Crisis communications moves to front burner

Crisis communications, or crisis management, moved to the front burner on a national basis following the Tylenol poisonings in the early '80s. It's a fact of life (or death) that day after day, incident after incident, hospital after hospital has to deal with internal problems that become external issues. Balancing disclosure and the media's relentless quest for every available detail with the legal implications involved can test the public relations skills of even the most experienced practitioner. So how do you learn how to handle a crisis situation? There are books available on the topic, there are experts in the field and then there are those who have "been there, done that" and have agreed to share the experiences. Enter Greg McGarry, public relations director at Albany Medical Center in Albany, N.Y. If any hospital PR director has had to deal with a more challenging series of tragic and unusual circumstances in a brutally short timeframe, we have yet to hear about it. As a result of his forthrightness and candidness, backed by a supportive and understanding senior management team, news articles were fair, balanced and included the hospital's position. Even critical editorials included words of praise.