Our policy is that all general postings are managed through the PR Office (HR and patient care have their own posting locations). Through PR we have various posting locations, including slots in the elevators, as well as a couple of general employee/generic (community) bulletin boards. In terms of general guidelines, we do not post advertisements, such as apartments for rent, cars for sale, etc.  We generally limit postings to relevant and beneficial community events and activities (cancer care dragon boat races, blood donor clinics, etc.), Foundation/auxiliary activities, etc.

Bluewater Health implemented Communication Boards in May 2003 - each department/program has one and they are regulated using our five pillars (people, patients, finance, community, safety/environment).  We designed standard headers for the approximately 80 boards across our three sites.  Each month I put together a package of information that is sent to the contact person in each department/program - the memo highlights what to take down off the board and includes posters/material to post for the next month.  This way it keeps the boards current. The posters are standardized to be one sided - 8.5 x 11, etc. The standard types of information that is posted monthly includes:  latest hospital financial budget, and the department's budget; next month's hospital educational program; health and safety committee membership; calendar of events for month highlighting service teams activities; poster for the standard of the month the hospital is promoting (we have ten corporate standards, e.g. communication, appearance, ambassadorship, etc.), monthly patient satisfaction scores (NCR picker), etc. In all of our communications, we regularly refer to our communication boards for staff and volunteers to get the latest information on hospital items - it is one of a number of tools we use to keep information flowing in a timely and consistent fashion in our organization.
 

Question #2:

ASK A QUESTION - AUGUST 2006

I use this approach -- State why we can’t speak to personal information and specify the Act, acknowledge the emotion, and speak in global terms wherever possible.  Example:
“Certainly under the privacy acts we can’t speak to the specifics of any situation or a patient’s particular issues and treatments. I can appreciate that (they, he she) is/are (upset, concerned, having a difficult time right now) What I can tell you is . . Then you can speak globally to the issue or outline how patient issues are managed by your ethics committee, review counsel or complaints panel. If it is about standards of care or a physician then refer to the appropriate oversight organizations that they should speak to and provide the communications contact for the organization or get back to them with it.  This is also an opportunity to talk about studies and research findings on particular areas (traffic traumas, ER usage trends, diabetes, aging populations, etc) and sources for them can be provided too. Of course depending on the situation, recommend any action that people can take if this is reasonable under the circumstances.( counseling support if we have it available, red cross donations, etc).

ASK A QUESTION - JULY 2006

Question #1

Is your organization's intranet one of your key communications vehicles? Is it working? Do staff access it or are they too busy? What methods do you use to promote it?

Responses:

Ours is more of an information management site. It's a place where people go to find policies, forms and documents or to look someone up in the online directory. It has not really worked out as a communication tool - probably because at least half of our employees don't use a computer on a regular basis and many more use them only to access specific health information applications. 

We do use our intranet as one of our key communication vehicles. We are currently surveying our staff in an effort to determine how much it is being accessed and what we can to enhance staff utilization of this tool as a major source of internal communication. We¡¦ll have more to offer when we¡¦ve analyzed those results. I am concerned that we are making the assumption that once posted to the intranet our staff are automatically informed, when that is far from the case.

We do have a regular monthly management forum which includes all middle and senior managers. To encourage dissemination of information from that meeting we conclude each meeting with the creation of a power-point slide called News Flash which bullets the highlights of the meeting and is sent electronically to all of the members of Management Forum to use at their departmental meetings with their staff.

Yes, we run contests every now and than and the only way to win is to use the intranet. We also have it as a pop-up every time someone signs in.  Also staff has been trained that if an e-mail starts ¡§To All Staff¡¨ then it should be posted on the intranet.

Our intranet, recently re-done, re-launched and re-named InfoNet, is a vital source of internal communication of the comings and goings of staff, upcoming event and recent personal and departmental successes. As employees launch their computers each morning, the InfoNet home page appears with: up-to-date news items, weather updates, mission moments, information from senior management, employee recognition, daily event listing and health and safety tips. An average of four new items can appear throughout each work day under the 'news' section. It appears to be a great success and is only promoted by word of mouth and the logistical conclusion that when they turn on their computer, they can't escape the information being brought to them rather then vice versa.

