Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (A) Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (A) Case Solution

Managing Public Reputation and Restoring the Public Confidence

In order to know the organization’s public reputation, Wood-hired Dr. Terry Flynn to conduct a trust and reputation study for Niagara Health System. The study aimed at promoting healthy relationships with the general public. Dr. Flynn conducted the test through online and in-person surveys, interviewees and polling. The results of study are summarized in Appendix 1, which showed that 20% more respondents had negative views regarding the NHS. The negative responses were mainly caused by the low availability of private rooms, long wait times for testing, surgeries s, appointment's etc, distant hospital sites, lack of cleanliness and focus on the people and the diseases’ outbreaks.

Moreover in order to regain the organization's reputation in customers’ gen- real public and media opinions, Brady Wood himself met with different government officials, including: mayors, community group members and mayors in order to understand their problems and concerns in promoting positive relationships. Wood identified “Community Engagement” as the leading factor behind the destroyed public image of Niagara Health System. The community member's disclosed that they don’t feel engaged, as their concerns are not addressed properly and resolved. Similarly, the Niagaran media also showed their concerns on being neglected by the NHS management, with a poor or zero rate responsiveness.

Recommendations

·Increasing the Community and the Patient Engagement

In order to regain the positive reputation among the community, media and the patient, Brady Wood should introduce employee engagement programs. He should introduce community advisory and patient- experience committees, which try to focus on dealing with the patients’ feedback and the community’s concerns to be resolved. In addition to this, Brad Wood should introduce the adoption of a relationship scorecard metrics, which would communicated the necessary information and results to the general public.

Evaluation – Pros & Cons

The community engagement would help the organization in regaining a positive reputation with the whole community and the media. It would foster the relationships with the government agencies, which would help the company in getting sponsorships and funding for the required capital investment. Moreover, it would attract more patients as they would feel connected with the organization, if their problems would be addressed with due diligence.

But the organizations needs a strong change management by the leader as it needs to motivate the employees to feel responsible towards their jobs and putting up their committed efforts towards achieving the organizational objectives.

·Being Responsibly Transparent

First of all, Brady Wood should formal meeting with the provincial government authorities or with the municipalities in order to devise out the guidelines for reporting the outbreak information properly. This step would lead towards an increased community engagement, media positive reviews and transparent information disclosure for the general public.

Evaluation – Pros & Cons

The organization would be able to attain the public image as there would be proper disclosure about the outbreak incidences and it would build up the community’s trust over Niagara Health System. Moreover, it would increase the company’s funding as Brady’s efforts would be focused on increasing the community’s engagement in the organization’s decision making process.

This step would be quite complicated as it would require the Niagara Health System to disclose each and every detail about the organizations’ activities. The company’s internal stakeholders may find it inappropriate to disclose the internal information but gaining the customers’ and the community’s trust tend to lead the organization towards success.

·Long-Term Strategy

Despite managing the short term objectives of dealing with the outbreak and destroyed, the management at Niagara Health System needs to develop a lengthy strategic plan for maintaining the company’s reputation, community and public engagement and achieving sound financial performance. Firstly, the Niagara should improve its relationship with the government agencies and other stakeholder, which could provide funding to the organization. Secondly, NHS should deploy the financial resources in its capital investment in order to provide convenient services through the availability of private rooms and equipment, without having to wait for a long period. Lastly, the company should maintain sound communication strategies, which must be unified with the company’ objectives and goals.

Evaluation – Pros & Cons

The long term strategy tends to enable the organization to resolve its short term as well as the long term issues. It would bring a sustainability in the company’s financial performance through attracting funds from internal as well as external stakeholders and achieving profitability from the increased patients’ engagement programs.

The long strategic implication process would be very complicated, but if implement properly, will lead to the organizational success. It would require the company to bring a change its entire leadership structure and to increase its employee engagement so that the ultimate goals and objectives of the organization could be met without any major hurdle.

Conclusion

Niagara Health System, a network of seven hospitals, was located in the Niagara region of Ontario State in Canada. After joining the hospital, Brady faced the communication challenges during the C. Difficile outbreak. Niagara Health Care System maintained a network of seven hospitals, whereby, it struggled with its public reputation and communications for more than 10 years. The crisis management officer soon realized that the communication problems were not merely isolated by the outbreak, but they had extended far beyond it. In order to address the communication crisis and C. difficile outbreak; the company’s needs to foster its relationship with the community and the patients through community, employment and patient engagement programs. Moreover, the company should make capital investments in order to provide on-time healthcare services to the patients. Finally, the company needs to devise out a lengthy strategy for maintain the Niagara Health System’s reputation and its competitive success in future.........................

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Niagara Health System: An Innovative Communications Strategy (A) Harvard Case Solution & Analysis