1. Know your audience. Hospital leaders have several audiences, including internal employees, patients, the community, government and political leaders. Each group needs individual communication, so remembering your audience is of key importance.
“You typically have thousands of employees who are ready to be ambassadors and PR agents for your hospital, but they need to have the right message to communicate with your audience,” said Ms. Crawford. If in-person conferences aren’t possible, hospital leaders can:
• Create internet videos with weekly messages for employees
• E-mail blasts or newsletters
• Regular newsletters targeted to nurses or physicians
• Accessories like mouse pads to deliver an important message
Patients are also an important audience. “Patient communication starts with how they are registered,” said Ms. Crawford. “Support this with signs in the hall ways and waiting rooms. Good patient communication means having an up-to-date patient handbook, designed well so you can bring them in with the tools available. Hospitals have become more focused on wellness and it’s important to engage patients and future patients in wellness initiatives so they become family members before they become patients.”
To gain the support of your community in a new venture, work with the local media on an article in the newspaper and encourage staff to become involved in community speaking engagements. “When your story becomes the community’s story, you are more likely to become successful,” said Ms. Crawford. “With an event, you can craft the message and tell it in person. Create a local event for a certain segment of the population with local speakers. It’s a very good way to bring the community to understand and believe in your story.”
To engage the political audience, hospital CEOs can meet with political leaders once per month.
2. Know the media. It’s important to have a relationship with reporters in your community. Stay updated with local reporters even there isn’t anything going on with the hospital so when you do have news you can work with them right away. “Know what they write about and the issues they are covering, which will take you a long way,” said Ms. Crawford. “Keep in mind that media is lean today—there aren’t any beat reporters. They are people and have interests so they may tend to cover certain types of stories over other. If you have a cancer center that receives gold certification, you will get a better story in the media if you go to someone who has an interest in those things.”
Additional potential for working with the media includes:
• Discussing trends in healthcare nationally and how they relate to you locally
• Comment on a big story in the media
• Incorporating hard facts and numbers on the hospital
3. Prepare for the worst. When something happens at the hospital that isn’t positive, you must do damage control. “Nobody wants to think about that, but it’s best to be prepared,” said Ms. Crawford. “Make sure you have a team in place that pulls from the different groups in your system, including legal, public relations and security. Know who your spokesperson is and who will coordinate with the media.”
Social media can be an important part of the damage control. “You don’t have to wait for the 6 p.m. news to release your story,” said Ms. Crawford. “This gives you some control over a situation that is out of your control.”
Speak with the media about the story if possible; if not, release a statement to the media to tell your story. Then, recover after the story goes from the front page to the back pages. “You do move on, but it’s important you share with your audience what you learned and how you are going to be better,” said Ms. Crawford. “It’s important for you to respond to a crisis because if you don’t someone else will. It’s more important for you to go ahead and do damage control and be as proactive as possible.”
4. Be consistent. Consistency is important in any marketing or pubic relations campaign. “If you are a hospital or health system who is in love with life, all of your marketing and PR has to tie back to your mission and vision,” said Ms. Crawford. “In addition, create a slide show on your brand. We have something that shows the consistency across the board for the brand.”
If you have a health system acquiring hospitals, it’s hard to incorporate things into the new hospital. All the details should work together so the new hospital becomes part of your brand as a whole.
5. Re-evaluate. Set goals and evaluate your progress against your goals. Look back at the beginning of your campaign and determine what success looks like. To accomplish your goals with political leaders, you can:
• Implement a grass roots letter writing campaign
• Create a microsite for others to send a letter to their representatives
• Prepare documents and meet with political leaders
Figure out how to benchmark your success, which could include the number of media clippings mentioning the hospital or the number of total impressions and media sentiment. “If you communicate well and get to know the media, you are more likely to be successful,” said Ms. Crawford.
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