We consider the intranet an integral component of our communications strategy. Since its inception in 2003, our intranet site has received 2,958,447 visits. Our monthly visits average 2,566; the average length of time is on the site is 1 minute; 27 seconds. We encourage usage by making some key reference materials, e.g. the internal telephone directory, only available via the intranet. E-learning modules available on the site are also becoming more valuable. We post our publications electronically first with hard copies not available for several days, to encourage intranet use. We have continually upgraded and revamped the site over the past three years.

Question #2

How does your organization collect information on multiculturalism (everything from language preference to identifying special needs)?

Responses:

No we don't have a need.

Information is gathered on an optional basis at registration; we also refer to Census Canada information regarding our catchment area. As part of a recent cultural competency project we held several internal and external focus groups to gather information on how well we are serving the multicultural community and where we can make improvements.

Question #3

Does your hospital have a policy or a general practice with regard to responding to Letters to the Editor published in your community newspaper?

Responses:

Our general practice is not to respond to letters with more letters. We have on occasion sent a response (usually to an editorial or article, not a letter) to correct factual errors. 

We do not have a formal policy, but our general practice is not to respond. We have on specific, high profile issues where the information in the letters is quite inaccurate or is persisting/escalating, submitted a response to clarify the issue. We have also, again infrequently, purchased space in the newspaper and submitted a ¡¥Message to the Community¡¦ which has the advantage of guaranteed publication as written.

We don¡¦t have a formal policy, but our rule of thumb is not to respond to letters to the editor.

Question #4

What percentage of your budget is allocated to the production of an Annual Report? How do you evaluate the report?

Responses:

 I don't have a percentage on this, but I can tell you that we have taken a completely new approach to this in the last few years. Our annual report (the reporting document itself) has been greatly simplified into almost a "template" format with very simple tables, black and white printing and no photography. This is the document that goes to government and is available to others on request. It's put together internally and our only real cost on this is the printing. You can view it here:  http://www.dthr.ab.ca/resources/documents/reports/index.htm   For communicating with the public, we've created a twice-yearly magazine called Healthy People Healthy Communities. It highlights many of the same achievements found in the annual report, but in a less direct way through of stories illustrated with pictures and graphics. You can view it here: http://www.dthr.ab.ca/resources/documents/publications/healthypeople/index.htm  We've reduced out cost of the magazine by having the publisher sell up to 30% of space for advertising. We have a 3-year contract with the publisher. Our annual cost for two issues is between $15,000 and $25,000 depending on how many we print, how many pages and how much we pay for writing and photography.

We stopped producing an Annual Report.  We have audited financial statements available for anyone that makes a request.

We have not done an annual report recently, which has taken over the previous few years taken the format of an insert to the local papers. We felt the uptake from this type of report was not good although we have not measured that formally. The annual meeting includes a question period which is open to members of the community even if they are not members of the Corporation. We do hold annual public forums in all of the communities we serve which include a presentation from the hospital as to current issues and we try to include health awareness topics in the agenda to draw community members out. We¡¦re working on promotion of these to increase attendance but we do see this as a vehicle for increasing our accessibility to the community.

The annual report accounts for approximately 20% of our budget. This 12-page tabloid size publication is produced in-house with final layout and distribution conducted through the local newspaper. It is evaluated via a survey in the same publication and via calls to our telephone feedback line. In the past our community has indicated that the local newspaper is the best means of reaching them. However, with more people turning to electronic communications we will be re-evaluating its current newspaper distribution.

Question #5

Web Sponsorship - Does your organization allow sponsorship of sections of your website? Do you have a policy on this issue? 

Responses:

Not currently, but it's been discussed. We use advertising to support other products like our magazine. We have policies that address advertising but they deal more with advertising materials being placed or posted in health facilities.

We do not have a formal policy related to web sponsorship, however,
we do not accept web sponsorships.

No. No policy on this issue.  I suspect it will come up for review when
we redesign our web site this fall.

Question #6
 
Web Services - How does your organization manage web services? Do you have a job description for web coordinators/managers/directors?

Responses:

We do not have a department or individual responsible for web services. This has been a barrier to the advancement of web services. We have IT personnel who support web applications and servers, and we have communications personnel who advise on content, but no one is accountable for web services as a program.  There is currently little understanding in the organization about how web services are handled or who to go to for service. An independent consultant report that we commissioned in 2005 recommended that we develop a coordination role for web services within the organization.

Our basic web services are managed in-house.  The main template/databases for our site were created by a professional web design firm.  Internally, our Administrative Coordinator makes updates and
revisions as necessary, using the web management program "Macromedia Contribute".  It is not a time consuming task (perhaps 1-2 hrs per week).

Almost no management in place at this time.  No job descriptions, no one properly assigned to do the job.  Web services overdue for a complete overhaul.

Our web site was designed externally. It is managed internally between Communications & Marketing and Information Services. We will be training and authorizing programs to conduct their own updating in the near future; Communications & Marketing will continue to oversee the corporate content on the web site.

Question #7

Diversity/Multicultural Programs - What does your organization do in terms of diversity or multicultural programs? Do you have a framework? What are the successes/challenges? 

Responses:

Too complex to get into here. But essentially things are happening, but not in a very structured way. Many different players in different disciplines. Work is under way to get a handle on this and bring more structure to it. 

As a hospital in the regional system, we are a part of all sanctioned multicultural initiatives, particularly related to Aboriginals.  The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has an entire Aboriginal Services Division.

Our Board of Directors initially sanctioned a multicultural council (with internal and external representation) to develop corporate goals. The goals were then disseminated to the program areas to be made operational.  Follow-up work has taken place in the form of focus group research to gauge effectiveness of the programs’ implementation and to make recommendations for improvements.
 

Question #8

Health Promotion - How is health promotion done within your organization? What performance measurements do you use to quantify and evaluate these initiatives? 

Responses:

Most of this is done by personnel in Public Health, Mental Health and Chronic Illness Prevention areas. Each program area has an operational plan with targets and measures for their initiatives. Communications supports the activities with communication advice, support for advertising and attracting media attention etc.

Health promotion is predominantly a regional issue.  Diabetes awareness education, anti-smoking education, abstaining from alcohol during pregnancy, etc., are examples of the types of public awareness
campaigns undertaken by the region in our market.

ASK A QUESTION - NOVEMBER 2005

Issue - Patient Condition Reporting Policy

What is your policy regarding release of patient condition information to media?

Responses from Members:

The Capital Health policy evolved from standard practices used by the communications staff, so it was really a codification of what we were already doing. A draft was widely circulated among managers, directors and executive before it was finalized, and the policy was reviewed by the District's ethics committee. The approved version was circulated to our media list. To date, I'd say the policy has been a success.   /files/capitalHealthMediaRelations.pdf

David Thompson Health Region in Alberta gives reporters a condition report if they have the patient name, or can identify the patient by unique circumstances of the injury (for example: "the man who fell from a building this morning"). Normally it is the one-word conditions as referred to above. We will also tell them that the patient was treated and discharged if that's the case. There are exceptions however, when we may not give any info. Exceptions include: patient requests us upon admission not to disclose info., patient is a mental health patient,  patient is part of a police investigation, patient is dead, suicide or sexual assault is involved.

Here is Kingston General Hospital's media policy - /files/KGHmediapolicy.doc

If the caller has the patient name (usually provided by police) then we will provide a one word condition.  Because of privacy, we do not go into specific injuries.  If we are giving an update on a trauma where more than one person has been involved, for example the Air France crash, we would give a range of conditions, and a range of injuries, but not specific to any patient.

In Manitoba, we are governed by an act of legislation called PHIA (Private Health Information Act), which would prevent us from releasing any information on a patient.  If a patient were to give us express consent, we might consider it, but it would be more likely that we would refer them to a family member.

At Chatham-Kent Health Alliance we release a one-word condition report only after receiving patient/family consent to do so.   Without consent, we release no information.  We are therefore rarely called upon by reporters for condition reports. Police seem to be filling this gap.

