Crisis Management Planning Now May Avert Reputation Damage Later On

 

Step one is to appoint a crisis team consisting of the CEO, risk management, marketing and PR, HR, outside counsel and your public relations agency. Step two is to have a plan that will consider potential risks to the organization. In healthcare, common risks might include:

• Disasters: Hurricane, fire, flood, power outage

• Crime: Assault, shooting, bomb scare, theft, security breach, computer hack

• Leadership: Illness or death, scandal, termination or investigation, accounting irregularities, media investigation, loss of accreditation, bid dispute, land use issue

• Workforce: Layoffs, labor unrest, non-renewal of a high-level physician contract

• Other: Accident, patient death, medical mistake, environmental or disease outbreak, high readmission rate

 

Once you determine the organization’s greatest risks, it is important to finalize your plan, procedures, communications policies and communications processes. You will need to define your various stakeholders and “audiences” that might include investors, employees, board of directors, patients, regulators, government and the community at large. Once the plan is finalized it is always a good idea to get the crisis team together a couple of times a year to practice the plan and flesh out any vulnerabilities. It isn’t a bad idea to get risk managers together to proactively mitigate the major risks.

 

One important aspect of crisis management is crisis communications, which is the process of skillfully managing news stemming from a bad situation to keep your reputation intact. 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 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 PR consultant, you can be proactive and try to mitigate any damage to your good name.

 

Here are some good 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 primary and secondary spokespersons to field all media calls and help determine who should speak for the company.

• Remind employees, medical professionals and managers that it is not okay for them to speak to the media or address the crisis at hand on social media. Let them know who to contact internally if they have any questions. In the event the media calls, just ask them their name, news organization and contact information and share it with the appointed spokespersons.

• Leadership and spokespersons should try to refrain from saying, “No comment.” To the public, it means you are stonewalling. Even if you don’t have the answers, at least let them know that the situation is being thoroughly investigated and that you will update everyone at a specified time. Don’t speculate when you don’t know the facts.

• If it’s true, don’t deny it and don’t lie. The media will generally always find out and report the truth.

• If you made a mistake, it is okay to admit it. The public can be forgiving.

• Use your social media, blog, website and email lists to get your message directly in front of your audience. Likewise, 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.

 

It is very important to maintain a proactive reputation management program and solid media relationships during the good times. Your reputation is like a coffee cup. If it is full and you take a hit, you will recover quickly, but if it is not very good, a crisis can be devastating and possibly threaten the existence of the organization. So, being prepared is critical. Not all crises are predictable and not all crisis reactions are perfect, but by properly planning for the inevitable, you will be ahead of the game in preserving your most important asset, your organization’s reputation.