Risk and Crisis Communication Samples †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Risk Crisis Communication. Answer: Introduction A company in crisis will be receiving the best service when it will do the development of a strategy related with crisis communication for communicating to the public as well as the decision makers. Primarily, there is the requirement for understanding the crisis nature. In this context, it can be stated that every crisis is having certain common traits stating that, they are potentially damaging, they might be creating an improper or distorted insights, and the situations regarding crisis are mostly disorderly in respect of the organization. Crisis situation affecting the New Horizon healthcare centre There might occur a crisis situation at the New Horizon healthcare centre due to ineffective communication between the healthcare staffs of New Horizon as well as the patients. It can be stated that communication is essential to provide top quality patient care. Any breakdowns regarding communication will be leading towards major crisis situations, which might be resulting in complications or deaths amongst the patients. According to a report, it was found out that more than a quarter of malpractice cases that involved surgery as well as almost 32% of all cases of nursing, occurred due to the absence of detailed communication process. Communication problems might occur due to various issues, which could take place either between the health care providers or between the healthcare providers and the patients. The communication problem that might occur between the health care providers is having the involvement of miscommunication regarding the conditions of the patients, poor documentation as well as failure towards reading the medical record of the patients (Sellnow, 2013). The communication problem that might occur between the healthcare providers and the patients is having the involvement of insufficient informed consent, unsympathetic reply to the complaints of a patient, insufficient knowledge relating to medications, incomplete instructions relating to follow-up, wrong information being provided to the patients or miscommunication because of barrier in languages. The causes of breakdowns in communication at the New Horizon health care facility might occur due to workload pressures, problems with the health care facilities electronic health record system, as well as the workplace culture. There are also various indicators that the New Horizon health care facility is having ineffective communication. Incomplete or misrepresented record of patients as well as breakdowns regarding communication might be having a major outcome in respect of the health care providers as well as the patients (Ulmer, 2013). For instance, key information that doesnt get communicated might be having a catastrophic outcome. In this regard, it can be stared that there are certain side effects of ineffective communication at New Horizon health care facility. These are considered as medical errors, long wait times, conflicts at workplace, poor decision-making as well as increased stress. In respect of medical errors, it can be stated that there are various reasons as to why there might occur medical errors at New Horizon health care facility. Although, most of the health care facilities are having a process to prevent error from occurring, weak communication is considered being the main reason as to why there is the occurrence of medical errors when there is a system in place. The medical office staffs, physicians as well as nurses are required understanding the significance of documentation that is considered being the most effective way for communicating the patient events (Palenchar, 2013). For the prevention of the medical errors, documentation that include symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, care, medication, challenges, health risks as well as information regarding safety might be considered to be productive. Although, it is not possible to do the avoidance of every error, but with the accurate documentation of information, healthcare providers are having the abili ty for identifying as well as rectifying their mistakes prior to the occurrence of an undesirable medical event (Wendling, 2013). In respect of long wait times, it can be stated that this aspect often worsens due to communication breakdown. For instance, patients are not informed of how long they have to wait or what is the reason for the delay to occur. It is recommended that the patients should not be waiting more than fifteen minutes in respect of their scheduled appointments. Therefore, communication between the patients, employees as well as physicians might do the prevention of conflicts in respect of scheduling or overbooking that is considered being the major cause in respect of long wait times (Mehta, 2016). In respect of workplace conflict at New Horizon health care facility, it can be stated that disagreements as well as differences of viewpoints might get escalated to major workplace conflict. Most of the times, this will take place when there occurs avoidance of communication, which as a result make the situation much worse. With the help of communication, misunderstandings can get averted and there might occur the resolving of the problems. In short, it can be stated that workplace conflict is considered being a sign of a dwindling practice (Heath, 2016). In respect of poor decision-making, it can be stated that at times, poor decision-making is an outcome of not having all the details required for making a sound as well as practical decision. The process of making decisions is having the requirement for a clear vision in respect of the mission of the organization, and also the goals as well as values in respect of making an