Gary and Janelle played critical roles in the company’s response to numerous crises, at both the individual hospital and corporate level. These crises ranged from charges of fraudulent admitting and billing of psychiatric patients, a highly publicized investigation into charges of questionable Medicare billing practices to maximize revenues, allegations of performing unnecessary procedures , and a federal investigation into charges that a hospital paid kickbacks to doctors to increase admissions. Gary and Janelle collaborated on comprehensive strategic public affairs strategies that included media relations, corporate message development for both external and internal audiences, and government/community relations.

Blanco + Hopkins provided crisis communications and crisis management services for a troubled hospital system in Southern California. This system was under investigation by the Los Angeles City Attorney for alleged patient “dumping,” in addition to being investigated by the federal government on allegations of fraudulent admissions and billing. Prior to our hiring, one of the system’s hospitals had been decertified from Medicare/Medicaid by CMS and had lost its Joint Commission accreditation. Blanco + Hopkins designed and implemented a communications plan that helped the hospital’s new management team establish a new identity for the facility. Part of that plan was to build an improved relationship with the reporter who had written a series of very negative stories about the hospital for two years. The success of this strategy paid dividends both when the hospital regained CMS certification and HFAP accreditation and, later, when the facility was unexpectedly put up for sale by the parent company.

Blanco + Hopkins provided crisis communications and crisis management services for a managed care plan that faced allegations of general mismanagement as well as anonymous public accusations of sexual misconduct by a senior executive. One of the challenges facing the organization was that it has a comparatively weak and ineffectual board. Blanco + Hopkins worked with the CEO and board chairman to have the board chairman take a more active role in management’s response to the anonymous allegations. We also helped develop positive messaging and a strategy to counter the negative impact and coalesce employee support for the organization and the management team. Subsequent employee satisfaction surveys showed support for the organization became stronger than it was before the allegations surfaced. No negative media coverage resulted.

Blanco + Hopkins provides ongoing crisis communications and crisis management services for a regionally based hospital system. Recently, one of the system’s hospitals was hit by back-to-back crises – an anesthesiologist practicing at the hospital was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting patients who were under anesthesia and the state fined the hospital for a wrong-site surgery incident. Blanco + Hopkins developed and implemented a strategy to manage the media fallout from both incidents and helped ensure that the hospital’s position was reflected in subsequent articles.

Blanco + Hopkins helped a regional hospital system recover after laptops containing a large amount of unencrypted patient data were stolen from its corporate offices. As required by law, we reached out on the company’s behalf to the two major daily newspapers in the local market to publicize the theft of data. We also handled the avalanche of media calls that resulted and helped connect our client with a company that specializes in identity theft protection and notification of potential victims of data theft.

The Blanco + Hopkins team was part of the crisis communications and crisis management team that was hired to assist a local community advocacy group that was attempting to persuade local elected officials not to close a county-run hospital. The hospital was being heavily criticized in the media for allegations of substandard care. We worked with the advocacy group members, training them to serve as media spokespeople for the hospital, developing messaging, staging protests and performing heavy media outreach, particularly to broadcast outlets.

The Blanco + Hopkins team provided crisis and media relations counsel to a home healthcare provider. The company, which was under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, was the target of misguided rumors and speculation among its industry peers. It was also targeted by an investigative reporter. We developed company messaging and, working in concert with the company’s legal team, developed a company response which resulted in a cessation of negative rumors. The story was never published.

The Blanco + Hopkins team helped a major pharmaceutical company brand mitigate a year-long crisis triggered by social media-inspired criticisms that proved very damaging to both the brand and its products. He led a crisis communications campaign that included unique outreach to various social media sites, including blog and Facebook postings, as well as traditional media relations such as placing of stories in high-level media outlets.