For Dr. Richard Zelman it might have seemed easier to try to save a dying patient’s life than to face even one reporter. And it was Dr. Zelman’s apparently courageous medical decision that led him to a Dateline NBC interview, one centered on his use of a procedure that had not yet been approved for the Cape Cod Memorial Hospital, where he works as a cardiologist. And a procedure -an angioplasty– that eventually saved the life of a woman who was suffering from a heart attack. The procedure involves threading a catheter into a blood vessel for treatment of damage by various means.
But as confident as Dr. Zelman and the hospital were in his own skills, the hospital was that nervous about Dr. Zelman’s facing a media that sometimes has been characterized as confrontational and hostile.
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So the hospital turned to one of only a handful of programs designed to train individuals to deal with the media, under any circumstances.
What Dr. Zelman needed to explain on Dateline NBC was why he ignored a computerized diagnosis and chose instead to use a procedure that had not yet been approved by the Massachusetts Health Department for Cape Cod Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Zelman was in his office when a woman suffering from a heart attack was rushed into the emergency room. Standard treatments initially proved unsuccessful. The hospital was participating in a program that feeds data into a computer, which then chooses the type of treatment for heart attack victims. The computer said no to the angioplasty, but Zelman felt otherwise and went ahead, a decision that saved the woman’s life, but potentially could have put the hospital in jeopardy.
At first hospital officials were reluctant to allow Zelman to tell his story on national television, but eventually they decided the publicity could benefit the hospital and the future of the study.
”I think that any interview is an opportunity to tell your organization’s story,” said Deborah Dougherty, director of communications and marketing for Cape Cod Health Care. “You need to make the most of every opportunity, especially in a field like health care. People view health care as very personal and it’s something they have a great deal invested in. It’s really important for the public to know” in a way “that has integrity.”
And the result in this case, Dougherty said, has been an important change in policy at Cape Cod Memorial Hospital, where the Department of Health now allows angioplasty in emergency cases.
But before the cameras starting rolling, and the lights were turned on, Dougherty said, Zelman needed training on how to give an effective interview. The hospital turned to Trainor and Associates of Providence, which offers such a program.
”The training is an effort for people dealing with the media to gain a sense of poise and be able to collect their thoughts,” Dougherty said.
So far more than a dozen people at the hospital have enrolled in a media training course, and Mary Maguire, president of Media Eye Productions in Mansfield said the idea is spreading.
”I think that we all can improve our own public faces,” she said. “Whether it’s in areas of public speaking or interviewing techniques, like with any skill, practice makes perfect.”
Maguire, who for 10 years was the consumer reporter for NBC 10, now operates one of a few companies offering media readiness training to business executives.
“We live in an age of 20-second sound bites,” she said. “And it’s important for companies to get their message out in the most effective manner.”
John Woodhouse, who teaches a class for Trainor and Associates, said the goal of the course is to provide corporate executives and media relations personnel with more “familiarity” with the media.
“CEOs, corporate officials, primary spokespeople and other people likely to deal with the media need to understand what the media needs,” he said. “They need to understand what the ground rules are, to understand how to prepare for a media situation.”
Though Trainor and Associates advertises its class as a way to deal with a more “confrontational” and “often hostile” media, Woodhouse said part of the class is helping people understand that is only a perception.
“There is certainly an impression in the community that the media is often confrontational, especially since investigative journalism took a preeminent role after Watergate,” he said. “There is a perceived notion that the media is following a trend toward sensationalism and that’s who people think they are going to deal with.”
Both Maguire and Woodhouse said their classes are designed to give participants a “real taste” of what it’s like to deal with the media from press conferences to unplanned encounters with current and past members of television, print, and radio.
Dougherty believes the class is important for employees at the hospital.
“For me in particular, someone who has been in marketing and public relations for more than 25 years, it’s a chance to refine my skills,” she said. “In this (health care) industry you just never know what’s going to happen on any given day and most of the time you aren’t given a lot of time to prepare.”
”I have seen tough reporters and different techniques used in difficult situations,” said Stephen Hug, a former journalist who is among the instructors for Trainor. “I think that if you are going to be dealing with the media, you must be effective and get your message across and the (Trainor Associates) program really works to that.
”If somebody sees the media as the enemy then something is wrong,” he said. “The media for the most part does not target. Companies need to be prepared for the best or the worst. There are more reporters now that are not afraid to stand up and ask the hard questions, or ask the questions that you might be embarrassed to ask your neighbor.”
