eHealth Articles & White Papers

Lessons Learned: Don't Wait for a Crisis to Review your Crisis Communication Plan

Ben Dillon - Vice President & eHealth Evangelist

As you've probably heard, June 2008 was a trying month in Iowa, weather-wise. After starting with the first F5 tornado that we've seen in decades, we closed the month with unprecedented flooding, now being described as one of the 10 worst natural disasters in U.S. history.

Such occasions remind us to revisit the plans and preparations that we've made in case a crisis impacts our organization.

Most disasters are not as dramatic as the ones we've experienced in Iowa, but many of the same rules and tools apply regardless if you are dealing with a natural disaster, a public relations issue, or the need to share information about an infectious disease challenge in your area such as avian flu.

In truth, even a positive event, such as media recognition for an award or popular patient may require a crisis-like communications response. Good preparation can make the difference in your ability to ensure your messages are clear and professional.

The role of the Web

Web communications play an important role in crisis communications for two reasons:

• It scales very well -yell. You can provide more information on your website than in most media channels.
• It is the only channel through which you have complete control of your message.

As you develop your crisis communications plan, it's important to consider the role of your Web. Unfortunately, it is easy for this channel to be under-used or worse yet, misused.

The planning process

There are four stages to the crisis communications process: risk diagnosis, risk identification, risk treatment and risk management. As you work through each stage, consider how all of your communications, including your website, may be utilized during the crisis.

1. Risk diagnosis

• Identify the likely situations that would require a response from your organization.
• Group scenarios together so that an unanticipated situation can be most easily matched to an existing plan.
• Examine all of the people who will be impacted in each scenario (and don't forget employees!), what their communications needs will be, and what communications channels will be available to them.

2. Risk identification

• Identify what criteria must be met for an event to be considered a crisis.
• Identify who the crisis communication team is and how they will be activated.
• Determine who will be responsible for triaging the event, that is who will , be involved in response. activities and what type of response is appropriate.
• Identify activities that can be done before an event happens to help you respond more quickly when the time comes.
• Outline possible technical challenges:
  - Determine how you will get to your communications channels to communicate during the crisis.
  - Identify how you will address power or telecommunication outages.
  - Determine if your site is hosted in an area that will be impacted by a disaster.
  - Identify the steps you need to take to ensure your communication channels are protected.
  - Outline how you will update information remotely.
  - Determine if your infrastructure is capable of handling a dramatic jump in traffic or utilization.

3. Risk treatment

• Identify the most effective ways to reach your audiences. Consider using your website as well as other tools such as blogs and text messaging.
• Establish ground rules with your legal counsel to allow you to remain transparent without introducing significant legal risk to the organization. (Transparency and consistency is critical. Be open about the facts that are established and limit speculation that may harm your credibility long-term).

4. Risk management

• Determine how long you will leave crisis information up on your website. Many events will play out primarily in the short-term while others may have significant communications needs over weeks or months.
• Identify the messages that will be communicated long-term to shape public perception of the incident, your organization, and your response to the situation.

Preparation is key

During our recent crises, through preparation, we were able to avoid interruption, keep our clients websites running, and keep both our employees and clients informed of the fast-changing status of the situation.

Nevertheless, we're taking our recent situation as an opportunity to learn from this real-world test of our preparations. We've also seen firsthand how others in our community have used the Web to communicate with their various audiences and are able to use that insight to aid in our planning.

Coming out of this experience, we'll implement changes that will prepare us to put our plan into action. Even though we'll be ready for whatever arises, we're hopeful that we're not put to the test again anytime soon.