The media can serve as a subjective check-and-balance for hospitals throughout the country. Media outlets can also provide praise or condemnation on hospitals in times of crisis or sensational events. Each hospital has a media or public relations spokesperson whose job is to provide media with information related to their facility. Given regulations of privacy and confidentiality (HIPAA & FERPA), the hospital must remain vigilant that only accurate, permissible information is conveyed to the media markets.
In times of crisis or during specific events that are news-worthy, the hospital's administration must act quickly to present themselves in a positive light. They need immediate information on patient status, patient count, and how the hospital plans to deal with the crisis at hand. Given the sensationalism surrounding horrific events such as school shootings or trapped miners, these hospitals must be dutiful to their patients' trust and privacy and reveal only information that does not identify key characteristics of any patient's identity. On the other hand, the media will expect answers in order to satiate their demand for news coverage.
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