Hospital reputation lessons from the football field to the tennis court

by Kent Bottles Hospital leaders can learn a lesson about reputation management from two current sports stories. The first story is the well-known "Deflategate," and the second is the less-publicized example of sportsmanship from the Australian Tennis Open. Even those who don't follow the NFL have been inundated with stories about how the New England Patriots played the first half of their AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts with footballs that had been deflated. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has in the past stated that he favors footballs that are underinflated, and numerous former players have noted that deflated footballs are easier to catch and hold onto in rainy conditions. When Patriots coach Bill Belichick and Brady held separate news conferences to say they had no idea what happened, many newspaper, radio and television commentators said they didn't believe them. Contrast the NFL story with what 112th-ranked tennis player Tim Smyczek did while nearly upsetting third-ranked Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open. In the fifth set of a close match, Nadal's serve was affected by a fan's loud shout, and Smyczek immediately told the umpire to let Nadal serve again because of the distraction. "I know my parents would have killed me if I didn't. It was the right thing to do," said Smyczek, according to the New York Times. "I think he deserves the sportsmanship award for the next 10 years. ... I've never seen that, and I've been in tennis for 19 years. ...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs