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Crisis Communication
Find out how we can train your C-level team, marketing executives and PR teams to communicate effectively during a cyber-attack.
What is Crisis Communication?
Crisis communication refers to the tools, technology, procedures, and strategies a business puts in place to effectively manage threats to both their business and their reputation.
Crisis communications in healthcare when dealing with cyber-attacks is highly specialised, nuanced and requires communication with a broad range of stakeholders. This helps to aid response and provide re-assurance to customers and markets.
Why is having a Crisis Communication Plan Important?
Having a plan in place for crisis communication is essential for being able to respond and deal with crisis within your business. By reacting quickly and effectively, you can do damage control to protect the reputation of your healthcare organisation, and show a proactive and professional approach to complaints and criticism.
Your crisis communications plan will go hand in hand with incident response planning for cyber-attacks, and AbedGraham can assist you with putting together both of these.
What should a Crisis Communication Strategy for Healthcare include?
When putting together a plan for crisis communication in healthcare organisations, there are many things you need to think about and consider, including:
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Identifying internal and external stakeholders that need to be kept informed in times of crisis.
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Creating a hierarchy within the organisation in which information should be shared internally and externally.
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Thinking about systems you need to put in place for documenting the crisis and storing important information about it, for example using fact sheets.
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Putting together a list of the most likely scenarios, thinking about how they can be avoided, but also creating a plan for each should they happen.
For effective communication during a crisis, it is beneficial to work with a specialist company who will be able to help you put together the most extensive plan for dealing with threats to your healthcare organisation. At AbedGraham, we specialise in healthcare strategies and have hands-on experience within the healthcare industry, meaning we can put together the most effective crisis management plan for your organisation. Get in touch with us today for a consultation with our expert team.
The Role of Social Media in a Crisis Communication Strategy
The development of technology, particularly the increased use and dependency on social media, has changed the way organisations strategise their crisis communication over the years. Social media now plays an important role in limiting damage caused in a crisis situation, but can also pose an increased risk of cyber-attacks.
It is important for many organisations to include social media as part of their communication to stakeholders during a crisis, however it should not be the only channel used, and it is also important to note the possible misinterpretation of written communication, and the possibility of causing further damage to reputation.
Challenges in Crisis Communication
Crisis communications during a cyber-attack requires rapid multi-country, multi-stakeholder actions covering healthcare customers, government agencies, regulators, law enforcement, financial markets, the media, and even intelligence agencies. Most organisations are not prepared for such complex communication requests.
How Can Abed Graham Help?
With a team of well respected communicators with extensive international relations experience relating to healthcare cybersecurity, we are uniquely positioned to develop 'Crisis Communication Playbooks’ for your teams. This will give you the tools you need to handle all stakeholders in the event of a cyber-attack, and to rehearse these through Simulation Exercises and Table Top Exercises to ensure you are prepared for all eventualities.
