Media Guidelines

If a disaster strikes the Charlotte area that causes significant numbers of sick or injured patients to arrive at Presbyterian Hospital, we have developed the following procedures to make your job of reporting the news as easy as possible:

• All media wishing to report from the hospital grounds must call the Public Relations & Marketing Department to arrange for an escort.
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  Media calling the department will be asked to assemble in front of the main entrance. In case of a major emergency, the entrances/parking areas near the Emergency Department must be kept clear for emergency transport vehicles.
• Live trucks can be parked in the right-hand lane of the service road that runs parallel to the hospital entrance near the guardhouse. There are no trees or power lines at this location that could affect signal quality.
• Hospital spokespersons will provide periodic briefings on the emergency situation from the front lawn of the main hospital. Interviews with specific hospital representatives also will be held from this location.
• A hospital lockdown, which would close all entrances except the emergency departments, could occur if large numbers of patients threaten to overwhelm available resources or an infectious disease needs to be contained within hospital walls. In the event of a lockdown, arriving patients will be directed to a triage facility located on the grounds where their conditions will be assessed prior to admission to the hospital.
• Current laws protecting patients privacy (HIPAA) allow us to give conditions on groups of patients without identifying them by name to ease public concerns. For example, we could say that of 100 patients, 10 are critical, 50 are fair, 20 are good and 20 are currently being evaluated by medical personnel.
• To help disseminate information as quickly as possible, our website will switch to crisis mode and post information and updates on the emergency for use by the media and the general public.