In January the new coronavirus was already a conversation subject during the talks held in the hallways of the São João University Hospital Centre, in Porto. At that time, only still in China that was the case (nowadays this is much more an agenda topic in the rest of world). Approximately one and a half months later, right on the start of the third month of 2020, the first person infected with the disease was admitted. From that day forward, a real cascade of cases emerged.
By that time, when the overall Portuguese population started to become aware of the threat potential of a new illness, still pretty much unknown, right in the same building were we perform our executive duties, the new coronavirus was already being fought and a whole lot of strategies were being implemented to allow limiting to the max the effects of an epidemic that, only a short while a later, came to become on the pandemic with the largest proportions that the world had to face on the last one hundred years.
Like most people, we also took a little time to realize the true dimension of the destructive power of this infection and the direct consequences that it had over our work. The only difference was that we were doing our job in the middle of one of the battle fields that exist to fight this disease and, for that reason, any interventions that we performed would necessarily influence the outcomes of this feud, not only for the persons that were involved on the outright fight against the virus, but also for the generality of the population. All eyes were set over the hospital. And we perform a vital role in the process through which people get their real and perceived images of it, whether on the inside and on the outside of the walls on this institution.
What is not communicated does not exist: this is the era we live in. Covid-19 brought with it major challenges to all communication professionals. Not only for us, affiliated in a health institution involved on this frontline.
On the last phew months – fortunately now quite less, despite the fact that we still don’t know what the future holds – we can watch all of the information platforms being filled with all sorts of contents about SARS-CoV-2 and Covid-19. In a more or less direct way. In a more or less responsible tone. And in a more real or fake fashion. But also we are able to see, on the traditional and digital communication universe, the implementation of a wide variety of tools that are put at our disposal. We also can perceive this by checking the evolution that the anchors of the crisis press conferences worldwide went through and monitoring the way that is used to communicate over Twitter nowadays.
All the manuals available on crisis management and communication in times of crisis sold out during the first phew weeks. Even reading all the literature references that exist and letting all the experts opinions guide our way, no one can really prepare himself to face a catastrophe. Regardless of the subject area. However, the fundamental concepts in every crisis communication management remain more updated than ever: foresight, agility, truth, and information quality.
On the São João University Hospital Centre we added three major concepts to that bunch: credibility, verve and openess. During a stage of great demand and pressure, the strategy we used was to communicate, communicate, and communicate. Maintaining all doors opened whenever it was possible, but also being able to shield ourselves when other opportunities arose. Regarding the aspects of external communication it was very important to put journalists and press officers on the same side of the trench. Always addressing problems responsibly and assuming a true spirit of mission over the matters we worked on together. Ivy Lee, which is considered to be the father of modern public relations, stated that: “The public needs to be informed”. This is the way we see communication and, also, this is the way we like to deliver our work.
We all have parents, grandparents, aunts, cousins, friends, and, despite of that not being our case, children. But, also, we have to perform a very important role on the combat to this pandemic: communicate and inform. With responsibility, credibility and courage.
