A mass shooting has many victims—some with physical injuries, others with
psychological wounds—and health care communicators and practitioners are
doing their utmost to help.
Wednesday’s shooting spree at a high school in Parkland, Florida, killed 17
people and has left many in that community reeling with grief.
The New York Times
reported
:
A heavily armed young man barged into his former high school about an hour
northwest of Miami on Wednesday, opening fire on terrified students and
teachers and leaving a death toll of 17 that could rise even higher, the
authorities said.
… By the end of the rampage, Mr. Cruz had killed 12 people inside the
school and three outside it, including someone standing on a street corner,
Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said. Two more victims died of their
injuries in local hospitals. The aftermath at the school was an eerie
shrine, with chairs upended, a computer screen shattered with bullet holes
and floors stained with blood.
On Thursday, the authorities
charged Mr. Cruz with 17 counts of premeditated murder
.
CBS News reported
:
It was the nation's deadliest school shooting since a
gunman attacked an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut
, more than five years ago. The overall death toll differs by how such
shootings are defined, but Everytown For Gun Safety has tallied 290 school
shootings in America since 2013, and this attack makes 18 so far this year.
Authorities and communicators who must respond during crises of these
magnitude have the tough job of relaying pertinent information but being
mindful and sensitive to the unfolding crisis. That task becomes harder
when
sensitive and graphic details surface on social media
, making it into news stories and headlines.
For health care professionals responding to these tragedies, the difficulty
is even greater. They must balance information and reporters’ questions
with patients’ privacy. The doctors that spoke for Broward Health
Services—the group of hospitals which received the victims and the suspect
after the shooting—exemplified this balance.
Doctors’ highlighted ‘respect’ during press conference
On Wednesday night, Dr. Evan Boyar, chair and medical director for the
department of emergency medicine for Broward Health North, and Dr. Igor
Nichiporenko, trauma surgeon and medical director of trauma services,
answered journalists’ questions
.
During the press conference, both doctors remained firm on their refusal to
give specific details about the patients in their care, but continued to
bring their responses back to the organization’s mission: respecting
patients.
Boyar opened the conference by expressing sympathy for those affected by
the shooting:
First and foremost, we want to extend our condolences and sympathy for all
those people, family members involved in the tragedy today.
When asked about the status of the victims at the hospital, Boyar responded
with a short medial summary:
Of the eight patients that we had, not including the suspect, two
mortalities, three in critical condition, three stable.
Boyar kept details to a minimum while discussing the 17 victims and the
suspect that the hospitals within Broward Health Systems received:
When pressed for more details, Boyar respectfully declined.
Out of respect for the family members, out of respect for our patients,
we’re not going to disclose this information.
He continued to decline answering additional questions about victim
information, coming back to his main message of respecting patients:
We prefer not to comment on our patients in respect for our patients.
When asked how he and other doctors can keep their Hippocratic Oath
“knowing what [the suspect] is potentially accused of,” Boyar answered:
Every patient that comes in gets treated as a patient, and we take care of
them medically, and that’s what we do.
Here’s Boyar’s response when asked to describe patients’ reactions and
behavior upon being treated:
I’d prefer not to comment on a specific patient’s demeanor, but, you know,
as a human being, you can imagine that they would be in shock, or, you
know, be emotional about the whole situation.
On Thursday, Boyar maintained the same language when discussing patients at
Broward Health North—commenting more specifically on patients’ injuries,
but keeping details to a minimum:
The doctor’s language was echoed in Broward Health’s statement about the
patients, which it posted
on its newsroom
:
Broward Health Medical Center received seven patients directly related to
the incident at Stoneman Douglas. Of the seven patients, five patients are
in non-life threatening condition and two patients are in life-threatening
condition. Broward Health North received nine patients related to the
incident at Stoneman Douglas, of which includes eight victims and one
suspect. Of the nine patients, four patients are in non-life threatening
condition, three patients are in life-threatening condition and two
patients have expired. Broward Health Coral Springs received one patient in
non-life threatening condition related to the incident at Stoneman Douglas.
Kena Lewis, director of public affairs and media relations for Orlando
Health, knows
how difficult it can be for health care communicators to respond in a
crisis
such as Wednesday’s mass shooting. She ran crisis communications for
Orlando Health after
50 people were killed and 53 wounded in a shooting at Pulse nightclub
.
Lewis offers communicators the following advice:
First, we have to remember and the press needs to understand, that patient
care always takes precedence. From a communications
perspective, our initial responsibility is to get accurate facts (which can
be a challenge during mass casualty incidents) and provide what we can to
the press. We must be HIPAA compliant. We can never provide information to
the press that identifies a patient without that patient’s consent. During
a mass casualty incident, we can provide unidentifiable information such as number of
patients received, discharged or deceased, or the number of surgeries
performed or scheduled.
The sheer volume of press can be overwhelming, making it impossible to
respond to everyone. But getting the information out is important. We used
all communication channels that were available—both traditional media and
digital media—to distribute important information to the press, the public
and our own employees.
Counseling and support for victims
While health care professionals were focused on protecting patients’ rights
to privacy, other authorities responding to the shooting shared messages
meant to help the victims and their families cope with the crisis.
Broward County’s official Twitter profile tweeted information on where to
get grief counseling:
Curtailing scammers
To stop the spread of fake GoFundMe accounts in relation to the shooting,
the Broward Sheriff’s Office also tweeted a link to the official GoFundMe
account to donate to victims and their families.