Public relations within healthcare setting

Public relations within healthcare setting

Research a public relations scenario you recently heard about in the news. This could be anything that required a hospital or health care facility or company to make a statement about their recent practices. Some examples include medical errors, such as surgery on a wrong limb or organ; pharmaceutical issues, such as the Tylenol® crisis in 1982; or facility violence, such as shootings or baby snatching.

Create a 8- to 12-slide presentation that addresses the following:

•Provide a brief overview of the scenario and answer the following questions: ◦How did the hospital or facility respond?

◦Why was it necessary for the facility to respond?

◦How did they promote the hospital’s view?

◦What was the outcome of the response?

◦Would you have done anything differently if you provided the facility’s public relations response?

Public relations—a marketing communications method involving the use of publicity and other unpaid promotional methods to deliver messages—historically has served as the communicative workhorse of the health services industry, representing the predominant pathway over many decades by which health and medical facilities conveyed stories to the public. While other components of the marketing communications mix, perhaps most notably that of advertising, have now captured a significant portion of interest, attention, and use by healthcare establishments, public relations remains a valuable communicative avenue when deployed properly.

Discussion
As an unpaid method of promotion, public relations is uniquely positioned among its counterparts in the marketing communications

mix which require direct expenditures to reach audiences. Typically effected by preparing and submitting press releases to news media firms in hopes that they, in turn, will present given stories to their audiences, limitations are somewhat obvious as transmission control rests with external entities. But overcoming limitations is possible with prudent strategies. This article presents Willis-Knighton Health System’s associated strategies, along with a range of public relations insights from decades of deployment experience.

Conclusions
Prudently deployed and led by guiding strategies, public relations offers health and medical organizations opportunities to engage audiences in an efficient and highly credible manner. Courtesy of its unique properties, public relations capably can complement other marketing communications, operating synergistically to help healthcare institutions achieve their conveyance goals, fostering exchange and bolstering market share. Careful operationalization of this marketing communications avenue can help healthcare establishments realize their full communicative potential.

Important information for writing discussion questions and participation

Welcome to class

Hello class and welcome to the class and I will be your instructor for this course. This is a -week course and requires a lot of time commitment, organization, and a high level of dedication. Please use the class syllabus to guide you through all the assignments required for the course. I have also attached the classroom policies to this announcement to know your expectations for this course. Please review this document carefully and ask me any questions if you do. You could email me at any time or send me a message via the “message” icon in halo if you need to contact me. I check my email regularly, so you should get a response within 24 hours. If you have not heard from me within 24 hours and need to contact me urgently, please send a follow up text to

I strongly encourage that you do not wait until the very last minute to complete your assignments. Your assignments in weeks 4 and 5 require early planning as you would need to present a teaching plan and interview a community health provider. I advise you look at the requirements for these assignments at the beginning of the course and plan accordingly. I have posted the YouTube link that explains all the class assignments in detail. It is required that you watch this 32-minute video as the assignments from week 3 through 5 require that you follow the instructions to the letter to succeed. Failure to complete these assignments according to instructions might lead to a zero. After watching the video, please schedule a one-on-one with me to discuss your topic for your project by the second week of class. Use this link to schedule a 15-minute session. Please, call me at the time of your appointment on my number. Please note that I will NOT call you.

Please, be advised I do NOT accept any assignments by email. If you are having technical issues with uploading an assignment, contact the technical department and inform me of the issue. If you have any issues that would prevent you from getting your assignments to me by the deadline, please inform me to request a possible extension. Note that working fulltime or overtime is no excuse for late assignments. There is a 5%-point deduction for every day your assignment is late. This only applies to approved extensions. Late assignments will not be accepted.

If you think you would be needing accommodations due to any reasons, please contact the appropriate department to request accommodations.

Plagiarism is highly prohibited. Please ensure you are citing your sources correctly using APA 7th edition. All assignments including discussion posts should be formatted in APA with the appropriate spacing, font, margin, and indents. Any papers not well formatted would be returned back to you, hence, I advise you review APA formatting style. I have attached a sample paper in APA format and will also post sample discussion responses in subsequent announcements.

