In the recent years, trends have emerged in the healthcare management industry, which includes patient protection, social media in healthcare, and drug shortages. Patient protection has largely been influenced by laws and policies in different nations. In the United States, the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has resulted in the lowering of overall healthcare costs, whereby millions of individuals have access to insurance, thereby guaranteeing free preventative care. Social media in healthcare has stemmed from the increased use and adoption of the technology for health-related reasons by patients as well as healthcare practitioners. Moreover, drug shortages have emerged as a challenge that hospital pharmacists encounter and manage in different measures on a daily basis. The paper explores the trends in the three aspects as they relate to the healthcare management industry. Furthermore, it focuses on drug shortages as the topmost priority.

Social Media in Healthcare

Nowadays, patients and healthcare practitioners employ social media in different ways. The available tools in these platforms include media-sharing sites, blogs, as well as gaming and virtual reality environments (Antheunis, Tates, & Nieboer, 2013). Furthermore, Facebook posts and tweets have become approaches that healthcare authorities and patients have adopted in communication. Practitioners in the field have engaged these platforms in encouraging patient engagement and advocating for the dissemination of accurate health information. It is also critical to note that social media has downsides concerning the creation of damage to professional images, legal issues, as well as the spreading of poor-quality information among others. Therefore, most of the professional bodies and healthcare institutions have provided guidelines, which endeavor to counter these risks.

Trends in social media in the healthcare management industry include social networking sites. The evolving social networking environment has provided a platform where professional medical communities have engaged on different issues. Besides, these systems have also provided secure access... Furthermore, they have been funded through research funding, professional associations, as well as advertising revenues as seen from Sermo and Doximity, which are restricted to the physicians' network community. Moreover, the Medical Directors Forum allows medical directors to engage in a peer-to-peer interaction within a secure and verified environment. Undergraduate students and practicing physicians have interacted through sites such as the Student Doctor Network.
Microblogs have emerged as dynamic approaches of information exchange whereby users post considerable amounts of brief messages over a short period. For example, Twitter has allowed students and instructors to share on different issues such as evaluation of class responses and monitoring of student progress. Media-sharing sites have enabled users to view, share, and upload digital content on the Web. For example, YouTube has provided a resourceful platform that has availed educational materials, medical news, and healthcare-related entertainment (Gagnon & Sabus, 2015). Besides, virtual reality and gaming environments have become useful in educational centers that attempt to influence the decision-making abilities of individuals in real-life. Besides, they have become critical in applications such as psychiatric treatment and surgical stimulation. Therefore, social media in healthcare management remains instrumental in dealing with the dynamic challenges that arise every day.

Patient Protection

The enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) envisaged multiple changes in the healthcare management industry. Millions have consequently benefited from accessing insurance, which they previously did not have an opportunity to enjoy. Moreover, the Act has made sure that the entire insurance plans cover the ten critical health welfares including, treatment for chronic and addiction issues (Maga & Lewis, 2014). Young adults have been guaranteed to stay within the insurance plans of their parents until the age of 26. The policy ensures that a majority of uninsured young people are…