Strategic Communications
Ebola Case Study
Mid-term
Healthcare Crisis
Key Communications Players:
Primary:
Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
U.S. Government (White House)
Gov. Chris Christie & Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Secondary:
Doctors without Borders (MSF)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital
Nurses Union
Timeline
July 28, 2014: CDC issues health alert notice, emphasizing there is “little risk” from Ebola to U.S general population but reminds healthcare workers to take precautions and to prepare for the “remote possibility that one of those travelers could get Ebola and return to the U.S. while sick.”
September, 16, 2014: According to a CNN Poll, one in four Americans worry about getting Ebola.
September 20, 2014: Thomas Duncan arrives in Dallas from Liberia, unknowingly exposed to Ebola virus.
Timeline
September 26, 2014: Thomas Duncan heads to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital with a high fever. He lets hospital workers know he has just returned from Liberia. Hospital sends him home with antibiotics.
September 28, 2014: Duncan returns to hospital and is admitted into isolation and diagnosed as first case of Ebola in U.S.
September 30, 2014: CDC will send a team of 10 public health professionals to support contact tracing and response after learning about the patient in Dallas.
CDC Response:
5
Timeline
October 1, 2014: NIH officials state that Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital “dropped the ball” with patient’s travel history. Hospital responds and says symptoms did not warrant admission the week before. Also claimed there was a “flaw” in the electronic health record system.
October 6, 2014: White House releases a fact sheet detailing all the efforts to end the epidemic.
October 8, 2014: Thomas Duncan dies at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. CDC announces new airport screening measures from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
6
Texas Hospital’s Misleading Ebola Statements
…In an October 2 statement, hospital officials said a “flaw” in the electronic health record kept notes on a patient’s travel history in the “nursing workflow” part of the record and explained that such information “would not automatically appear in the physician’s standard workflow.”
The next day, the hospital issued a “clarification,” saying there was no flaw in the electronic health record and the travel history was available to the doctors.
“In our effort to communicate to the public quickly and transparently, we inadvertently provided some information that was inaccurate and had to be corrected,” hospital spokesman Wendell Watson said in explaining the about-face.
Timeline
October 12, 2014: Nina Pham, a Dallas nurse who cared for Duncan is diagnosed with Ebola. This is the first known transmission of the virus in the U.S.
October 13, 2014: Amber Vinson, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian who cared for Duncan reports to the CDC an elevated temperature. The CDC does not prohibit her from flying. She takes a flight to Ohio.
October 14, 2014: A second health care worker who cared for the Ebola patient in Dallas, reports to the hospital with a low-grade fever. The hospital puts Amber Vinson in isolation after Ebola tests come back positive.
8
CDC Director: “There Was Clearly a Breach of Protocol”
Timeline
October 14, 2014:
CDC reaches out to 132 passengers who flew with Amber Vinson on Frontier Airlines Flight 1143 to determine who, if anyone, needs to be monitored for Ebola symptoms.
An ABC/Washington Post poll shows 43% of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s Ebola response and 9 in 10 Americans support stricter screening of passengers from Africa.
Nurses Union complains that are no safety protocols or guidelines in the Texas Hospital that treated Duncan.
CDC sends additional resources to Texas hospital to do better infection control. CDC also says a new team will help hospitals around the U.S. better deal with Ebola.
Head of Nurses’ Union: Blame by CDC Prompted Nurses to Speak Out
Timeline
October 15, 2014: CDC director says the health care workers treating Duncan were dangerously exposed to the virus when “some forms of equipment used did allow exposure to some parts of the skin”
October 16, 2014: Briana Aguirre, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she is tired of the “nurses being blamed for being sick.” She says her hospital was “unprepared” for Ebola. “There were no special precautions,” she says. “It was just a little chaotic scene.”
October 16, 2014: Texas hospital says it followed all CDC guidelines, but a hospital executive also offers an apology. “We made mistakes. We did not correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of Ebola and we are deeply sorry.”
October 20, 2014: CDC issues new guidance on how to use personal protective equipment when working with Ebola patients.
Ebola Response Has Texas Hospital in Hot Seat:
13
Timeline
October 21, 2014: U.S. restricts flights from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to landing only at the five airports with enhanced screening.
October 23, 2014: First positive case of Ebola hits NYC. Craig Spencer, Doctor’s without Borders doctor admitted to an isolation unit.
October 24, 2014: Governor Andrew Cuomo and Governor Chris Christie issue a mandatory 21 day quarantine on all health care workers returning from West Africa after treating Ebola patients.
October 25, 2014: CDC now says state and local officials do have the right to set tighter Ebola control policies.
Timeline
October 26, 2014: CDC expresses concerns that mandatory quarantines will discourage health care workers from volunteering.
October 26, 2014: A quarantined U.S. nurse tells CNN she doesn’t have Ebola and is being treated inhumanely at the University Hospital in Newark where she is being kept under mandatory quarantine. “I feel like my basic human rights have been violated”. She holds Governor Christie responsible.
October 27, 2014: Gov. Christie says nurse quarantined at NJ hospital will be allowed to transfer to Maine to be quarantined at home. Christie says he did not “reverse any decision” in relation to the case and adds that he has “no reason to talk to her” about his decision, “my job is not to represent her, it’s to represent the people of NJ”
Gov. Chris Christie: CDC Was Behind on This
Mid-term
Keeping in mind the course material we have discussed in class over the past seven weeks, please provide answers to each of the following questions. Each answer should be about 300 words (use this as a guide).
Despite an apparent effort to communicate to its stakeholders, it appears the CDC lost the public’s trust. Why? What principles of strategic communications, including crisis management and issues management, did the CDC follow or fail to follow?
What principles of strategic communications, including crisis management and issues management, could the CDC use to win back and retain public trust and reduce public uncertainty?
Why did the governors of N.Y. and N.J. order mandatory quarantine for people returning to the U.S. with Ebola symptoms? Who were they protecting?