Notes on a scandal

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Whether in times of crisis or celebration, managing the full glare of the media spotlight is an art form. Jo Hartley examines how best to handle the press pack.

On March 11th this year a horrific car crash on the road between Dubai to Abu Dhabi swiftly became the lead story on prime time television shows and newspapers across the region.

The accident, involving 200 vehicles, resulted in more than 250 casualties and left nine dead. The injured were rushed to the nearest hospitals; Al Mafraq, Al Rahbar and Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi, and the press pack promptly followed.

For the staff involved, the incident turned into a crash course in managing the media. "They heard about the accident from the police and they came straight away at around 9.00 am. There were 10 to 15 cameras and some TV, and some kept trying to come into the emergency department," recalls Pamela Robinson, chief operating officer at Al Mafraq. The facility received 170 casualties and admitted 37.

Taking control

Public relations manager Salwa Al Hosani, was charged with handling the media pack. "None of us had the expertise with managing the media - you need to have someone who is a PR and marketing expert and ideally one who speaks Arabic," Robinson explains.

Al Hosani, who had previously worked in local media, gathered the initial information and spoke to the journalists camped outside the emergency department. "It's all about team work," she advises. "My expertise is with the press, local issues and Arabic - and I understand how the media works."

On reflection, Robinson now says, the hospital's disaster plan should have included a detailed media response. It's a move highly recommended by PR agency Impact Porter Novelli, an international communications company based in Dubai that specialises in crisis solution.

On key action is to coordinate information collection. Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA) took on this role, and each of the hospitals sent in daily updates on casualties and their medical status.

Initially, SEHA refused all media requests for interviews with emergency care doctors and patient details because, says James Ferrier, head of cooperate communications, the authority wanted to maintain patient confidentiality and allow the staff to get on with caring for the injured.

"We had a lot of calls here from various organisations who wanted the names of the injured and statements," he tells MT. "But patient safety and patient confidentiality are two core themes for any hospital management's operational process - just like a doctor's is to do no harm."

Refusing to give interviews, however, didn't stop the press from trying to get them, reveals Gail Smith, chief nursing officer at Al Mafraq. "They did try to sneak in, and one or two did break in to the hospital, and then it took an effort to get them out when we were dealing with 170 casualties," she says.

Once the initial influx of emergencies had been assessed and treated, SEHA started issuing weekly statements to the media on the medical status of the remaining victims, and organised interviews with leading emergency staff.

Choose your words

None of the staff at Al Mafraq spoke to the press, despite being harassed by journalists. The hospital has a policy forbidding them from speaking to the media unless sanctioned by the CEO, explains Robinson.

In some cases, a blanket ban can help to prevent inaccurate press reports being generated by harried staff. However, media experts advise as a minimum issuing a press release or holding statement to journalists, stating the simple facts and spelling out difficult names and job titles.

In hindsight, Smith acknowledges, a press release outlining the basic facts during the crash crisis would have prevented many of the simple errors that appeared in news reports. "They got the wrong hospitals, mixed up the hospitals, our medical director worked for Al Rahbar, patients who went home were mixed up and that felt annoying for us."

Still, there will be times when press management requires a more proactive approach. Should misinformation appears in the media about you, your product or services, its important to take action, claims Michael Wallis, managing director of Wallis Marketing in Dubai.

It's a position one of Wallis's clients, Pfizer, found itself in four years ago, when it was caught up in a drug scare over rofecoxib (Vioxx), a COX 2 selective inhibitor in the same class as the Pfizer product celecoxib (Celebrex). After a widespread media scandal, the makers of Vioxx voluntarily withdrew the drug from the US market after it was found to double a patient's risk of heart attack and stroke after 18 months of use. However, they also called for Pfizer to do the same with Celebrex.

"Although it is in the same class it is a different medication," Wallis says.

The message is to act promptly. Wallis went to the US drugs watchdog and spoke to the doctors involved in the decision on Vioxx and got them to go on the record with regard to Celebrex's cardiovascular risk profile.

His company also organised for doctors from Italy and the US to fly into Dubai to hold a press conference and to run teaching sessions addressing their concerns. "It was basic issues management on an unresolved matter that required immediate action around the region. In a determined effort we did that and the only place it was taken off the market was Saudi Arabia," Wallis recounts.

Yet, there are times with negative coverage, notes Khalid Abdulla, senior legal consultant at Dubai law firm The Advocates, when a stubborn silence can be the best policy.

Accusations of medical malpractice are not uncommon in the UAE and it is illegal for newspapers to cover unsubstantiated claims of clinical negligence. But once a complaint has been made and a case filed at court by the Ministry of Health, the media can speak to the patient and to the defendants, Abdulla says.

"Once a complaint has been filed they can talk to the press but this is going to be initiated by the patient. No doctor wants to speak to the media at that stage," he states. "The media has the freedom to do that and you will have the hospital speaking on behalf of the doctor...but you should say that it is up to the judge to decide [whether the accused is guilty]."

Under UAE law, the accused is innocent until proven guilty. Medical professionals are judged on whether they performed to the best of their capabilities, so it is not necessarily helpful to comment - particularly to a lay audience that might not understand the clinical issues, Abdulla says.

Good news

It's not all about fending off unwanted attention though. The press can be a useful tool for highlighting successes or clinical ‘firsts', says Dr Rashid Ahmed Al Nuaimi, director of medical services at Zayed Military Hospital in Abu Dhabi.

Dr Al Nuaimi's hospital was considered the first in the UAE to perform a live liver and kidney transplant back in 2007 - an important step for surgery in the country, and something the hospital wanted to shout about. But only after it was sure the operations had been a success.

"We did not want people to have expectations and then for something to go wrong," Dr Al Nuaimi explains. "After two days when the patients had recovered and were stable in the ICU, then the media came in."

Press conferences are the most obvious and effective way to speak to multiples of journalists. But staying calm under pressure and practising responses to questions beforehand is essential.

"The whole thing is rehearsal, rehearsal, and expertise and experience of the situation - it's just like anything else," advises Al Nuaimi.

Putting patients in the media spotlight, as long as they are willing, is also a good way of securing favourable coverage. It is a tactic Al Mafraq Hospital adopted once the initial rush of emergencies had died down. People wanted to tell their story, says Smith. "It was planned and was good for the patients - they wanted to speak to the press."

One important thing to remember, though, adds hospital PR manager Al Hosani, is that journalists always want to get their own exclusive stories. Competition is rife, so even if a designated press room, conference or interview is set up journalists will still corner people for select quotes.

"If you've got them in one place you can give them all the information at one time, that's better because they can do crazy things," she advises. "But they get the information and then they have questions they do not want the other people to hear, so you have to deal with that too."

Simplifying medical language so the lay press can understand it is also an extremely important part of getting an accurate story across, Al Hosani adds.

"If you are talking about complex medical things they will not understand, [journalists] want it to be very simple as they are the ones who are going to write about it.

"Medical terms can just be like double-dutch to them."

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