PRHealthNow helps health care communicators use the internet in the latest, most effective ways. You’ll find an open exchange of ideas here, along with news, updates, tools.
Logo courtesy Michael Johnson
This page also serves as a web hub for the Professional Health Care Communicators group on LinkedIn.
After spending a few years working as a PR specialist at Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans, Louisiana, I realized the power of the media to improve a society’s health status. But I also knew my health care knowledge needed some buffing up. So I trotted off to get a Masters in Health Service Administration. Every since then, I have been blessed with opportunities to understand the industry from the inside — as an administrator, a provider contract negotiator, and always as a communicator.
Why do I post? While I was working in a large private hospital, my husband was struggling with a perplexing chronic illness and with an undiagnosed underlying condition. That condition caused his sudden death in my hospital. I saw and felt first-hand how our stories, our words and our processes impact patients and families at the deepest level. This experience provides my motivation to post tips and create a hub for all of us ”non-clinicians” to help the healers, promote health to the public and prevent what tragedies we can.
Stories I’ve disseminated have appeared in such respected publications as USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post and ..and even the other Post (Huffington). Not to mention local and regional television and radio news. I’ve hosted Capitol Hill trips and see the continual blurring of the lines between politics and healthcare and community relations. Sometimes the only way to get our message across is while we feed people and play nice background music, so I’ve organized my share of 1,000+ attendee events.
If you have a great story, I’ll probably tweet your message out to a growing follower base and if appropriate, I’ll spread the good word through Facebook or WebMD, or whatever social platform takes off next.
GUEST BLOGGERS WELCOME: If you have a passion for communicating health care information, please join me as a Guest Blogger (email lstansbury1@gmail.com). I welcome comments and submissions.
Disclaimer: Although I work in health care PR every day as the Director of Communications for a health care quality improvement organization, nothing on this blog reflects my employer’s point of view.
