Crisis communications in the healthcare industry follows many of the same rules as crisis management in other vertical industries. But with potential crises ranging from bio-
terrorism to inadequate nursing staffs to the raging debates surrounding stem cell research, crisis communications has become all the more urgent for healthcare PR
professionals.
"In the healthcare industry, it's far more personal," says Marti Harris, communications manager for the George Washington University Hospital, which has cared for such VIPs
(that's "very important patients") as Vice President Cheney, President Reagan and the shooter who wreaked havoc outside the White House in 2001. "There's almost always a patient
[or potential group of patients] involved, and you're dealing with lives."
The Perfect Plan
"Preparation is so critical," says Francesca Trainor, who heads up crisis communications for Hill and Knowlton. "Healthcare organizations should be religiously and actively
monitoring situations" in the media and and among other stakeholders so that they have a sense of the potential crises on the horizon.
GW's Harris has seen so many high-profile crises in her two years with the hospital that she lives in constant readiness for the next event. Anthrax has been an ongoing crisis
situation for the hospital that serves the federal government's elite, and other forms of terrorism (including repeat attacks like the one on the Pentagon) are also high on the
list of concerns.
Her crisis plan has to be highly detailed to handle such a range of crises. "We take crisis communications very seriously, and we have a lot of drills and plans in place."
Those drills and plans include clipboards for every member of the communications team with protocols, key contacts, and even various phone numbers like important White House
contacts and numbers for agencies like the Health Department. "You don't want to spend the extra two minutes tracking down phone numbers in a crisis," she says. Harris has a war
room at the hospital specifically devoted to crisis communications.
When a crisis strikes, her department's calls are all forwarded to that room, where they gather and deal with media calls and disseminate information as appropriate.
Preparedness is critical right now for the healthcare industry, agrees Richard Levick, president of Levick Strategic Communications. Levick serves the legal community, so many
of the crises he manages are lawsuits against high-profile pharmaceutical firms. He emphasizes that with the scrutiny focused on drug companies and other healthcare organizations
these days, now is the time to ensure you're ready for any crisis that might strike. Part of that preparation is ensuring that legal teams are acquainted with corporate
communicators and the media. "Only about 10 percent of general counsel lawyers and media professionals know each other," Levick says. "Waiting for a crisis to strike is the worst
time for them to get to know each other." He also says communications execs should get to know outside counsel. "An important gap that needs to be bridged is not just the
[communications] team and in-house legal counsel, but communicators and the outside legal team. A lot of times in a crisis matter, the cameras are buzzing as the lawyers are on
the courthouse steps," Levick says, and those lawyers need to understand the situation from the communications team's point of view.
The Perfect Storm
Even the best-laid plans are subject to change when a crisis does strike, however. In June 2001, Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston with 22 inches of rain in the course of four
hours. The Texas Medical Center, a cluster of 12 hospitals in one small area, was among the hardest hit. "We had 40 feet of water in our basement," says Stefanie Asin, public
relations manager for The Methodist Hospital. "Our MRIs, our radiology department and our food services were all in the basement." The crisis plan The Methodist Hospital had for
natural disasters was not top of mind for Asin, whose home was also flooded. She didn't have power, and her cell phone went dead. Emma Chambers, a fellow PR manager for the
hospital, conducted media calls from her home to offer the public as much information as possible on the situation. "It was a situation where you had to go with the flow,"
Chambers says.
In the case of Tropical Storm Allison, the classic rules established by Johnson & Johnson during its famous 1980s Tylenol tampering case were the best crisis plan Asin and
Chambers had available. When the Houston Chronicle did an exposé on the flooding in the Medical Center, sending an email list of 50 in-depth questions to all the healthcare
organizations involved, Asin and Chambers were completely candid, offering a seven-page response admitting where they had gone wrong and detailing how the hospital would be better
prepared in the future. Resulting coverage was balanced and fair. Asin and Chambers agree that preparedness is critical, but say flexibility is also key in crises that involve
human lives.
Every situation is different, Harris concurs. In every crisis, she takes the time to ensure that she has permissions from patients and families to discuss the situation, even
if it means telling the media she has no information for them for a while. She also takes the key spokesperson - often a physician - aside for a "mini media training session"
during which she goes over how to handle the media's questions and what information the doctor should share.
The bottom line: Patients always take top priority, Harris says. That rule holds true whether you're a hospital dealing with mass casualties, a pharmaceutical firm issuing a
product recall, or a biotech firm dealing with a lawsuit, highlighting the unique predicament healthcare organizations face: "There's a great deal of pressure to communicate to
audiences with one hat as a business and with another hat as a version of mom - 'you're going to make me better,'" Levick says.
Johnson & Johnson's Golden Rules
Johnson & Johnson set the gold standard for crisis communications - not just in the healthcare industry - with its management of the Tylenol scare. Richard Levick, of
Levick Strategic Communications, boils down the rules:
Say, "We're sorry."
"It's the simplest thing to do," says Levick, but it often doesn't happen.
Say, "We're responsible." Even if the situation was out of your hands, ultimately the responsibility for your products or your service falls to you. Taking ownership of the
problem is not an admission of guilt and can go a long way in the court of public opinion.
Say, "We'll fix it." Detail how you will fix the problem and prevent future problems.
One major pharmaceutical company, which prefers not to be named, recently followed these rules when there was a product tampering incident with one of its drugs. The company
instantly recalled several lots of the drug and worked furiously to produce materials and alert distributors, customers, healthcare providers and users about the safety issue. The
company disseminated information about how to recognize tainted product and also communicated about how it would prevent future tampering. The result: Media coverage was barely a
blip on the radar screen.