accurate identification of the problem, concern or need for betterment, probable solutions, strengths and weaknesses as well as alternatives and results (Kelly, 2014). Managers at the healthcare facility can rarely do the identification of this information all by themselves. They are relying upon communication from the overall healthcare staffs at the health care facility in respect of making productive decisions. To encourage the staffs for speaking in respect of issues by offering feedback in a positive as well as efficient manner can assist in making decisions that will be resulting in improving the health care facility (Hagen, 2014). In respect of increased stress, it can be stated that lack of communication will be increasing stress because of needless worry and concern regarding issues related to the workplace, which might be either real or perceived. In short, weak coordination, unknown anticipations as well as absence of direction are needless reasons in respect of stress (Lundgren, 2013). Ways of handling the crisis at New Horizon health care facility For handling the crisis at New Horizon health care facility, certain ways can be implemented that are mentioned below, To have a crisis management plan A crisis management plan is considered being a tool of reference. This is considered being a step-by-step guide to identify in what ways the crisis can be managed. Crisis management plan assists in saving time when a crisis occurs by pre-assigning certain tasks, pre-collecting certain information, as well as serving as a source of reference. Pre-assigning tasks are having the presumption that there will be an assigned crisis team. The members of the team are required having the knowledge about the tasks as well as accountabilities they should be having at the time of a crisis (Drennan, 2014). To have a crisis management team There should be a crisis management team that will be comprising of officials from public relations, legal, security, operations, finance as well as human resources. Along with these officials, there should also be the inclusion of the social media manager, since social media might get used for delivering crisis messages. On the other hand, the composition of the crisis team will be varying, depending upon the characteristics of the crisis as because, each crisis is considered being exceptional, making demands that decisions should be made by the crisis team (Coombs, 2014). To have a spokesperson A major element related with crisis team training is training of the spokesperson. The members of the organization at the New Horizon healthcare facility should be having the preparation for talking with the news media, in case there occurs any major crisis. For instance, there should be given proper media training before a crisis situation occurs. In this respect, the public relations department will be playing a major role to prepare spokespersons to handle questions from the news media as because, the elements of media relations relating to public relations is considered being the skills that are highly valued regarding crisis management. To pre-draft messages Last but not the least, there should occur the pre-drafting of messages that will be getting used at the time of crisis. More precisely, the organizational managers who are handling crisis at the New Horizon health care facility are required creating templates in respect of crisis messages. These templates will be including statements by the senior management, news releases, as well as social media messages. The PR team can assist in drafting these messages. The main purpose that is served by the pre-drafting messages is to save time (Austin, 2017). Conclusion In conclusion, it can be stated that the best way to handle a crisis communication situation is having a plan to manage the situation relating to the crisis. There should be also be a crisis management team that will be comprising of officials from public relations, legal, security, operations, finance as well as human resources. In this regard, there is the requirement for having a spokesperson and finally, there should occur the pre-drafting of messages that will be getting used when crisis will be taking place. References Austin, L., Fraustino, J. D., Jin, Y., Liu, B. F. (2017). CRISIS COMMUNICATION IN A CHANGING MEDIA ENVIRONMENT.Social Media and Crisis Communication, 423. Coombs, W. T. (2014).Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding. Sage Publications. Drennan, L. T., McConnell, A., Stark, A. (2014).Risk and crisis management in the public sector. Routledge. Hagen, C. S. (2014). Timothy L. Sellnow and Matthew W. Seeger, Theorizing Crisis Communication.International Journal of Communication,8, 5. Heath, R. L., Palenchar, M. J. (2016). Paradigms of risk and crisis communication in the 21st century.The handbook of international crisis communication research. Wiley-Blackwell. Kelly, W. (2014). Social Media: An Effective Tool for Risk and Crisis Communication?. Lundgren, R. E., McMakin, A. H. (2013).Risk communication: A handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks. John Wiley Sons. Mehta, A., Jensen, B., Larkin, I., Xavier, R. (2016). Risk and Crisis Communication During Health Disasters.Disaster Health Management: A Primer for Students and Practitioners, 92. Palenchar, M. J., Freberg, K. (2013). Conceptualising social media and mobile technologies in risk and crisis communication practices.Mobile Media Practices, Presence and Politics. Routledge. Sellnow, T. L., Seeger, M. W. (2013).Theorizing crisis communication(Vol. 4). John Wiley Sons. Ulmer, R. R., Sellnow, T. L., Seeger, M. W. (2013).Effective crisis communication: Moving from crisis to opportunity. Sage Publications. Wendling, C., Radisch, J., Jacobzone, S. (2013). The use of social media in risk and crisis communication.