Building the Durable Media Relationship - H1N1 Challenge/Opportunity by Jim Augustine, MD

Jim Augustine, MDIt is getting busy in the ED.  If you haven’t had the bug already, you are probably considering the H1N1 vaccine.  Please remember the lowest levels of control for avoiding contagious diseases:  don’t get within 6 feet of ill patients unless you need to; avoid coughing patients; wash your hands and keep them away from your face; get appropriate rest and exercise. These good habits allow you to be confident as any form of contagious disease becomes concerning, and able to reassure your family you will stay healthy and not bring any bugs home to them.   

The news has increased regarding H1N1 deaths in children and pregnant women.  The media needs sites to do their clinical stories about the disease.  It is your time to shine.  Serving in the Emergency Department, you have great opportunities to work in a productive way with the media.  Here is a path forward for you.

• Develop a reputation for helping the local media get the correct and accurate details on health stories.  Infection control stories are very complex, and require the best communicators to convey a clear message to the community.  Develop the releases and the speakers that can do that.

• Take every opportunity to work with the local media on health care stories of interest in your community.  To the best of your ability, have them come to your ED for stories on seasonal asthma, preparing for cold weather, the risks of early winter weather (loved those football games in the snow last weekend), and the timely stories on heart attacks and strokes. 

• Access and utilize CDC documents and releases to assist with content and bullet points, and maintain consistency with national messages.

• As you conduct a press conference, develop the templates for media events and public service announcements that relate to hospital emergency care, that can be utilized with very little preparation time.

• Generally, it is good to work with public health agencies in your area on any messages that relate to emergency care, and allow them to use the ED as a backdrop for any media releases they want to do on general community health issues.  Develop messages that allow the community (and your ED staff) to understand you are ahead of the planning curve to prevent a meltdown of the everyday care systems, and correctly apply the resources and information to any flu or contagious disease outbreak.

• In communities with multiple EDs, work with other ED leaders to develop an infection control response that is timely, effective, and consistent.   Collaborate with all the ED leaders to release consistent statements (or appear at a joint press conference) about how each is applying the same management principles, and sharing info between the EDs.

For the ED leader, this is an important responsibility to your community.  H1N1 provides a perfect canvas to generate media interest in health topics, to build the health care and community relationships needed to manage big and little emergency care issues.  It also contributes to the community appreciation of the health care system, as we debate a new system for our future.