Happy crisis tests hospitals' PR plan. Septuplets' arrival swamps Iowa hospitals with national, international media. Blank Children's Hospital, Iowa Methodist Medical Center, Des Moines.
The public relations staff believed the birth of healthy septuplets would become a human interest story for local media. But the staff was stunned at the outpouring of international and national media knocking at their front doors. The staff of both Iowa Methodist Medical Center and Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, organized a communications plan for 14 official press conferences, constant updates to the media and a website to handle ongoing inquiries from the public. As a result, the story of the McCaughey septuplets was shown in more than 10,000 television stories around the world. The hospitals received more than 36,000 magazine and newspaper articles. The public relations staff not only fielded more than 2,000 phone calls in the days following the Nov. 19 birth, but more than 15 major networks parked their vehicles and satellite dishes in front of the hospital.
D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D005260:Female; D006285:Health Planning; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007484:Iowa; D008297:Male; D008402:Mass Media; D011247:Pregnancy; D011272:Pregnancy, Multiple; D011641:Public Relations