Boston bombings reveal evolution of hospital crisis communication

by Nancy Cawley Jean Like the rest of the world, I was in utter amazement as the story of the Boston bombings played out, and it's something I can't stop thinking about. I can't imagine what the victims and their families have been living through since it happened and all the recovery time still ahead of them. In the aftermath, I can sit back and think more clearly from a professional point of view. The first thing that comes to mind is what those media folks were experiencing at the Boston hospitals. I totally understand. They were inundated with media trucks, media calls, reporters wanting answers to a myriad of questions, assignment desks calling for constant updates on patients, requests for interviews, and the list goes on and on. Then of course there's the need to keep the public informed, and that's when each hospital's social media efforts came into play. I think they did an absolutely phenomenal job in as difficult a situation as any we experience in this line of work. I recently came across a great article that speaks to the communications efforts by these three hospitals, and it warrants sharing, as do the kudos that these hospitals deserve. It was this same article that brought me back 10 years to the horrible nightclub fire in West Warwick, R.I., at The Station. I was 10 years younger, and I have to admit, a lot greener about crisis communications. I had only been working for the hospital for a year and a half when the fire happened. And while I am very...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs