Maryland hospitals are places of health and healing for your patients. Your organizations may also be the largest institutions in your communities. As such, you are often asked to speak up when social justice concerns arise, whether in your neighborhood or around the world.
Racial injustice, income equality, LGBTQ rights, and the environment are among the many topics that your employees, patients, or community members may expect you to take on.
In the past, communication experts might have advised the best response was no response. But in our changed world, silence can now send a message that you aren’t listening or don’t care. When health care organizations don’t weigh in important issues, it can be viewed as implied acceptance of injustices and inequities. Communities and the workforce demand and deserve more from us.
To help you decide when to speak up and effectively use your voice for social improvement, MHA partnered with ImpactROI, a communications firm that supports companies to balance social responsibility with operational and financial performance.
Working with the advisory group and your communications leaders, we created a framework and process to help you determine if, when, and how to respond to social concerns laid at your feet.
MHA will host an online seminar March 1 to introduce a toolkit and run through practice scenarios (please register online). We encourage you to get engaged. Reach out to Johnny Tolbert, MHA’s director of association affairs, with questions.
Bob Atlas
President & CEO