Case Study: Spectrum Health achieves HIPAA-compliant, 24-hour social customer service with Brandwatch

How a healthcare organization scales social media across 23,000 employees while successfully navigating HIPAA regulations

Spectrum Health System, a not-for-profit health system and West Michigan’s largest employer with nearly 23,000 employees across 12 hospitals, needed to be a trusted voice on social media while navigating strict HIPAA rules and a state-mandated 24-hour response requirement. With a dozen contributors across the network and rising misinformation online, the organization faced the challenge of scaling timely, compliant social engagement without overburdening its small corporate team.

Spectrum adopted Hootsuite Enterprise and integrated Brandwatch for listening and Nexgate for HIPAA-focused monitoring, operating a hub-and-spoke model managed by two central social leads. The solution automates alerts and assignments, centralizes dashboards and analytics, and enforces compliance—enabling consistent 24-hour responses, protection of patient data, streamlined reporting, and more capacity to run community education campaigns and strategic outreach.

Spectrum Health

Michael Yoder

Social Media Consultant