Communicating in a Crisis
What to do When the News Media is at Your Door

When the FBI issued a terrorist alert last month for hospitals in Houston and three other U.S. cities, the news media sprang into action. Reporters, photographers, videographers and remote-broadcast satellite trucks blanketed the Texas Medical Center, securing print and broadcast interviews with hospital representatives who detailed how their facilities were responding to the alert.

How did the news media complete interviews so quickly, in time to air their stories during the next scheduled newscast? How did the reporters know exactly who to contact without suffering “corporate runaround?” How did the satellite trucks secure hassle-free parking adjacent to the hospitals where interviews took place?

Credit the public relations professionals at the various TMC institutions, whose job it is to facilitate interactions between their organizations and the news media. Sometimes called public relations, public affairs, media relations or news and information officers, these seasoned professionals help their institutions present a “public face” by way of news media coverage. Sometimes the news is good, and sometimes it’s not. But whatever the case, the public relations professionals are there to assure the release of accurate and timely information.

To assist public relations practitioners in planning and implementing the communications response to crisis situations, as in the recent FBI alert, the Texas Medical Center Public Relations Advisory Council sponsored a Nov. 7 workshop titled “Communicating Under Fire: A Workshop on the Strategic Management of Crisis Communications from the Heart of Texas to Ground Zero.”

The council consists of senior public relations practitioners representing the more than 40 member institutions in the Texas Medical Center.

“The council allows PR practitioners to work cooperatively in presenting the Texas Medical Center as one organization made up of many individual institutions; to inform one another about relevant information at our individual institutions; and to facilitate joint planning and cooperation between institutions facing common communications opportunities and challenges,” said Jane Brust, chair of the council and assistant vice president for public affairs at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Guest speakers included four PR professionals who know first hand what it’s like to be the conduit between an institution beset by crisis and the news media.

Mike Holtzman, executive vice president of Brown Lloyd James, a public relations firm in New York City, gave a personal account of his dealings with the news media immediately after last year’s Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Holtzman was tapped by the Federal Emergency Management Agency immediately following the attacks to serve as the media point person from Ground Zero, a role he reprised from the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center as FEMA’s media liaison. Holzman was named “2001 PR Person of the Year” by PR Week magazine and served as the global campaign director for Beijing’s successful bid to host the 2008 summer Olympic games.

Jean Gonsoulin, vice president and general manager of Weber Shandwick-Houston, presented a strategic plan for successfully managing crisis communications. Her credentials range from serving as global crisis management lead for Marathon Oil Co. to being one of only a handful of litigation PR specialists in the region. She played a key role in diffusing the escalating crisis for Memorial Hermann Hospital during Tropical Storm Allison and has managed a number of litigation matters for nursing homes and health entities under fire.

Cynthia J. Lawson, executive director of university relations at Texas A&M University, shared her experience of overseeing crisis communications in the wake of the collapse of the university’s bonfire during construction three years ago, resulting in 12 deaths and injuries to 27 students. The tragedy occurred in Lawson’s first year of employment at the 45,000-student university.

Claire Bassett, vice president for public affairs at Baylor College of Medicine, relayed her experiences in facilitating news media coverage of Tropical Storm Allison’s effect on Baylor’s research, educational and clinical programs. Bassett is responsible for Baylor’s alumni affairs, communications, federal government relations, health promotion, publications and creative services, and special events.

Every organization has points of vulnerability and will at some time experience a crisis, but the number of companies that do not have formalized crisis plans in place is “mind boggling,” Gonsoulin said while walking the group through steps in developing a plan.

“There is no excuse not to have a crisis plan for the most likely scenarios, and crafting this plan should not be viewed as an overwhelming undertaking,” she said.

In devising a plan, Gonsoulin advised participants to consider the type of crisis, legal issues, whether to respond reactively or proactively, how to gain access to facts and information, how to get the message out, who will be assigned to communicate to the news media, and how messages will be timed.

Basic elements need to be included in a crisis communications manual, she said, including scenarios that are real possibilities, depiction of designated media representatives and other key personnel, step-by-step responses, and prewritten fact sheets relaying detailed information about the institution.

Never become complacent about your plan, Gonsoulin advised.

“Routinely pull it out, review it, and test it. Make sure your management team has copies.”

The workshop’s planning committee included Nancy Hudgins, director of public relations at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research; Julie Penne, director of media relations at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center; Jane Brust, assistant vice president for public affairs at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and chair of the Texas Medical Center Public Relations Advisory Council; Mary Schiflett, vice president for public affairs at the Texas Medical Center; and Tracy Murley, senior administrative assistant at the Texas Medical Center.

Marc Mattsson, chief executive officer of the Texas Heart Institute, hosted the workshop, and Richard Wainerdi, Ph.D., president and CEO of the Texas Medical Center, hosted the closing luncheon.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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