: : THE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE QUICKLY DURING A CRISIS IS A NECESSITY FOR HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS.
As social media quickly gains critical mass in the marketplace, healthcare organizations are reaching out to their audiences to talk to them where they naturally congregate.
An article from “Health Leaders Media” covers how Innovis Health, a hospital in Fargo, SD, used a combination of their blog, website, and Twitter feed to communicate with the community during the recent Red River floods.
In a recent article, HealthLeaders Media covered the efforts by
Crisis Communications, Social Media, and a Whole Lot of Heart
For days after the Red River floods, Innovis was the single hospital that was fully operational. They smartly took advantage of the free service, Twitter, to communicate with their employees, staff, community, and EMT workers.
Their corporate blog also featured a heartfelt post from hospital president Greg Glasner and CAO Kevin Pizner. There, they pledged that Innovis Health would continue to support the community during the efforts in the months ahead, including clean-up and rebuildling.
“The floodwaters are receding, though in many instances, the hardest work begins now–the clean-up, the re-building, the emotional wear and tear, and the repairing of families impacted by the flood,” they wrote.
Additionally, they thanked their staff for their efforts during the emergency.
“The power of human spirit was clearly evident in the determination of the staff of Innovis Health not to give up, but rather ’step up’ at this time of crisis,” they wrote. “You did it through the offering of your time, energy, skills, talents and even personal resources. Your collective efforts resulted in a tremendous impact on our patients over the past week. Our communities and region know who they can count on to be there with them in any emergency.”
From the HealthLeaders Media article, “this is what marketers mean when they talk about how important it is to live your brand, mission, and values. This is what it means to tell your organization’s story. And these leaders clearly understand how valuable their employees are–and understand the power of telling them so in a very public forum.”
If you want to learn more about how this Midwest hospital handled their crisis communication, check out this interview of Carol Russell, the social media program manager for Innovis Health. She spearheaded the hospital’s response for outreach communication as the flooding started to happen.
Source: http://blogs.healthleadersmedia.com/marketshare/2009/04/crisis-communications-social-media/
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