Issue - Patient Discharge Policy

Do you have a patient discharge policy? How do you communicate it?

Responses from Members:

There are nursing policies covering discharge, but no communication policies on this that I'm aware of.

We have patient information materials at the bedside that describe a variety of things patients need to know, including, preparing for discharge.  The discharge planner will work with the patient/family member to determine any special needs the patient made have when they are discharged.

Issue - Cooperative Health Information Initiative

I'm looking for information from any hospitals that may be involved in a cooperative health information initiative?  This would involve more than just hospitals. It would be a cooperative effort between for example, libraries, universities, community healthcare centres, etc. in an effort to provide quality health information to patients and community members.  If anyone has such a linkage, I'd be really interested in hearing about it and how they developed their program and what form it takes (internet, library based, information kiosks etc.).

Responses from Members:

DTHR is involved in Health Link Alberta and Inform Alberta. The Health Link one, we connect to via our web site, so it looks like our info., but it's the same database as the provincial site. Links are here: http://www.dthr.ab.ca/yourhealth/Categories.php
http://www.informalberta.ca

The Bloorview MacMillian Children's Centre has a network of children's teaching hospitals (Ontario Children's Health Network) that is in the process of culling all the educational info/information available at all the hospitals, creating a central list of the primary source on a list of topics, and making it all available from each hospitals website and from the OCHN site. It's probably best to connect with someone at OCHN directly (Marilyn Booth is their Executive Director) to tell you more about how it was set up.

Another person to connect with on this is Rena Scheffer (rena_scheffer@camh.net), who works at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). She has been working for the past 3 years on an information centre on mental health and addiction issues (online, storefront, education sessions, etc.) -- she could speak to how she developed this.

I was involved in the development, marketing and official opening of a public health information system at Rouge Valley Health System.  It has been in place for about 7 years now.  It is a software database in lay person's language that is continually updated.  We were provided store front space in the lobby.  A half time fte manages the centre and volunteers assist users to search for material.  Telephone requests for searches are also done and users are responsible for the cost of printing up material on a per sheet basis.  The centre manager reports to the Health Sciences Librarian.  I no longer work at the hospital but your questions about a cooperative effort with outside partners can be answered further by Valda Poplak, Manager, Health Sciences Library, Rouge Valley Health System.  Contact vpoplak@rougevalley.ca and say that Cynthia Dudley provided her name.

What does your hospital do (or not do) about school tours for elementary and/or high school students. Do you put any limit on ages or grades? How do you handle concerns re infection control, privacy, risk? It would be helpful to also hear from anyone who has made a decision to not offer such tours and the rationale behind it.
At the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, they have a program specifically for high school students that runs from Sept. - April. It's more of an anti-stigma program, but it certainly addresses the pressure of school tour requests in a very structured way.

Responses from Members:

The Credit Valley Hospital has revised our tours policy as a result of SARS.  As part of our infection control plan, we no longer allow elementary students to come into hospital (our visiting policy reflects this as well¡Kno children 12 or under unless they are immediate family). At holiday time we no do not allow choirs with members 12 or under in to sing.  We have a traveling suitcase program, run by our hospital volunteers, whereby the volunteers take a suitcase full of gowns, stethoscope, x-rays etc. to the school class and give a little talk about what happens in the hospital and the kids can dress up and learn more through play rather than coming in to tour.

We do not generally conduct tours, as the PHIA legislation makes it tricky.  We do support a citywide initiative called - "Bring Your Kids To Work Day" which happens annually for Grade 9 students.  Employees are permitted to bring their children ( if in Grade 9) to work on the designated day, and we provide lunch for the parent and student.

Chatham-Kent Health Alliance no longer offers elementary school tours.  We had temporarily stopped during hospital construction and moves, and then, to address infection control and privacy concerns, did not reinstate them.  To respond to the occasional tour request, we have guidelines that include: tour requests are vetted by Community Relations Dept; group size is 10 or less; tour is fully accompanied by a trained tour guide; advance notice is given to departments so doors can be closed; tour participants must be healthy and use waterless soap upon entrance and exit; tour route is restricted to minimize disruption.  Schools no longer call, but recruitment, donor or alumni tours are still accomodated.

