Hospital Salvages Image, Learns Lessons After ER Disaster
If it had been an episode of ER, you can be sure George Clooney would have raced into the street to save the life of the injured teenage boy.
But it was real life when a gang member shot 15-year-old Christopher Sercye in an alley across the street from the north side of Ravenswood Hospital Medical Center in Chicago. And the ER staff refused to walk even 30 feet outside of the hospital doors to save the critically injured boy. That reaction wasn't rooted in callousness. It wasn't even by choice. Ravenswood nurses and doctors were just following a hospital policy that prohibits them from leaving the ER.
And there the PR nightmare began.
When Sercye died that Saturday, May 16, literally steps away from medical help, questions and confusion about the hospital's policy arose among the media and community. The 306-bed hospital has a 24-hour emergency department but no trauma center. State law prohibits transferring patients from an emergency room to a trauma unit. Instead, protocol requires ER staff to call 911 and request patient transport to a trauma center.
Ravenswood ER staff followed that protocol. The normal 911-response time is three to four minutes. In this instance, it was closer to 11 minutes, and too late, before an ambulance reached Sercye.
Action, Not Reaction
Headlines from around the world latched onto the dramatic story of a young black teenager who died because the ER staff refused to treat him.
The first step to stem the negative media tide was action, says Ravenswood CEO John Blair, who spoke at an American Medical Association conference earlier this month. Within days of the incident, he revoked the 12-year-old policy, which prohibited ER doctors from treating Sercye curbside.
This step was essential, since the media wasn't alone in its outrage. The White House threatened to pull federal funding from the hospital on June 1, 1998, unless the hospital made changes. The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) made an onsite visit to verify the changes. Forty million dollars in Medicare funding was on the line.
At the forefront of crisis intervention and communicating about policy changes was the PR firm Hill & Knowlton, retained by Ravenswood several weeks before the Sercye case for help during the hospital's merger with Advocate Healthcare Systems, says Gary Weitman, senior VP and director of media relations for H&K.
The first press conference announced that the hospital was reviewing its ER policy.
Soon after the hospital announced it was repealing its policy. In retrospect, Weitman says it would have been more effective to rescind the policy at that initial press conference.
Eventually, however, this story about tragedy was replaced with a story about the hospital taking action.
It was imperative that Weitman help Blair explain to the press, community, employees and the government that the hospital's choice was not cold and calculating, but that the ER staff called the police, called an ambulance and prepared a bed for Sercye in anticipation of his arrival.
It also was
Rick Wade, senior VP, communications for the American Hospital Association (AHA), says this incident is not the first of its kind. Among AHA member hospitals, some report that they allow ER staffers to leave the premises; others don't.
"Hospitals have to ask themselves, 'are you abandoning your own emergency room? Are you sending your caregivers in harm's way or to dangerous areas?'" says Wade. "When asked, few other hospitals felt they could handle it better."
Healing Phase
Blair compared the emotions of hospital employees after the Ravenswood shooting to a person grieving over the death of a loved one. The employees battled with feelings of denial, shame and anger.
"We're still in the healing phase," says Blair.
A few days after the incident, employee communications became especially critical as staff began to get angry. Not only did outside forces threaten the existence of the hospital, but internal problems did also. Internal PR was stepped up to address the concerns employees were voicing like "How could they do this? How could they jeopardize our jobs?"
Some employees were reduced to tears by the devastating incident.
Regaining employee trust was a key goal for Weitman. The daily meetings with employees allowed them to vent their anger and frustration to Blair.
Blair showed his visibility and concern by "walking the halls" to talk with employees about any top-of-mind concerns. E-mail messages and an in-house newsletter also provided a venue for employee communications.
As the one-year anniversary of Sercye's death approaches, Blair and his staff are looking outward to try to salvage torn relationships between the hospital and the community.
Blair is working with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and 5th District Congressman Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.) and the AHA to develop strategic alliances. Many community groups will participate in a sunrise vigil on the anniversary of Sercye's death.
(H&K, 312/255-1200; Ravenswood, 773/878-4300, AHA; 202/638-1100)