How do you hold the ship together during a time of dramatic change?

The Problem
Here are the key ingredients of a crisis: Board upheaval at a sprawling, multi-hospital system steeped in a rich, faith-based heritage. The dismantling of an embedded, long-time senior management team. A fractured medical staff. A tarnished public image. And, last but not least, declining patient volumes.

Chaos ruled, or so it seemed.
 
The Solution  
Communication is a key to every successful revolution, even in (maybe especially in) the healthcare industry.  Every revolution needs a voice and a cause to give it direction and purpose. If this isn’t aggressively offered in a time of turmoil, it will be created in a vacuum by nurses, physicians, payers, reporters and patients. It’s called a rumor mill and few things are more damaging when you’re working to lead an organization through a time of change.

Knowing this, the Board of Trustees engaged us to provide that voice inside and outside the organization while the system underwent a year-long self-assessment and change in leadership. 

Over the course of the year, we:

• Worked intimately with the Trustees as they grappled with divestiture options, faced staff reductions and slowly built a new leadership team
• Served as the public voice through intense media scrutiny, crafted a government relations plan, implemented the system’s first advertising campaign in years, and revitalized the system’s public relations staff
• Created a host of new internal communication tools that acknowledged the turmoil, described the new direction, and provided credible, no-spin-zone reports on the transition
• Helped the new CEO enter the market, build consensus among the board and medical staff, and prepare a long-term strategic plan for the reborn healthcare system.

The Result
For one, things calmed down. Anchored by straight talk, strong management and clear board leadership, a future emerged for this system. Even during a time of tremendous change, it remained a place to believe in. Positive stories once again appeared in the press, the medical staff returned its focus to what’s important and the public realized what a unique asset it had.