This put the nation into panic mode and overwhelming amount of questions had arisen because of this. Who was he in contact with since he had been here in the United States? When did the symptoms start showing? Why did he get turned away the first time? How was this hospital and every other hospital prepared to receive a patient like this? Is there a cure? There are so many questions that have arisen from this situation. The ethical and procedural practices of a hospital and staff have been called into question.
The fear was not only placed into the citizens of the country but in the staff of Texas Presbyterian Hospital. On October 10th, Nina Pham, a nurse at Texas Presbyterian was placed in isolation when she displayed flu like symptoms. Shortly after, she was confirmed with a case of Ebola. Only days later a second nurse, Amber Vinson was diagnosed with the third case of Ebola in the city of Dallas. This had sparked controversy surrounding the hospital with training of their staff. Nurses rallied and protested about the training that they did received, while others had resigned because they did not feel safe at this hospital. Nurses did not have the proper attire on, just having goggles and gloves left other parts of their body to be exposed. In this instance, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson were the unfortunate ones to contract the deadly disease. The hospital was also under scrutiny on how they treated Timothy Duncan, the first Ebola patient.
The hospital also saw a significant decrease in the
patients being admitted into the hospital. In the month of October, the
hospital saw a decrease in 22% of patients being admitted. The hospital also
lost about 25% of their revenue for the month. The hospital knew their image
and institution was hurting from this crisis and knew that they needed to turn
it around. The hospital knew they had to launch a PR campaign to help their
image and transform all of this bad press to gain a positive image.
The hospital launched a social media and PR campaign
with help of Burson-Marsteller. The
first thing that the PR firm encouraged was for the hospital to speak to the press and admit to their earlier mistakes of not taking in Timothy Duncan and
other errors that were made in the beginning and cold have been avoided by some
actions. In the case of Texas
Presbyterian Hospital displayed the ethical values of utilitarianism. “Utilitarianism
focuses on the consequences for all persons impacted by an action” (MacKinnon,
2015, p. 95). The hospital launched the #IAMPresbyProud campaign which included
staff stating their positive experience of working at the hospital. This was
done in hopes to get the trust of the public back. There is a video of Nina
Pham stating “I love you guys” to the staff and showing her appreciation to the
Texas Presbyterians staff in taking care of her. The hospital knew that
regardless because of their errors that this would be a hard to bounce back
from. Time has been the key to healing and gaining the trust of the public.
Watch:https://youtu.be/5Wl8-LXTJas
References
Beaubien, G. (2014). Amid Ebola Fears, Texas Hospital Tries to Repair Its Image. Public Relations Tactics, 21(11), 6.
MacKinnon, B. (2015). Ethics: theory and
contemporary issues. (2nd edition) Wadsworth
Publisher, Boston, MA.
Wade, G. (2014). Dallas Hospital Deals With Aftermath Of Ebola Missteps. Weekend Edition Saturday (NPR)
Williamson, R. (2014). Dallas Presbyterian Hospital Took 25% Hit In Ebola Episode. Bond Buyer,
(34231), 1.
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