What’s in Your Wallet?
As part of the Choosing Wisely campaign, Consumer Reports aims to encourage conversations between health care providers and their patients. One component of this work includes their handy wallet cards featuring “5 Questions to Ask Your Doctor.” To get these wallet cards out to a larger, more diverse audience—and to encourage even more people around the country to ask the five questions—Consumer Reports launched a #ChoosingWisely Wednesdays social media campaign in early June.
Every #ChoosingWisely Wednesday, Consumer Reports posts a photo of an individual or group posing with their wallet cards on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram; a quick and catchy phrase encouraging people to ask the questions; and a link to Consumer Report’s new “questions” page where they can get more information about Choosing Wisely and to request free wallet cards.
The goal of #ChoosingWisely Wednesdays is to reach different audiences than more traditional outreach and to move the needle further in changing our health care culture.
So far, the social media messages have reached large audiences each week, generating 1,500 engagements across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As a result of people seeing the posts and clicking through to request wallet cards, Consumer Reports has sent out over 7,000 wallet cards to people around the country who were previously not engaged with Choosing Wisely.
Consumer Reports’ Social Media Program Manager, Yelena Dasher, said that #ChoosingWisely Wednesdays started as an experiment and has been successful because of the human element and connection.
“Social media users tend to connect with images of real people,” Dasher said. “We wanted to highlight health care workers and Choosing Wisely partners who aren’t always front and center on social media but play a crucial role in the campaign.”
These photos, Dasher added, help people connect to the message of the campaign and think about how the five questions apply to conversations about their health with their physician.
Those who have been featured in the photos so far have had positive reactions and have enjoyed the opportunity to promote the wallet cards.
“We have had many comments on how great it is to see our group connecting with Consumer Reports,” said Eric Barbanel, MD, Choosing Wisely advocate and internist at Crystal Run Healthcare. “I have used the analogy of the wallet card being a resource to help your wallet as well as your health. By being able to easily reference a Consumer Reports product and having it available for patients at our front desk shows our commitment to value throughout our practice. I feel that this helps encourage the doctor-patient relationship and facilitate conversations about value-based care by demonstrating that we are trying to do the right things for our patients.”
Share your photos and stories
Consumer Reports is also interested in collecting stories about how people use the wallet cards to have important discussions with their doctors and health care providers.
To join the social media campaign, email a selfie with the wallet card or share your story at healthimpact@cr.consumer.org. And, of course, look for the #ChoosingWisely hashtag on Twitter on Wednesdays and join the social media campaign in real time.
