Management

Question

Instructions are in the files provided.

Answer

The media is tasked with collecting stories and publishing them for the public to consume. Therefore, they will go at great lengths to get the facts of their stories even in controversial circumstances. However, there are some instances in which the methods used by the media conflict with the professional responsibility of the medical community (Coombs, 2014). For example, health professionals are expected to respect the privacy of the patients. Therefore, when the media asks them stories concerning an issue that is private concerning the patient, they are supposed to uphold the requirement of patient confidentiality.

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            Most critical questions often come in the middle of a crisis. In this case, the medical team is handling a crisis about an accident that has happened leading to the death of a boy from Valazquez family. In this case, the medical team is not supposed to handle questions from the media as it would interfere with their response to the emergency. To effectively deal with critical questions from the media, it is important for the medical team to appoint a media officers who would be responsible for answering questions from the journalists (Heide, &Simonsson, 2014). The information disclosed should not touch on the privacy of the patients as well as their family. Responding to questions in the middle of the crisis might lead to the medical team disclosing information that might invade the privacy of the patients. In this case, Tammie Whitfield almost disclosed that there was a fatality inadvertently. This led to the journalist concluding that the medical team was confirming there was a fatality.

            It is possible to prepare on how the media will be handled by the medical team in times of crisis. The medical team should always send their team with a press officer who would be responsible for handling the media questions. A press officer would be able to determine the relevant answers that will not contravene the professional responsibility of the team.

References

Coombs, W. T. (2014). Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding. London: Sage Publications.

Heide, M., &Simonsson, C. (2014). Developing internal crisis communication: New roles and practices of communication professionals. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(2), 128-146.