Issue - Blogs, wikis and other forms of online discussions

Has anyone working in hospitals developed a policy and/or conduct guidelines for staff who may be using blogs, wikis and other forms of online discussions?

Responses from Members:

David Thompson Health Region has a "discussion forum" on our internal employee site that has been in place for several years. It's been of little real communication value. People can register anonymously, which leads to a number of problems. It's called the Water Cooler, but is referred to by some as the "whine cooler". We are going to be making changes to try and salvage it, but it may wind up coming down altogether. My advice here, is to design it so that the topics for discussion  are very specific (i.e. ethics), have people sign up using their real names, and monitor it every day.

Cynthia Dudley provides this overview:

We learned all about blogs and Wikis at the IABC conference last week in Halifax from Shel Holtz.  Please send me the answer to the question on blogs and wikis policies.  
 Blogs are online journals and a way to engage in conversation with your customers.  I learned how to do one from Shel Holtz at the conference.  I came home and did one in about half an hour.  You download the software free at blogger.com. www.blogoshere.com is the blog world and www.blogpulse.com shows the top blogs in the blogosphere so you can see what people are talking about.  
 Shel recommended we all check to see if anyone is talking about our company and do it on a regular basis.  He advised an employee blog allows employees to connect to each other on another level from their jobs and they also talk to customers on the blog, so you have direct contact with your customers.  It gets people talking.  Shel Holtz's blog site is:  http://blog.holtz.com It is a podcast newsletter as well - audio.
 
Wikis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page  is a free online encyclopedia site where ordinary people and experts in their field are the sources of the information.  New York times did an experiment to test if bad information would stay on the site by inserting a paragraph with incorrect information and badly written.  The first hour it was corrected and the next day someone had tightened up the writing!  The conclusion is that you can trust (more or less) that the information will be correct.
In terms of codes of conduct, you would want to include things like restricted information clauses, doublechecking, proofreading, citation of sources, reproduction of copyrighted works, who gets final approval, etc.

ASK A QUESTION - ARCHIVES

Issue - Awards of Excellence Programs

What are organizations doing to recognize employee achievements?

Responses from Members:

This spring, Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) launched a program called the Celebration of Excellence to give staff a way of recognizing workplace excellence among colleagues. Through this program, any staff member, physician, volunteer or auxiliary member can nominate another individual or team in one of six categories. For this inaugural year, all nominees will receive "recognition." (We are still in the process of deciding exactly what that "recognition" will be. We know that all nominees and a guest, as well as nominators, will be invited to an evening event, to be recognized in front of peers and members of executive and Board. Each individual nominee and each team member of a nominated team will receive a letter of commendation for their personnel file, plus a certificate. There may also be some sort of "gift" or "award" attached.) The Celebration of Excellence is one program under a larger VIHA initiative called Value and Recognition, which is intended to "build a culture of recognition" across the authority and bring together a variety of related activities and employee recognition resources for staff, including Long Service awards, scholarship information and the new Celebration of Excellence. We are currently working on adding to the website a system for registering for Long Service Awards events and choosing awards online, as well as a selection of e-cards for staff to send to one another for congratulations, thanks, etc. Here is the website link for more detail (you'll see the Celebration of Excellence button on the left-hand navigation bar): http://www.viha.ca/recognition/value_recognition/index.php(By the way, the individual photos on the Celebration of Excellence website are all VIHA staff members. To raise awareness at individual sites when we launched the program, we also used posters featuring these photos. These were very popular.)

One simple way that David Thompson Health Region recognizes staff is through "Express A Success" in our newsletter. Staff can send in their colleagues accomplishments in a brief form and they are mentioned in the staff newsletter, with permission. We have some guidelines but they're fairly broad - the items we've received and published are education achievements, marathon completions, appointments to committees, scholarship or excellence awards, etc. We've also used it as a way for senior management to thank a group of staff who have worked particularly hard on a project. The nice thing is they don't always have to be directly related to work. Some months we get several and sometimes only one.

