As of this publication, it has been about a month since a passenger (who United Airlines decided to randomly bump with three others) was violently dragged off a domestic flight from Chicago to Louisville.Days after the incident, despite an eventual apology from United’s CEO and to nobody’s surprise, the passenger lawyered up. Between the immediate drop in stock, legal fees, any settlement or payout to the victim or his family, it all pales in comparison to the immediate aftermath of the event. Every (and I mean EVERY) cable and broadcast news network ran video clips of the incident on 24-hour rotation for a solid week. This is on top of millions of views on line. “Flying the friendly skies” has never looked so unfriendly. United has close to 800 planes which each week delivers nearly 2 million people to their final destination. Now one passenger incident on one flight has given the airline a reputation their biggest competitor could not have dreamed up. Who is to blame for this? A bad policy, some United employee(s), the police who dragged him off, the actions of the passenger, a combination? At the end of the day it does not matter. Any good reputation United had developed in its 90+ year history was tarnished because of an incident and video that took less than 2 minutes. When it comes to patient care, do not get “United”! Make sure policies that could hurt your organization’s reputation are turned in to “guidelines” where employees can use common sense.
Constantly train and retrain every employee on how to handle difficult situations which may occur to patients or their families. Make sure there are processes in place so that things never get to a ridiculous level. When people think of United Airlines right now they think of one incident. When your patients and their families think of your organization, are their thoughts good or bad?
