Situational Awareness in the Social Media Age

Hospitals are sanctuaries for health, safety, and comfort.

I keep those words on a sticky note next to my computer as a reminder of the true purpose and intent of these sacred institutions.

It’s easy to get lost in our work while being pulled in different directions, but this mantra has reminded me about what matters most: maintaining a positive environment for the ill and injured.   

To maintain health, safety, and comfort, we need to be vigilant. A week or so ago, many emergency managers, hospital security professionals, and hospital leadership from across the country had a quick gasp as news of a social media post with a potential threat to hospitals was uncovered. It was alarming and specific. And it warned of a potential attack.

Ultimately, per the FBI, the threat was determined to not be credible. That was welcome news, but even unlikely threats need to be taken seriously.

For me, the incident offers another principle we must remember: Situational awareness is getting harder in the social media age.

Our landscape

Information is power for emergency management leaders and staff, but credible information is getting harder to decipher in an increasingly online world.

The power of the Internet is unmatched. The FBI—while releasing a statement on the New Year’s Day vehicle attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans—points out that “lone actors or small cells of individuals who typically radicalize to violence online and who primarily use easily accessible weapons have posed the greatest terrorism threat to our homeland.”

That is certainly not welcome news. And it undoubtedly means we need to remain vigilant. Hospitals aren’t immune from similar incidents. In 2023, a patient—who did not get the medication she wanted—intentionally drove her vehicle into the ED doors of a Florida facility.

Whether potential threats are man-made and intentional, or natural like severe weather, we need to be aware of what is looming, immediate, and impactful.

But how can we do this? 

Spreading your awareness

Working in preparedness, we can take several steps to improve our situational awareness.

1. Understand the outlets:  Gather information from many sources like traditional news media, information systems, text alerts from government agencies such as the NWS (National Weather Services) or CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), and even from social media.
2. Build a network:  Facilities should have some mechanism to continually communicate with external partners like local emergency managers and emergency management agencies, health care coalitions, hospital associations, and other providers. You can compare notes about what you are seeing across the landscape.
3. Assess for truth:  Traditional news sources offer another layer of credibility to their published work. Firsthand accounts on social media can be useful to assess real-time information, but you must be able to quickly discern where the information is coming from and assess its validity. 

Assessing the source

Credibility can waver significantly online. This is true for all the news that comes through your feed.

Plausible information along with uncertain and outlandish material can be scattered through platforms. Additionally, it can be very difficult to decipher whether something is factual or false.

There are tools that can help us sift through these platforms. X Pro, formally TweetDeck, allows users to “monitor multiple timelines on a single screen” while also tracking content. There are many “social listening” tools built for marketing and public relations that can be leveraged for situational awareness monitoring. These programs can allow you to track your facility’s name or the names of specific individuals.

Whatever tools you use, you need to be able to take the information and predict how it might affect your facility and your community. 

All information should be assessed for its accuracy and relevance. From there, the information can be analyzed and determined whether it needs to be elevated and/or dispersed to a further audience.

It’s not an easy role to play, but it’s essential so that we can protect our sanctuaries for health, safety, and comfort.

For additional information or feedback, please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

 

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