[A guide to successful public relations for hospitals and emergency medical services.]

[A guide to successful public relations for hospitals and emergency medical services.]
Anaesthesist. 2014 Mar 30;
Authors: Ausserer J, Schwamberger J, Preloznik R, Klimek M, Paal P, Wenzel V
Abstract
Tragic accidents, e.g. involving celebrity patients or severe incidents in hospital occur suddenly without any advance warning, often produce substantial interest by the media and quickly overburden management personnel involved in both hospitals and emergency medical services. While doctors, hospitals and emergency medical services desire objective media reports, the media promote emotionalized and dramatized reports to ensure maximum attention and circulation. When briefing the media, the scales may quickly tilt from professional, well-deliberated information to unfortunate, often unintended disinformation. Such phenomena may result in continuing exaggerated reports in the tabloid press, which in the presence of aggressive lawyers and a competitive hospital environment can turn into image and legal problems. In this article, several aspects are discussed in order to achieve successful public relations.Interviews should be given only after consultation with the responsible press officer and the director of the respective department or hospital director. Requests for information by the media should always be answered as otherwise one-sided, unintentional publications can result that are extremely difficult to correct later. One should be...

Source: Der Anaesthesist - March 30, 2014 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Ausserer J, Schwamberger J, Preloznik R, Klimek M, Paal P, Wenzel V Tags: Anaesthesist Source Type: research