Research shows that it’s not if a crisis will occur within your healthcare organization, but when. The majority of these crises tend to be the predictable, preventable, slow burn type events rather than the wildly unpredictable, out-of-left-field type disaster.
The takeaway here is that the development of a crisis communication plan itself isn’t enough. Conducting a full and complete vulnerability assessment before developing the final plan allows you to identify your organization’s most probable and predictable crises. In some cases, you may be able to avoid the crisis all together.
Many organizations tend jump right into the plan development without spending the valuable time assessing the magnitude of potential events facing the organization. That plan may overlook or underestimate the wide variety of probable challenges – from cyber breaches to HR nightmares. While it’s virtually impossible to prepare for every potential crisis, assessing where and how your organization is at risk is a necessary and valuable step.
Here are four steps healthcare organizations should engage in as part of a thorough vulnerability assessment for effective organizational crisis preparedness:
1. Designate a Crisis Team. First, even before beginning the actual vulnerability assessment activities, put together your crisis team with a clear chain of command and well-defined roles. This team will participate in the assessment as will other individuals from various roles within the organization. Your crisis communications team needs to be comprised of multiple well-spoken, well-trained members – from inside and potentially outside your organization. At a minimum, include the CEO, a team leader (this is likely not the CEO), a communications coordinator, a spokesperson, perhaps a safety/security coordinator, a family/client/patient coordinator, and in most cases, a legal representative. It’s important to include team members from all levels within the organization including front line associates, managers and executives to get a full picture of vulnerabilities that may exist. As you continue through the assessment, this team may evolve with the addition or deletion of members. This is also a good time to research industry-wide vulnerabilities and to review your current continuity and disaster recovery plans to identify any gaps.
2. Create a Vulnerability Assessment Tool. The second step involves the creation of a vulnerability assessment tool utilizing multiple methods including questionnaires, surveys, interviews and location inspections to gain insight into where your organization is most vulnerable. Each person on the crisis team as well as any other valuable individuals will be interviewed or surveyed to obtain a comprehensive view. Using these methods, you might uncover everything from patient data breaches, employee drug theft, and cybersecurity issues to harassment, discrimination, or workplace violence. It’s important to identify not only these potential crises but to uncover where you might be most vulnerable - in the office, on social media, in public settings, etc.
3. Analyze Results and Develop Scenarios. Once the tool is completed, results are analyzed and the vulnerabilities are ranked according to impact, cost and reputation damage, then reported out to the team for feedback. Using these results, the team then decides on which 5-7 scenarios are most important to focus on as part of the crisis plan.
4. Develop a Comprehensive Crisis Communications Plan. Lastly, each scenario is further developed within the plan. This plan will lay out how you will communicate with all of your stakeholders when a crisis occurs. The plan includes: your crisis communication team, your sample crisis scenarios and messaging tailored to each, and monitoring and response protocols for dealing with the media, social media and other communication channels. This plan becomes your road map for everything you should do before, during and after a crisis situation. These detailed scenarios also become a training tool for when you conduct mock crisis walkthroughs to further develop the skills within your crisis communication team.
No one is immune. Regardless of the size, age or focus of your organization, these things will happen. It’s easier, less stressful and cheaper to prepare and prevent a crisis then it is to respond to one. Investing in thorough vulnerability assessment as part of a fully developed crisis communication plan will undoubtedly minimize risk, mitigate damage and get you back to business as usual in no time.
With 20 years of experience, Kristin Mack Deuber, APR, has developed, managed and implemented public relations and marketing programs for clients ranging from non-profit organizations to Fortune 500 companies, with a deep expertise in the healthcare, life sciences and biotech industries. She holds an MBA from Franklin University and Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from The Ohio State University. An accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), Kristin serves on the executive committee of the national PRSA Health Academy and is a board member of the San Diego/Imperial Counties PRSA Chapter. Learn more at www.kmdpr.com.
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