THE ROLE OF PUBLIC REALATIONS DEPARTMENT

The PR department deals with the management of both internal and external commutations they responsible for promotions of the health organisations and implementations of the hospital’s marketing programmes that are related to Overall Mission and vision of the hospital, also manage and improve the flow of information within the hospital and between the hospital and the community it serve.
Public relations professionals have a role to play in helping management to keep in touch with their various public because the role of PR within an organisation has become that of a spokesperson to the management, they actively solicit both employee and consumer opinion and make management aware of the effects various decisions will have on consumers employees. This is similar to the Two-way symmetric PR Model (by Grung and Hunt) which includes equality of communication using extensive dialogue and exchanges of views to change attitudes in order to reach the need of the other. The PR department should also serve as liaisons to the community and work closely with other health partners in the locality in preventive health.

The responsibilities of PR specialist in such filed includes
Writing and distributing news release, feature articles to the press, compiling press list, witting of newsletters, handing and maintain a media information service, arranging press, radio and television interviews for management, preparing marketing plans for various programmes and strategies promotional and marketing effort. Public relation department is responsible for community relations, hospital publications, media relations special events and support for fundraising.

Additional skills for hospital PR
Hospital PR practitioner in the area of heath care required special skill in order to work effectively in the field
. Understanding the patient confidentiality and privacy act
. Ability to communicate thoughts and ideas effectively an accurately
. Knowledge of in community and health care administration i.e. patient consent forms an their use
. Analytical and problem-solving ability
. Knowledge of profit hospital operate and how non-profit one are one are funded
. Knowing the hospital structure, department and support group
Familiar with the community where the hospital is located
. Writing skill and ability to handle different type of media
.