Welcome to From the Forest City – your source for exciting ideas, innovations, and expertise coming out of London, Canada. In these videos brought to you by the LEDC, you’ll soon discover why companies are investing and growing in London, and how their talented teams and products are making an impact.
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Episode 5
We are speaking Patricia Hoffer, Chief Communications Officer and Director of Volunteer Services at St. Joseph’s Health Care London, one of Ontario’s leading teaching hospitals, contributing to the advancement of health care, education and research. As a major patient care centre with several facilities including Parkwood Institute, Mount Hope Centre for Long Term Care, and the Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care, communication across these institutions was critical when the COVID-19 pandemic began – and that still remains today as the situation evolves. We speak with Patricia about communications best practices that businesses small and large should consider during a crisis.
To learn more, visit: https://www.sjhc.london.on.ca/
Transcript
My name is Patricia Hoffer and I'm the Chief Communications Officer at St. Joseph's Healthcare London.
Certainly during a pandemic communications has been at the forefront. What was really important was thatcommunications at the table from the very beginning, so we were having daily meetings - the Pandemic Response Team - on all sorts of things, whether it was about our human resources, about capacity, about infection prevention and control, about PPE. And then I was also part of a group of hospitals across the Southwest region. Same thing - all communication leads in terms of what we reach, what we were hearing, what were we challenged with, so that we can work together.
From an internal perspective, we very quickly turned to our Intranet and to an email, so every day at the very outset of the pandemic, we were sending emails on a daily basis. We held forums where those were designed for leaders and also for all staff, based on those topics that we knew were of major concern. We created a COVID-19 questions specific email and that really gave us a sense of where the concerns were, what people were most interested in hearing about, and so that helped his tailor our internal communication.
From a patient and family and resident perspective, we used our website, we really turned to things like video and infographics, our social media, and again through our patient and family councils, really tried to get a sense of what sort of information that they need and how could we address that in the fastest way possible.
You can never communicate too much, but you can certainly communicate too little and as much as there may be other responsibilities, it's really designating a time creating, a bit of a schedule to say once a week somebody in a leadership position - because then that builds trust and it builds credibility - is going to be our person that is going to either send an email or do a quick video and sort of set up with schedule and stick to it. And sometimes we don't have all the information, but it's important to be honest and there was really a lot to be said for collaborating, sharing resources, sharing key messages, that concept that we're in this together. So talk to your peers, talk to others in your industry and ask them what they are doing and hopefully there's a borrow and share sort of scenario that can be emulated and put into practice.
Communication has to be both ways, so as much as you're distributing information, find a way to also gather information. Create a designated email that staff or clients or someone can send questions to and make sure you responding because during a crisis and during a pandemic that's even more important than ever.
Transcribed by Speak
