ABC Healthcare is in a critical situation that calls for urgent action. A rampant occurrence of fatal drug-resistant infection has occurred within the hospital, leading to many deaths and severe illnesses, thereby threatening patient safety. This crisis of historic proportions has set off alarms throughout our community, state, and nation. The nationwide growth rate of drug-resistant infections has increased by almost 15% over the past decade, and hospitals have been usually the centers of spreading infection (Tang et al., 2023). Up till now, our institution has unfortunately lost more than a dozen patients to this infection over the past month. Many more patients and staff have been exposed, with growing confirmed cases daily. This emergency demands a fast response to control the spread, curtail the risk patients and staff face, and regain some crucial public trust. Communicating well is critical to solving this crisis (Marsen, 2020). This proposal gives an overall crisis communication strategy based on the best practices from research that can help ABC Healthcare deal with this tremendously difficult time. The following sections offer comprehensive approaches in seven critical areas that will help improve communication and transparency during this crisis to save lives and restore trust. They also reiterate that ABC Healthcare will continue to deliver stellar patient care no matter what.

Crisis Analysis

The initial analysis suggests that this epidemic of drug-resistant infection resulted from the failure of infection control in the risky areas of ABC Healthcare – ICU, oncology ward, and transplant unit. A study of ICU nurses indicates that sanitation bottlenecks have allowed expired disinfectants to be used, providing a chance for bacterial mutation and growth. Also, an epidemiologic survey revealed that nearly all initial infections were related to contaminated bronchoscopes, pointing to poor sterilization practices of specialist equipment. These failures allowed a deadly drug-resistant bacterial strain to creep and move quietly between at-risk patients. Research shows that 24% of drug-resistant hospital infections arise from device and sanitation mismanagement (World Bank Group, 2020). ABC Healthcare must take immediate corrective action in these high-risk units to stop further avoidable transmission and protect patients.

ABC Healthcare has reported several infected patients with a potentially high mortality rate. Those with comorbid conditions, including immunosuppression, diabetes, and COPD, have proven to be most vulnerable (Fitero et al., 2022). However, otherwise healthy patients who underwent invasive procedures are also at risk, with the infection proving fatal in 5 previously healthy patients within one week of contracting it. It indicates the bacteria’s ability to severely infect and rapidly overcome the body’s defenses. Genomic sequencing has shown mutations that increase virulence, transmission rate, and antibiotic resistance compared to typical hospital strains. Urgent research into treatment protocols is needed, as current antibiotics have proven inadequate in 20% of cases.

This crisis has damaged stakeholders’ trust in ABC Healthcare. The trauma of unanticipated infections and deaths has generated fear and anger among affected families. Social media groups for grieving families now have thousands of members, calling for accountability. Negative local media coverage and inquiries from state health authorities into infection data and procedures reflect declining public confidence (Berg et al., 2021). A survey showed that 62% of residents are now reluctant to seek care at ABC Healthcare. Restoring trust will require full transparency on the outbreak’s occurrence, corrective measures underway, and comprehensive support for devastated families. Most importantly, ABC must reorient wholly around compassion and open communication to ensure no patients or families feel marginalized in this crisis. It will require infrastructure and culture change.

Communication Audit

A communication channels audit identifies substantial deficiencies of ABC Healthcare in rapidly spreading accurate information during this emergency. Even though daily data updates were being sent to the department heads, the nurses noted that the information was seldom funneled to the frontline staff looking after the infected patients. Top-down memos did not contain actionable directives or empathy. This way, coordination was hindered, and the team was confused and inundated. Externally, inadequate social media monitoring led to the families hearing about the infection risks from the news, not the hospital’s caring staff. There were no protocols for the open disclosure of hospital-acquired infections, preventing adequate notifications.

It generated a vacuum of information rapidly replaced