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Anleitung zur erfolgreichen Medienarbeit für Krankenhäuser und Rettungsdienste

A guide to successful public relations for hospitals and emergency medical services

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Zusammenfassung

Tragische Unfälle z. B. von prominenten Patienten oder schwerwiegende Zwischenfälle im Krankenhaus ereignen sich plötzlich, erzeugen häufig starkes Medieninteresse und können das Führungspersonal in Krankenhäusern sowie Rettungsdiensten schnell überfordern. Während Ärzte, Krankenhäuser und Rettungsdienste eine möglichst objektive Berichterstattung wünschen, steht für viele Medien die emotionalisierte und dramatisierte Berichterstattung im Mittelpunkt, um maximale Aufmerksamkeit und maximale Auflage zu erzielen. Bei einer Informationsweitergabe an die Medien ist allerdings der Grat zwischen einer professionellen, reflektierten Auskunft und einer unglücklichen und oftmals auch unbewussten Desinformation sehr schmal. Dies kann durch daran anknüpfende Beiträge sensationsgieriger Medien vor dem Hintergrund einer kompetitiven Krankenhauslandschaft und von klagefreudigen Juristen schnell Imageprobleme und rechtliche Konsequenzen auslösen. In diesem Beitrag werden entscheidende Aspekte diskutiert, um möglichst erfolgreiche Medienarbeit leisten zu können.

Abstract

Tragic accidents, e.g. involving celebrity patients or severe incidents in hospital occur suddenly without any advance warning, often produce substantial interest by the media and quickly overburden management personnel involved in both hospitals and emergency medical services. While doctors, hospitals and emergency medical services desire objective media reports, the media promote emotionalized and dramatized reports to ensure maximum attention and circulation. When briefing the media, the scales may quickly tilt from professional, well-deliberated information to unfortunate, often unintended disinformation. Such phenomena may result in continuing exaggerated reports in the tabloid press, which in the presence of aggressive lawyers and a competitive hospital environment can turn into image and legal problems. In this article, several aspects are discussed in order to achieve successful public relations.

Interviews should be given only after consultation with the responsible press officer and the director of the respective department or hospital director. Requests for information by the media should always be answered as otherwise one-sided, unintentional publications can result that are extremely difficult to correct later. One should be available to be contacted easily by journalists, regular press conferences should be held and critics should be taken seriously and not be brushed off. Questions by journalists should be answered in a timely manner as journalists are continuously under time pressure and do not understand unnecessary delays. Information for the media should always be provided at the same time, no publication should be given preference and an absolutely current list of E-mail contacts is required. When facing big events a press conference is preferred as many questions can be answered at once. Always be well prepared for an interview or even for just a statement. Each interview should be regarded as an opportunity to put a story forward which you wanted to do for a long time and your message should not contain more than three main points.

Each hospital or emergency medical service should have a professional department for public relations, an exact knowledge of the regional and national media and strategies how to handle an incident that is of interest for the media. The media should be provided with information not only when a negative incident has happened but should be provided with regular positive messages as well. An interview must be carefully prepared to achieve a good image.

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Notes

  1. Spiegel, 13.11.2000.

  2. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 26.11.2001.

  3. Spiegel, 02.07.2002.

  4. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 05.01.2010.

  5. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 27.08.2010.

  6. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 14.03.2011.

  7. Tiroler Tageszeitung, 15.01.2010; Krone, 15.01.2010.

  8. Spiegel Online, 14.01.2010; Sydney Morning Herald, 15.01.2010; New York Times, 14.01.2010.

  9. Tiroler Tageszeitung, 24.02.2010; Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 30.01.2010; Süddeutsche Zeitung, 09.04.2010, 17.05.2010; Die Zeit, 10.03.2010, 11.04.2010.

  10. http://www.igz.nl/zoeken/download.aspx?download=Circulaire+propofol.pdf, zugegriffen 15. Jan. 2014

  11. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 01.02.2014.

  12. http://medischcontact.artsennet.nl/actueel/nieuws/nieuwsbericht/133746/vumc-30.000-euro-boete-voor-tvopnames.htm, zugegriffen 13. Jan. 2014.

  13. ttp://nieuwsuur.nl/onderwerp/344079-vu-mc-schendt-beroepsgeheim.html, zugegriffen 13. Jan. 2014

  14. Rheinische Post, 11.01.2014.

  15. Los Angeles Times, 15.03.2008.

  16. NRC Handelsblad, 18.02.2012.

  17. Elsevier Weekblad, 18.06.2013.

  18. Die Presse, 28.11.2008.

  19. New York Times, 13.08.1984.

  20. New York Times, 07.03.2003.

  21. CBS News, 21.11.2008.

  22. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24.01.2014.

  23. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 30.01.2014.

  24. Süddeutsche Zeitung, 25.07.2010.

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Einhaltung ethischer Richtlinien

Interessenkonflikt. J. Ausserer, M. Klimek, P. Paal, und V. Wenzel geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht. J. Schwamberger ist Pressesprecher der TILAK- Tiroler Landeskrankenanstalten, Innsbruck; R. Preloznik ist selbstständige Media Trainerin in Wien. Der Beitrag enthält keine Studien an Menschen oder Tieren.

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Correspondence to V. Wenzel MSc..

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Ausserer, J., Schwamberger, J., Preloznik, R. et al. Anleitung zur erfolgreichen Medienarbeit für Krankenhäuser und Rettungsdienste. Anaesthesist 63, 338–346 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00101-014-2296-9

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