“How would you like patients to contact your practice?” asked Jeff Takacs in his session intro at the annual meeting of the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) . “Your answer should be: However they prefer.” For many patients, that preference includes Facebook. Nearly 70 percent of all Americans are on Facebook, according to a 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center . Knowing this, many people in the medical practice management space are turning to this social network to engage with current and future patients. At this year’s MGMA meeting, Takacs, who is the Director of Content for MGMA, ran an interactive session on these very issues. “When prospective patients go to your Facebook page, take advantage of their familiarity with the app to get them scheduled,” he said. Session attendees agreed, with many reporting use of a dedicated person to continuously monitor their Facebook page. The cost of this in man hours as well as paid advertising seemed to be well worth it, consid...