South Shore Health launched an award program in 2005 to honour individuals and groups who've made outstanding contributions to health and health care within the District. There are four Celebrating Excellence Award categories;
a) The Community Health Leadership Award recognizes individuals and or groups who have made a significant contribution to the well-being of the public at the community level. This contribution may include activities that promote, protect or improve the health, safety and well-being of the public, or a specific population.  b) The South Shore Health Spirit Award is presented to an individual or group who has made an exceptional contribution to any program or service within South Shore Health and has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to the organization's values of Excellence, Integrity, Respect, and Accountability & Leadership. Contributions can include supporting the organization's mission, vision and values, contributing to staff health and wellness, creating a positive work environment or demonstrating outstanding care and support for colleagues.  c) The Exemplary Service Award recognizes individuals or groups who have made a significant contribution(s) in the delivery of health services within the Dsitrict. The individual will demonstrate exemplary service to the people that they serve as part of their profession as well as commitment to improving the overall health of the community at large.  d) The Outstanding Quality Initiative Award celebrates the tremendous efforts that are being made by individuals and teams throughout the District to continuously improve quality in all aspects of our programs, processes and services.

Annapolis Valley Health does have a recognition program called the Triple A Program. It is an opportunity for staff, physicians, volunteers and the public to nominate some one or a group who go above and beyond the goals and objectives of our Mission, Vision or Values. We honour the nominees each quarter with a certificate, the original nomination form, letter from the CEO and an article in our E-magazine. We are also creating a poster of recognition to help promote the plan.

Chatham Health Kent Alliance's  "Reward and Recognition" committee, comprised predominantly of staff, meets monthly. They are presently developing, on behalf of the Boards, an "Awards of Excellence" program which will launch in September.  Staff will be encouraged to nominate teams or individuals (employees, physicians, volunteers) for these annual performance-based awards.  Criteria and nomination forms are in development. The intent is to recognize people who exemplify attributes of our Mission.  The awards will be presented during the annual service recognition reception, and photos subsequently published in the employee newsletter.  The winners will also be acknowledged during the monthly staff forum led by the CEO.

The Jewish General Hospital has a new Awards program for Excellence in Management, Nursing, Research, Administrative and Support Staff, Medical Staff and for Volunteerism.  This award is presented at the Annual Meeting.

Issue  - Transparent Board Meetings & Materials

In Ontario, Bill 123 requires public bodies to conduct open Board meetings. How are other hospitals responding to requests for copies of Board package information, committee minutes, etc. Are there any concerns surrounding this?

Responses from Members:

We release our Board Package to the media who attend our Board meetings and to those who do not attend but request a copy of it. Caucus agenda and package information is not released. The media are sent the open session agenda the morning prior to the Board Meeting.  Only recently have two of our five local media outlets started attending Board meetings on a semi-regular basis. Prior to that we had a six year 'holiday' with no interest shown to attend. We also have extra copies of the open session package available for any member of the public who attends the meeting and wishes to 'follow along'.

Because we don't really have regular media coverage in our area, this has never been an issue for us. When I worked for the region 3 hospital corporation in New Brunswick, we had regular media coverage of board meetings.  We supplied copies of the agenda but no committee meeting minutes. Other than legal or human resource issues, we allowed media to attend and provided time immediately following the open session for media interviews regarding matters that were discussed in the open session.  Then we would move into the in-camera session for legal or human resource issues. We would provide background documents to provide a better understanding of issues discussed in the open session.

The Bill has not been passed as I understand it and this legislation has been proposed before and did not make it into legislation. At this point we would not provide a copy of Board minutes or Committee meetings to the public. The Corporations Act is pretty specific about the limitations of what even a corporation member of a hospital can receive by way of documents so as to the general public, not at this point. We invite the media to our meetings. We make the Board Chair, CEO or other Board members or presenters of interest available to the media for interview prior to the in camera portion of the meeting. While we are all striving for transparency, municipalities and other publicly funded corporations still take matters in camera and despite what I understand may be an auditing function proposed in the legislation I believe that if this is passed, more deliberations will go in camera to allow for open discussion of highly sensitive matters.

