Good hospital response to med-mal lawsuit...or not??

Two weeks ago we shared the story of a Jeopardy champ who died under questionable circumstances, the family filed a med-mal lawsuit which was splattered all over the media, and the hospital gave a stiff arm response -- "No comment!" -- to the media, the lawyer, and the family.  We argued these types of responses make healthcare organizations look horrible and greatly hurts their standing in their communities, not only with potential customers but also potential hires.  The e-newsletter/blog post stirred up a lot of people. 

Well, in this week's media basket appeared the story of Jessica Harvey Galloway, a young woman who was getting ready to take a trip to Italy, from where her father's family originated. For Christmas, Jessica received an ancestry DNA kit so, potentially, she could connect with distant relatives of her Italian father during the trip. Tragically, the test showed Jessica is not related to her father.  Jessica's life was made possible by IVF, but, allegedly, the physician and the lab mixed up her father's sperm with another man. This is devastating news for the Galloway family and they have filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the physician and his hospital system.   

In response to the med-mal lawsuit, the hospital system offered the following statement to the media: 

"We are aware of an allegation that has been made claiming in 1991 a patient was artificially inseminated with the semen from a person who is not her husband. We take this allegation seriously and understand the impact this has on the family. At this point, we have not met with the family or conducted testing of our own. Given the very limited information that we have and the amount of time that has passed, it remains our hope that the attorneys representing the family will work with us to make that next step a priority.”

This quote was provided by the hospital's system director of corporate communications.  

Great response, or not?  

Well, the statement certainly checks all the boxes we have advocated for over the last several years, including saying the door is open to the family's attorneys.  The trouble is in the next line of the media story we see the following quote from the attorney representing Jessica and her parents: 

“It has been almost 7 months since we first advised the defendants of our client’s claims.....and (they) have offered no explanation on how Jessica was conceived using a strangers’ DNA.”

So, here we go again looking foolish.  Healthcare organizations do not look good when either the world sees a stiff arm "No comment!" or words/promises of an open door only to be contradicted by plaintiff's counsel claiming they have been trying to walk through that supposed open door to no avail.  Yuck.   

There is important lesson here: Your disclosure and apology efforts must include the PR/communications people in your organization.  With the Jeopardy champ's hospital system I personally know they work hard on disclosure and apology and have done great work, yet, apparently, the PR/media people in their organization were never brought into the loop. Conversely, with the alleged IVF mix-up case the hospital's communications director did his job well, but have the hospital's leadership, including risk, legal, and c-suite, done their job with this case?  What is the state of their disclosure program, and why hasn't it worked with this alleged never event? 

Another big lesson/issues that sticks out for me is that many people who are involved in the disclosure movement have medical, nursing, legal, and risk backgrounds.  Almost all are wonderful, highly trained professionals working hard to change the culture of medicine for the benefit of patients, families, and clinicians. Unfortunately, few, if any of these folks have public relations, media, and communications training in their backgrounds. That is a different skill set. PR and media people look at the world through a slightly different yet complementary lens. The bottom line is your PR/media people need to be part of your disclosure team, and the team has to learn to work together from start to finish in these cases.  The ultimate hope with disclosure, however, is that cases are resolved quickly in an ethical fashion and there is no need for splashy media coverage bashing a hospital for being incompetent.  

Sorry Works' Doug Wojcieszak has PR, media, and communications training and expertise, and we are connected with some of the best crisis PR people in the business.  We can absolutely help you build out this important part of your disclosure program.  Give us a call at 618-559-8168 or e-mail doug@sorryworks.net. 

Sincerely,

- Doug

Doug Wojcieszak, Founder and President
Sorry Works!
618-559-8168
doug@sorryworks.net