Your initial discussion post should be a minimum of 200 words and response posts should be a minimum of 150 words. Be advised that I grade based on quality and not necessarily the number of words you post. A minimum of TWO references should be used for your initial post. For your response post, you do not need references as personal experiences would count as response posts. If you however cite anything from the literature for your response post, it is required that you cite your reference. You should include a minimum of THREE references for papers in this course. Please note that references should be no more than 5 years old except recommended as a resource for the class. Furthermore, for each discussion board question, you need ONE initial substantive response and TWO substantive responses to either your classmates or your instructor for a total of THREE responses. There are TWO discussion questions each week, hence, you need a total minimum of SIX discussion posts for each week. I usually post a discussion question each week. You could also respond to these as it would count towards your required SIX discussion posts for the week.

I understand this is a lot of information to cover in 5 weeks, however, the Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that we can do all things through Christ that strengthens us. Even in times like this, we are encouraged by God’s word that we have that ability in us to succeed with His strength. I pray that each and every one of you receives strength for this course and life generally as we navigate through this pandemic that is shaking our world today. Relax and enjoy the course!

Hi Class,

Please read through the following information on writing a Discussion question response and participation posts.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Important information on Writing a Discussion Question

• Your response needs to be a minimum of 150 words (not including your list of references)
• There needs to be at least TWO references with ONE being a peer reviewed professional journal article.
• Include in-text citations in your response
• Do not include quotes—instead summarize and paraphrase the information
• Follow APA-7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

Participation –replies to your classmates or instructor

• A minimum of 6 responses per week, on at least 3 days of the week.
• Each response needs at least ONE reference with citations—best if it is a peer reviewed journal article
• Each response needs to be at least 75 words in length (does not include your list of references)
• Responses need to be substantive by bringing information to the discussion or further enhance the discussion. Responses of “I agree” or “great post” does not count for the word count.
• Follow APA 7th edition
• Points will be deducted if the above is not followed

• Remember to use and follow APA-7th edition for all weekly assignments, discussion questions, and participation points.
• Here are some helpful links
• The is a great resource

Background
Few institutions possess greater needs to communicate than those which offer health and medical services to the public. Hospitals, medical clinics, and myriad other healthcare providers offer services of extreme importance to the populace, with these offerings affording individuals with opportunities to witness improved health and well-being, ultimately influencing broad community health. Life-enhancing, life-extending, and life-saving interventions are among the most important offerings provided in society [1, 2], but without proper conveyance of the availability of these services, audiences will remain uninformed and thus unable to take advantage of them. As such, poor or nonexistent communication on the part of healthcare establishments has the very real potential to diminish both individual and community health. It also has the potential to erode the financial viability of given healthcare establishments, as communication shortfalls will diminish opportunities to attract audiences who supply the all-important patronage that permits establishments to remain operational [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. All in all, communication should not be taken lightly by healthcare providers, with success on this front being an essential ingredient for successful medical pursuits.

One method for communicating with current and prospective patients is through what is known as public relations. Public relations, one of five conveyance methods constituting the marketing communications mix, involves the use of publicity and other unpaid forms of communication to disseminate messages to desired audiences [4, 7, 12]. Public relations traditionally served as the primary method by which healthcare providers informed audiences of available medical services, accolades and awards, new technologies offered, and so on. It now, however, is complemented by the full range of the marketing communications mix, which also includes personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, and perhaps most notably, advertising [13]. Despite it being joined by other components of the marketing communications mix, public relations remains a valuable tool for the promotion of healthcare services [7, 8].

Effecting public relations proficiently in health services organizations requires devoted study and practical experience, permitting a current, expanding knowledge base which facilitates continual improvement. Additional benefits are afforded by studying the public relations strategies and tactics of peer health and medical providers, offering exposure to external approaches which might be adopted to enhance and improve communicative skills and abilities. This particular article shares public relations insights from Willis-Knighton Health System, shoring up experiential accounts available in the literature and providing food for thought for healthcare establishments seeking to bolster their public relations acumen.