Ground Zero for American coronavirus pandemic immediately activated an incident command center

Back in February, few knew how serious the pandemic would become, but that did not stop Overlake Medical Center & Clinics from instantly activating its crisis communications team, which continues to this day getting timely information to its frontline healthcare workers and support staff, as well as the public.

From the outset, the team established values to guide their efforts: integrity, compassion, agility and respect. The incident command center functioned from the outset as a quasi-newsroom, gathering information from a variety of sources.

Daily team briefings informed the daily communications the team developed for internal and external audiences. The team ensured they were accessible around the clock, distributed press releases, conducted interviews, and distributed signage to its campuses and clinics. They also developed video B-roll and interviews for media outlets to use and an email newsletter for staff. All of the analytics indicate the strategy worked, including the 62,280 views of its COVID-19 landing page.