Health Care Communication Methods

Communications Coordinator

HCS/320

July 2014

As the communications coordinator for this national drug manufacturer, we need to figure out ways to how we are going to address the negative effects our medications has on the public. The news reports have alleged our governor was one of the people that were affected by this medication. “Effective communication can improve satisfaction, earn clients' and employees' loyalty, save money, and stimulate change and innovation—goals health care organizations cannot afford to ignore” (du Pre, 2005). Therefore, we have to make this our top priority task of the day as well as keeping our customers and their trust with us. We need to discuss how we are going to use traditional, electronic, and social media as a communication while going over the HIPAA and other regulations to make sure we are not breaking any laws.

We can start by discussing the advantages and disadvantages of using traditional communication method. Traditional communications method means using television, magazines, and newspapers. The good thing about using television as a communication is that we are able to reach our audience worldwide and we are able to show emotions for the audience to see we are taking this unpleasant incident seriously. “TV ads use audio, visuals and actions to convey the message that easily catches the attention of consumers. When messages are conveyed successfully, the ad becomes more credible to the audience” (Fox Marketing, 2013). The down side about TV advertisement is the high cost. Using TV as a communication we will need to hire makeup and hair artist, the whole cast people to handle the operating systems, and a slot for the advertisement. According to Fox Marketing (2013), “TV advertising, a mistake cannot happen. If the script needs to be changed, you will have to re-do the whole shoot and this can be financially draining. Compared to print ads, making changes is a lot cheaper and easier. TV ads can capture consumer attention in just a few seconds. However, this time frame is not enough to give enough information on what you are offering. Because of this, some consumers doubt the credibility of the ads and just ignore it. TV ads should be shown at least five times to be attain message retention and to push for consumer action. Seeing the TV ad once or twice won’t be enough and it’s just a waste of money.” Therefore, we will need to start putting our heads together and make this happen with whatever budget we have.

The advantages of the magazine and newspaper are permanent writing (will forever be there on writing), pick our target market (what audience we want to aim towards), and it will show that we have attempted to reach out to the public. By putting it on the magazine or newspaper it will show up on doctor’s offices, the stores, and the stands on the street. According to Emerald Frog Marketing (2012) other benefits of using the magazine and newspapers as an advertisement are “Pass-on readership – people may pass magazines on to their friends and family which will increase exposure of your advert. Status – some magazine titles are well respected in their field, so an advertisement in these will increase your product/service’s prestige by association”. The disadvantage of these two methods is the limited audience we can reach. Not everyone likes to read a magazine or newspapers due to the cost or they simply just do not like reading. Looking at the pros and cons of both of these methods we will definitely need to look at social media.

With electronic and social media we are able to reach a broader audience because everyone uses electronic, such as cell phones and computers, and social media, such as facebook, twitter, and Instagram. These are the most technologies being used at the moment. Therefore, we can create an application that will pop up on cell phones and when people are playing games or post it on yahoo and google. Twitter, facebook, and Instagram are worldwide and millions of people are on that everyday so way or other people will come across our ads. All these are believed to be an effective communication to the public. Another reason why using electronic and social media is a good advertisement is that it “expands market research, implements marketing campaigns, delivers communications and directs interested people to specific websites" (SHRM, 2012). The bad thing about these methods is it “opens up the possibility for hackers to commit fraud and launch spam and virus attacks. Increases the risk of people falling prey to online scams that seem genuine, resulting in data or identity theft” (SHRM, 2012). Also, people can potentially post negative comments and that will make the company look bad.

The HIPAA form as we all should already know is the “privacy rule provides consumers with important privacy rights and protections with respect to their health information, including important controls over how their health information is used and disclosed by health plans and health care providers" (HHS.gov). With that said, everything we do as far as reaching out to the public about our medication situation we need to make sure we are not breaking any rules. That means we will be require to “to make major changes to all facets of information management, including reimbursement, coding, security, patient records, and care management” (Kibbe, 2001). Going over all of these will give us an idea of what we can share with the public and what we need to hold back.

As a communications coordinator, addressing the public about the medication incident we have to look at all the aspects of communication such as, traditional, electronic, and social media. Traditional means television, magazine, and newspapers. Social media and electronic means facebook, twitter, cell phones, and yahoo or google. We need to consider the advantages and disadvantages of everything and go from there. At the same time going over the HIPAA form and guidelines to make sure everything we release to the public is by the law. The good thing about using TV for communication is we are able to reach the public in a global network and the downfall is the cost. We will have to look at paying for the network, the cast, makeup and hair artist, and someone to write a script. The advantages of using the magazine and newspaper is it will be permanent because it is on writing; however, this means we are limiting our audience because not everybody likes to read. Using electronic and social media we are able to reach a broader audience because everyone uses cell phones, check yahoo and google, facebook, Instagram, and twitter. The disadvantage is we are opening it up to the public and may get some negative feedbacks, which might harm our company’s image. But we still do have to figure out a good way to address this incident to the public.

Reference:

du Pre, A. (2005, 2000). Leadership and Teamwork. Communication about Health: Current Issues and Perspectives, 2e. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Kibbe, D. C. (2001). HIPAA's here: How to comply with new rules that govern protected health information. Nursing Management, 32(4), 32-4. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/231452420?accountid=35812
Social Media: What are the advantages and disadvantages of social networking sites? What should we include in the policy? (2012, June 1). SHRM. Retrieved July 6, 2014, from http://www.shrm.org/templatestools/hrqa/pages/socialnetworkingsitespolicy.aspx
The advantages and disadvantages of magazine advertising. (2012, September 12). Emerald Frog Marketing. Retrieved July 6, 2014, from http://www.emeraldfrog.co.uk/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-magazine-advertising/
The advantages and disadvantages of TV advertising. (2013). Fox Marketing. Retrieved July 6, 2014, from http://foxmarketing.com.au/blog/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-tv-advertising/