Analyzing the roles of newspaper articles and tweets to help alleviate sudden physician absenteeism: case study of Takano Hospital in Fukushima in the long-term aftermath of the 2011 Japan’s triple disaster (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Rural physician undersupply is a universal concern, leading to sudden physician absenteeism or unavailability on occasion. While media and social networking services may help mitigate these emergencies, information is lacking about their actual contribution in times of physician absenteeism. On December 30, 2016, the director and sole physician of Takano Hospital in Fukushima, Japan, died. The physician’s passing placed many hospitalized patients in danger. This sudden case of physician unavailability, named the Takano Hospital Crisis, provoked massive attention from the general public, in the media and on social media networks such as Twitter. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyze newspaper articles, tweets and Twitter accounts relating to Takano Hospital Crisis. METHODS Newspaper articles and tweets were searched for keywords associated with Takano Hospital Crisis and its former director between October 2016 and June 2017. We first evaluated the chronological change in the number of articles and tweets, and the number of characters and relevant keywords in the articles. Then tweets and influencers who were popular on the Twitter platform from December 30, 2016 to February 28, 2017, were categorized. RESULTS We assessed 151 newspaper articles and 67,006 tweets. The results show that number of newspaper articles and tweets steeply increased and then diminished within the first month of the incident. The median number of characters in newspapers articles was 436 and the most frequent keyword was medical doctor. There were 753 original tweets that were retweeted more than four times from December 30, 2016 to February 28, 2017. Of these, 245 (32.5%) expressed concern. Notable influencers were journalists, news media outlets, and healthcare professionals that helped with fund raising and providing clinical service in the hospital. CONCLUSIONS Twitter could temporarily function in cases of sudden physician absenteeism to attract volunteers and funding, however, this would not be a long-term solution. In a more general context, a long-term effort of supports from the hospitals themselves and the government will be required to manage the persistent state of physician absenteeism.