Issue - Media Relations & Disaster Planning

A member is asking for input on Disaster Plan Media Centres. Do you have a set location for media to gather? Are they allowed on site? How to you handle updates? How do you handle senior management who feel that media shouldn't be allowed on site at all?

Responses from Members:

Media Centre is currently located on site, however, due to space constraints the need to move it just down the road (1,000 metres or so) into a school or other public building may be required. Media are required to stay in the centre unless otherwise arranged through the communications corporate director. Updates would be scheduled frequently, but would be dependent on the type of disaster, involvement of other agencies, availability of 'experts' etc...  Fact sheets would also be made available in between verbal updates.  I, too, have run into resistance and a lack of understanding of some of my team members re: the need for the media centre to be on site. The best argument is to provide an example of what could happen if you force media off site. (i.e. more security resources needed...risk of property damage....risk of injury...greater risk of privacy breech etc...)

A complex question to answer simply! Vancouver Coastal Health has identified Emergency Operations Centres across its region, depending on where such a disaster occurs. A local emergency will be dealt with at a more local level. A more regional disaster will involve the use of E-Comm, the provincial emergency response centre in East Vancouver. Our media plan calls for the establishment of a media centre based on the location of the actual disaster. We are currently reviewing where those locations would be as part of our regional emergency planning process, although we recommend they be close - but necessarily at - the central treating facility. The location must enable free access to and from for media, without necessarily taking them through an area that would place them in direct contact with patients, staff or families. Our approach would be to provide regular updates (electronically and/or verbally) and to address media needs in as open and transparent manner as is possible during a disaster. Disaster communication can be complex, and every situation is different. I would recommend participation in a local, regional or provincial desktop disaster exercise as an excellent learning tool for potential real world scenarios.

Do you have a set location for media to gather?  Yes...away from the emergency department and away from the central command post.   Are they allowed on site? Yes...in the specified media centre.  I have a media relations officer assigned to be in the room at all times.   If the media event is such that they are only on site trying to get photographs, our media relations officer keeps them at a safe distance, explains the patient confidentiality rules and allows them to shoot at a safe distance.  How to you handle updates? Director goes to the media centre for regular media briefings (every 30 minutes or so). If media require briefings and they¡¦re not on site, we send out via email or FAX and have a media line for inquiries. We also have a public information line which is manned by a live person...and we have ability to put a recorded message on another telephone line.  Same messages go on our website..which of course media can access as well.  How do you handle senior management who feel that media shouldn't be allowed on site at all?  Not an issue here.  They are comfortable with our crisis communication process.

Our emergency plan has provision for on site media centres (located away from ERs and emergency coordination centre, family space, etc) and we have the option for off site centres (in cooperation with EMOs) should we need to evacuate.  In addition to regular in-person updates, news releases (etc.) will be numbered and posted in the media centre - staff will be identified to act as runners to post updates. Re. swaying Sr. Management - explain the logistics for regular updates (by Sr. staff) to media during a crisis event and how much more difficult that will be if Sr. staff must travel off site.  Also, having media on site allows the district to control them (check in procedure at hospital entrances (ID badge and sign in), someone stationed at media centre to monitor coming and goings and to filter questions to comms director...), without the worry of media trying to sneak on site.

Yes there is a spot for media and its understood that this communications conduit is necessary and even helpful.  During the power outage we were using telephone for updates which worked very well.

Our hospital, Winchester District memorial Hospital is small and located in rural Eastern Ontario.  We have established an off site meeting location for media - located at a separate building on our grounds. Media must present appropriative identification to the designated staff "officer" and they are limited to that location.
The Community Relations officer is the primary contact and will provide briefing updates at the centre. I am unaware of stated opposition from senior management about having the media on-site. Fortunately, we have never had to respond to a real situation.  However we have workshopped and practised responses to disasters and we have subsequently adjusted our plan to ensure we have more personnel resources allocated to media relations.

