The 24-hour news cycle, fueled by the Internet, has transformed how information is gathered and disseminated – and dramatically raised the stakes for hospitals and health systems faced with crisis. The ability to respond quickly and effectively has never been more important – especially during the initial 24 hours when the tone of the media coverage is being set. Best case: We’ll help you develop and implement a strong, proactive crisis management plan that really works – hopefully, long before you’ll ever need it. Worst case: When you’ve been blindsided by events seemingly beyond your control, we’ll support you with levelheaded advice and the practical steps you need to take to protect your organization’s reputation.

Acquiring or selling a hospital is a highly complex process with many moving parts. It’s also a process that requires a good strategic communications plan from start to finish. This is one of our specialties. We’ve helped buy or sell more than 100 hospitals in many states across the country. If you’re buying, we can help you draft a powerful proposal that effectively supports your offer. If you’re selling, we can put together a comprehensive marketing document that showcases your facility to potential buyers. We’ll also design and implement a comprehensive strategic communications plan for your transaction that covers all of your needs – everything from contacts with key regulators and elected officials to presentations at public hearings, media calls, press releases, internal communications pieces and community meetings.

If you’ve ever been pressured by a reporter into saying something unintended or been forced to watch helplessly as a positive story about your hospital turned negative, you know how critical it is to maintain good relations with the media. Our plan for developing and maintaining cordial and effective media relations is simple. It emphasizes three key elements: trust, professionalism and consistency. We’ll show you how to build a strong, long-term media relations plan for your hospital that will help you maximize coverage of your facility when times are good and minimize the impact of negative coverage during challenging times.

We believe in integrated marketing communications. This entails making sure all of your marketing communications efforts – everything from advertising, product line promotion, public relations and direct marketing – work together as a unified force, rather than in isolation. As you know, there’s a lot of competition out there for your customers’ attention. We’ll work with your marketing department to develop and implement an integrated marketing communications plan that offers well-written, well-designed, and strategically sound collaterals. We’ll bring fresh ideas to your Internet or web site strategy. We’ll help you create interesting events, affiliations, and other vehicles to draw attention to your hospital and the services you offer.

Some of your most important stakeholders are the people who work in your organization. In many cases, they’re also your biggest supporters. With an effective internal communications strategy, you can continually reinforce your hospital’s vision, values and culture with your employees and your physicians – and help them become your most effective advocates in your community. We believe a good internal communications program should include a continual, two-way dialogue between upper management and staff. Giving employees an opportunity to share their ideas and strategies recognizes the valuable role they play in helping your organization achieve its goals.

Good public relations doesn’t work in a vacuum. It has to be an integral part of your hospital’s business plan. We can help you construct and implement an effective, well-designed public relations plan that tracks and complements your organization’s economic goals. We’ll assist you in planning activities and events to ensure your hospital has a strong and positive public image in your community. And we’ll help you develop an advertising plan and media strategy designed to showcase your best qualities to all of your important stakeholders.

Change is never easy. But surviving in today’s operating environment often requires difficult decisions that could transform the way healthcare is delivered in your community. Service reductions, consolidations and closures are becoming more and more commonplace as a result of new technologies, utilization patterns and basic market forces. However, implementing any significant change requires careful planning. Your actions can garner wide-ranging responses from your patients, physicians, employees, community leaders, elected officials and the media. With a comprehensive strategic plan in place, you will have the tools to manage and deliver your message.

Trade groups and membership organizations make formidable allies. They offer the strength of a collective voice when there’s a need to lobby candidates or elected officials on important issues. Many trade groups and their members also participate in political activities through political action committees. Your hospital may be an active member of several industry trade organizations. You personally may be involved in your local Rotary Club or Chamber of Commerce. But are you using your trade group memberships to your best advantage? We can design a program to maximize your trade group relationships in a way that will advance your legislative goals and protect your business interests. We’ll also integrate your organizational and trade group memberships into your overall public relations and marketing strategy.

Government plays a role in virtually every aspect of healthcare delivery. Elected officials and bureaucrats make daily decisions that impact the way you conduct your business. They also can become intertwined in complex internal issues, such as labor negotiations and your business decision-making process. We’ll work with you to develop and execute a public affairs strategy designed to improve relationships with your elected officials and government regulators. Optimizing these relationships can help you:

• Enhance potential business opportunities
• Mitigate the impact of increased scrutiny by regulators, legislators, and the media
• Open doors for participation in new government programs
• Advocate for rate increases with government or private payers
• Market programs and services within your community
• Control crisis situations

Sometimes, hospitals have to marshal all of their communications resources to achieve a specific goal or goals. For example, if Congress or the state legislature attempts to impose massive reductions in healthcare spending, elected officials need to hear from everyone who could be impacted by the proposed change. Employees, physicians, patients and community leaders can help carry your message to legislators and the media. Grassroots advocacy also can make the difference in gaining local approvals for construction plans, service changes and other high profile projects. A well-designed grassroots advocacy campaign draws attention to your issue and can make the critical difference to the final outcome. We’ll help you inventory your internal resources and develop a strategy, complete with education materials and the tools required to make your program a success.

Handling the media is a very specialized skill. Appearing relaxed, comfortable and coherent on-camera is especially challenging. We offer comprehensive media training sessions for our clients to help them rise to the challenge. The training, which utilizes videotaped mock interviews, is designed to increase control and comfort level for working directly with the media. The sessions, which are led by an experienced trainer, a former journalist, who has an in-depth knowledge of the media and how it works, are customized to accommodate the experience and background of the trainee. Areas covered include how the media works, fielding difficult questions, crisis scenarios and message delivery.

In today’s political world, special interest groups wield enormous power. In many cases, they’ve learned how to manipulate the legislative process to advance their social or economic agendas. Some elected officials now use the legislative and regulatory process to reward their political partners. Increasingly, hospitals and health systems have found themselves the target of a specific attack. In this climate, legislative and regulatory changes can have dramatic consequences on a hospital and its broader community. Elected officials need to look beyond political influence. They need to understand the impact their votes can have on their constituents – including your patients, your employees, your physicians and your vendors. A good regulatory and legislative relations program includes the development and maintenance of strong relationships with key candidates and elected officials. If necessary, legislation can be used to advance your business goals and objectives. We’ll work with you to assess whether legislation is an appropriate vehicle. And we can help write and manage legislative initiatives, integrating key grassroots and trade group activities.

Key messages provide the basis for all communications – both internal and external – as part of any campaign or project. In many cases, they’re a critical part of just figuring out where your hospital, company or organization currently stands in relation to its market and its competitors. We work with our clients to develop messages that convey general positioning, brand equity, competitive points of differentiation and, if appropriate, precise descriptions of their organization or project plan. In collaboration with our clients, we help build overarching messaging as well as messages aimed at specific target audiences that can be used to help write presentations, press releases and marketing materials.