.jpg)
If you’re like most small and medium-sized practices or healthcare facilities, you probably don’t have a plan to manage the media should they ever come calling for the wrong reasons … but you should.
Consider these recent examples:
– A hospital discovers that an employee has been stealing patient information and selling it on the black market.
– A nonprofit agency is accused of mismanaging funds.
– A surgery center and its medical director are sued for malpractice based on a poor patient outcome.
Crisis communications is the process of skillfully managing news stemming from a bad
situation to keep your reputationintact.
Today, the news cycle is 24 hours. When reporters call for your side of the story, you don’t have the luxury of time to provide a response. They are going to publish what they have online, when they have it, and you should fully anticipate the news will spread fast on social media. If you don’t have your voice in the story, you are allowing yourself to be defined by others.
Many physicians and administrators want to bury their heads in the sand when something bad happens, but that will not make the problem, or reporters, go away. With a little planning and help from a public relations consultant, you can be proactive and try to mitigate any damage to your good name.
Here are 7 tips for handling a media crisis:
– Start preparing a response as soon as you anticipate bad news, not after you get the first media call.
– Assign one person to field all media calls and help determine who should speak for the company.
– Try to refrain from saying, “No comment.” To the public, it means you are stonewalling.
– If it’s true, don’t deny it and don’t lie. Generally, the media will find out and report the truth.
– If it’s true, don’t deny it and don’t lie. Generally, the media will find out and report the truth.
– If you made a mistake, it’s okay to admit it; the public can be forgiving.
– Use social media and your website to get your message directly in front of your audience. Additionally, have a plan to research and respond to negative social media posts.
– If you do receive negative press, chances are those stories will live a long time on the web. You need to think about a strategy to bump those stories beyond the first page of a Google search so they don’t haunt you forever.
Planning in advance to develop a crisis team, traditional media and social media policies and maintaining good relations with the press will help you out, in the event a crisis presents itself. Being in sync with your attorneys and compliance consultant is also a good idea.
