The role of the Public Information Office is to counsel patients and families in handling the news media, to act as a liaison between media representatives and the patients and families, and to facilitate news media access to Children’s Mercy, its staff, property and patients and families.
News media are to contact the Public Information Office/Community Relations to secure information about, and/or interviews with, patients and families.
The media relations manager, or designee, will carry the request to parents as appropriate – but the following items have to be in place first:
- The media outlet must have the child’s first and last name.
- That name must be listed in the hospital directory with no restrictions made on release of condition. There can often be a delay of up to 24 hours before the child’s name appears in the directory (particularly with trauma patients).
Other items to be aware of:
- Parents must sign a consent form prior to any interviews taking place on hospital property.
- Public Information staff, in conjunction with care providers, may determine that it is in the best interest of parents not to be immediately approached about media interest (patient and family privacy in dealing with the illness/injury is considered of utmost importance).
- Reporters often put in the request for an interview knowing it might not be immediately granted by the family. Children’s Mercy will keep those requests on hand and follow up when the time is appropriate.
- Parents will not be asked multiple times to submit to a news media interview. “No” is final, unless the family notifies Children’s Mercy staff and wants to reconsider the request.
- It is the obligation of the Public Information staff to let the parents know about all media requests. Even if days or weeks have passed since the initial request was put in, when the Public Information staff talks with the parents, all the media’s interests are put before them.
- When parents are told of the multiple requests for an interview, several options are explained to them:
* Generally, interviews are not done in patient rooms or on inpatient floors. Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis, taking into account privacy and peace of mind of other patients. Interviews can be done in the hospital lobby and Public Information staff will ask the parents to bring a picture of the child to the interview.
* Only the child’s legal guardian will be asked to do interviews. Relatives or friends who do not have custody of the child will not be allowed to do interviews on hospital property unless Public Information staff has specific permission from the child’s parent or legal guardian for them to do so.
* When we approach parents for interviews, we give them the option of doing individual interviews with media outlets one at a time, or;
*They can do all the interviews at one time, i.e. a press conference.
*If the parent wants to talk with just one news outlet (and other outlets have asked the hospital for access to the parents), the Public Information staff asks the parent to take that interview off hospital property to avoid the perception of the hospital “playing favorites” with news outlets.
* However, if the parents do not want to do this, we’ll honor their request and arrange for the exclusive interview on-site.
*If the parent decides they want to honor all the news media requests for interviews, we will only contact those media outlets who have put in the request for the interview through the Public Information office.
*Parents will be allowed to choose a time that is convenient for them to do the interview. Public Information staff will let the parents know what timeline the reporter is requesting.