Courtesy of Longwoods Publishing, here are three links to disaster planning and management - from a healthcare perspective:

http://www.longwoods.com/hq/winter97/keycase1.html

http://www.longwoods.com/hq/HQ63Spring03/HQ63commentary.html

http://www.longwoods.com/hq/spring98/keycase.html

Issue  - Newsletter Advertising
 
Please answer this short survey:
How many pages are there in your newsletter?
What is the circulation?
How much of your 'space' is dedicated to advertising (e.g. the equivalent of 2 pages for a 12 page issue)?
What format is your newsletter (e.g. 8.5 X 11 saddle stitch or 11 X17 tabloid)?
What sizes are provided for advertising (e.g. quarter page, header, footer, margin, etc.)?
How much do you charge for advertising according to size?
Are there clients you refuse because their services conflict with your organization's branding (e.g. funeral homes)?
Do you solicit donors with businesses for advertising?

Responses from Members:

How many pages are there in your newsletter?  Up until January we published an 8-page tabloid sized newspaper.  Because of budget cuts, it has been reduced to four pages.  
What is the circulation?   Circulated as a special insert in the local newspaper...goes to 145,000 homes.  We also circulate throughout hospital and to a select mailing list.
How much of your 'space' is dedicated to advertising (e.g. the equivalent of 2 pages for a 12 page issue)?   Minimal because we want information rather than advertising.   Now that we are a four page, we do not have any advertising because of space limitations.
What format is your newsletter (e.g. 8.5 X 11 saddle stitch or 11 X17 tabloid)?  tabloid.
What sizes are provided for advertising (e.g. quarter page, header, footer, margin, etc.)?  1/16 of a page to ½ page.  Footers also allowed.
How much do you charge for advertising according to size?  Regular newspaper rates according to size.
Are there clients you refuse because their services conflict with your organization's branding (e.g. funeral homes)?  Yes.
Do you solicit donors with businesses for advertising?  No...foundation frowns on that.

  a.. How many pages are there in your newsletter? 16 pages
  b.. What is the circulation? over 32,000 (via local newspaper)
  c.. How much of your 'space' is dedicated to advertising (e.g. the equivalent of 2 pages for a 12 page issue)? the equivalent of 5 pages per 16-page issue
  d.. What format is your newsletter (e.g. 8.5 X 11 saddle stitch or 11X17 tabloid)? 11 x 17 glued and folded in half (to appear 8-1/2 x 11)
  e.. What sizes are provided for advertising (e.g. quarter page, header, footer, margin, etc.)? 1/3 page at the bottom of 15 pages (none on front page)
  f.. How much do you charge for advertising according to size? $269 and we do set-up according to the advertizers wishes
  g.. Are there clients you refuse because their services conflict with your organization's branding (e.g. funeral homes)? Yes-any business/service our medical group would object to and any businesses in
direct competition with our services offered (eg: Chiropodists in direct competition with our Chiropody department)
  h.. Do you solicit donors with businesses for advertising? No. No donors. We contract out our ad sales to a local seller, but offer suggestions to ask businesses who we have purchased services from.

How many pages are there in your newsletter? 60 to 64 pages
What is the circulation? 150,000
How much of your 'space' is dedicated to advertising (e.g. the equivalent of 2 pages for a 12 page issue)? Up to 40% of the pages
What format is your newsletter (e.g. 8.5 X 11 saddle stitch or 11 X17 tabloid)? 8.5 x 11
What sizes are provided for advertising (e.g. quarter page, header, footer, margin, etc.)? Page, DPS, 2/3, ½ island, ½, 1/3, ¼,
How much do you charge for advertising according to size? Depends if it is B/W or colour and consideration if it is a one-time or repeat ad. In colour one time rate -- Page $5,800, 2/3 $5,200, ½ $4,500, 1/3 $3,800, ¼ $3,200. For B/W, cut cost by roughly half.
Are there clients you refuse because their services conflict with your organization's branding (e.g. funeral homes)? Many. I have attached a copy of our advertising policy
Do you solicit donors with businesses for advertising? No. Note: I have retained an outside company to handle advertising sales.