Optometry

Agustin L. Gonzalez

It is our responsibility as doctors to inform and educate our patients in the event of a product recall. Today’s social media platforms provide great tools for office promotion and marketing and brand management that can turn a chaotic product recall into an informational, educational and marketing campaign that can improve your image and even expand your patient base.

It is easy to control the information your patients obtain with a little planning and use of social media tools. They will enable you to quickly market yourself and help maintain patient loyalty in a moment of chaos when a product recall arises. We can use social media to protect our patients and keep your own brand afloat during a medical device recall.

Do not panic

First, do not panic. Make sure you are aware of the many ways in which you can inform your patients of a product recall. It is easy to post on your Facebook page, send a series of Tweets and send a blast email to your patients informing them of the situation.

Plan ahead how to script the email, Twitter and Facebook messages. Developing a social media plan to effectively communicate with patients is half the battle. It is also important to plan and discuss steps and solutions you are willing to offer to help those patients who are affected.

Educate staff

Plan on how your staff would answer questions over the phone and via email. The office should be able to address questions and provide sources of information that include signs and symptoms of any complication. This also gives your office the opportunity to let the patients know you are comfortable taking care of any medical complication. Patients with complications should be directed to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website for adverse effect reporting.

MedWatch is the FDA’s voluntary reporting program. You may submit reports to MedWatch one of four ways: online at http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/medwatch/; by telephone at (800) FDA-1088; by fax at (800) FDA-0178; or by mail to MedWatch, Food and Drug Administration, HF-2, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857.

Identify affected patients

Identify patients by using your electronic health records database and act responsibly. Patients affected by a recall should be informed by your office; after all, you are the one who prescribed the medical device. This also gives you the opportunity to show you care.

You can also obtain a list of patients from your vendor if they list the last name as part of the invoice. How your office handles these situations could help imprint trust in your patients.

Obtain information online

Remember that information is easily available online. It is important that you provide all information available about a product recall in an educational manner, including a link to the FDA or the manufacturer website for more information on the recall.

Establish yourself as the authority

Become the informative and authoritative voice in command before your patients will be left to make their own determinations. Educating the staff will be crucial in achieving a level of patient comfort while conveying your office’s ability to handle the situation.

If done correctly, you can even use your office’s social media campaigns to further enable your patients to disseminate your message to others.

Advice in practice

During recent recalls, our office decided to take a proactive and aggressive role, which helped us control the chaos and become the expert in the message. Our patients were alerted by email blast, and many were informed via phone conversations. We directed them to the website to verify the products, and those who identified the recalled product quickly contacted the office. Steps were taken to have them evaluated to assure the eye was safe and they were fit into another product.

Ultimately, we were in control of the situation and drove a caring message. Most patients were surprised and thankful that we were able to locate them. We quickly explained that, as with any other medical device, contact lenses are regulated by the FDA and could be a potential threat to their vision.

As prescribers and providers of medical devices it is our responsibility to promote accurate information in a professional manner. Social media tools and electronic health records provide a means for us to be able to better care for our patients by providing information about a recall. This is important, especially when the implication is ocular damage.

• Agustin L. Gonzalez, OD, is in private practice in Dallas and serves as adjunct faculty at InterAmerican University. He can be reached at AG@TXEyeDr.com.