Mount Sinai Health System in New York City overhauled its internal communications strategy during a large nursing strike, Ragan Communications reported April 29.
When thousands of nurses walked off the job, the health system adapted patient care delivery and how it communicated operational changes across its workforce. The disruption led to patient transfers between facilities and shifting staff responsibilities, requiring ongoing updates and coordination.
Karen Wish, chief marketing officer and system strategic communications lead at Mount Sinai Health System, told the publication the communications team worked closely with frontline operations to ensure messaging reflected real-time conditions.
“If you’re not embedded in the work, you can’t communicate it well,” Ms. Wish said. “You have to understand what’s actually happening on the ground before you can translate it for everyone else.”
To manage the complexity, Mount Sinai mapped operational decisions to specific audiences, identifying what information frontline staff, managers and support teams needed and what actions they were expected to take. This approach became more important as patients were moved across facilities and coordination demands increased.
“It’s about understanding the nuance of what’s actually happening and then asking who needs to know this and what they need to do with it,” Ms. Wish said.
Mount Sinai’s communications team issued frequent updates, often multiple times per day, and used multiple channels and formats to reach employees, recognizing that different roles required different levels of detail and communication methods.
“People receive information in different ways, at different times and in different formats,” Ms. Wish said. “So we deployed almost every communication in multiple ways to make sure it actually landed.”
The health system also relied on real-time feedback from internal stakeholders to refine messaging and adjust when communications were not effective.
“You’re operating in real time,” Ms. Wish said. “What really matters is having trusted stakeholders who can tell you immediately what’s working and what’s not.”
Throughout the strike, the communications strategy focused on keeping the organization aligned as conditions evolved, ensuring staff understood both the situation and their responsibilities.
“What we were really doing was creating an organization where people understand what’s happening, why it matters and what they need to do next,” Ms. Wish said.
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