of the world’s most popular social
networks
Twitter users are also super engaged—46% of them use the platform every day
Many people in health and care use Twitter as their major source of information and
connection
Service users and patients trust social media; people living with long term conditions
and with cancer are some of the most engaged and active audiences on Twitter
Tweet chats can be one of the most effective ways to harness the power of social
media for health and care improvement
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

5.
Nurses on the Nursing and Midwifery Board at Nottingham University Hospital
did a survey. They found that ‘Twitter enabled’ nurses were almost twice as
likely to recall successes and information from organisational leaders than
those who were not on Twitter.
Source: Rebecca Barrett
@RebeccaBNurse
Don’t underestimate the power and potential of Twitter
Our data shows that people in our workforce have ten times more connections than
corporate social accounts: they are the voice and credibility of our organisations
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

6.
What is a tweet chat?
• A specified time, usually an hour, when people come
together to have a conversation on Twitter
• You choose a topic and a hashtag that everyone can follow
• You identify some key questions that will create a good
discussion
• You get someone to be the moderator who will post the
questions and oversee the tweet chat
• You encourage lots of people to take part and promote the
tweet chat: use the 3% rule
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

7.
As an example, we will shortly run a live tweet chat as part
of this session

8.
Use the 3% rule of Twitter influence to help
get participants
Source: research by Graham MacKenzie using NodeXL
In health and
healthcare globally,
tweets by 3.3% of
tweeters accounted
for 85% of retweets
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

9.
The superconnectors become even more important at times
of ambiguity and uncertainty, such as a pandemic
@davemorgan_NEAS
@trishgreenhalgh
@doctor_oxford
If you can get people who are 3% “superconnectors” to support
your tweet chat, you will reach a very big audience
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

10.
#Quality2021

11.
Recent research by Warwick Business School showed that the level
of social connections was the key factor in performance differences
in NHS organisations in a large scale improvement initiative
Source: Nicola Burgess, Warwick Business School, evaluation of the partnership between the NHS and Virginia Mason Institute
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

12.
#Improve4Patients tweet chats
Three tweet chats to understand the improvement work going on across England.
Hundreds of people working in improvement across health and care in England sent thousands of tweets to let Hugh know
about the improvement work they were doing, and their ideas for the future.
An effective tool to quickly get an overview of improvement across health and care in England, as well as make connections
with the people working to make things happen.
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

13.
Aims of the #Improve4Patients
tweet chats
 At least 500 people participating over the
course of the three tweet chats
 A personal engagement rate for Hugh of at
least 1.6% (which is ‘super-connector’ level)
 Hugh to gain 500 more followers on Twitter
during the period of the tweet chats
 A reach of more than a million (reach is the
number of unique accounts who saw content
generated through the tweet chats)
 More than 100 ideas/suggestions harvested
as a result of the tweet chats
Outcomes of the
#Improve4Patients tweet chats
• There were 1,867 participants across the three
tweet chats
• Hugh achieved a 1.7% engagement rate –
‘super connector’ level!
• Hugh gained 513 new Twitter followers (4738 to
5251)
• 4.9 million reach across the three tweet chats
• 3,768 tweets were sent during the three tweet
chats. Well in excess of 100 ideas and
suggestions were harvested, as well as
hundreds of useful insights
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

14.
This data from NODEXL,
shows how the tweet
chats connected up
people from different
communities who don’t
normally talk to each
other
We call this “breaking out
from the echo chambers”
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS

15.
Let’s join in the tweet chat!
#Quality2021

16.
What
happened
during the
tweet chat?
#Quality2021 @HelenBevantweet @LeighAKendall @HughMcCaughey @HorizonsNHS