You are the public relations director of a nonprofit hospital in a competitive market in a midsized city located in a metro area of 350,000 people. It is sweeps week for broadcast media. One of the stations is running a series on HIV/AIDS in the community. Recent segments have included those listed below.

Homelessness related to HIV/AIDS
How persons living with HIV/AIDS suffer from being outcasts
How understanding has increased in some circles but prejudice remains in many.
An appealing case of a hemophiliac who acquired HIV/AIDS through transfusion at the university hospital has been reported in the series. The university and its teaching hospital are located elsewhere in the state.

At a staff meeting this morning, you learn that petitions are circulating in the community to request your hospital to convert its former nurses’ residence into a clinic and residential shelter for HIV/AIDS patients.

The hospital no longer maintains a school of nursing. The three-story brick building has been used for miscellaneous administrative purposes since nurses’ training was phased out. The residence is connected to the hospital by an elevated corridor, similar to a skywalk. It does not have facilities for food service or laundry. Nurses always ate at the hospital and the hospital handled their laundry. The residence and hospital are served by common systems for hot water, steam heat, ventilating and sewer. The building predates central air conditioning.

The human resources director reports that the business agent for kitchen and laundry workers, who are represented by a union, has already made informal contacts about this proposal, suggesting that grievances will result, at the very least, and a strike could ensue.

Your director of volunteers expresses concern about reaction of volunteers who now handle many peripheral duties. Your physical plant supervisor, who lives in the neighborhood, says neighbors are already anxious over the possibility of HIV/AIDS patients in their vicinity. Your hospital’s five-year Strategic Plan, which was recently updated, has no mention of developing an HIV/AIDS specialty.

Write a letter (using your own name) to the hospital CEO, John Dolman and the Board of Governors outlining your plan to resolve this issue. Remember, that your letter will be made public to the other audiences and publics. In your recommendations, you should provide both long and short-term strategies that would solve this problem. To solve this problem you should note if additional resources or expenditures would be need to achieve the goals that you define.

When writing the letter you should provide a brief description of the problems, you have found. What are the facts about major issues? Identify facts about key players in the case, the business problem(s) and then rank order the critical issues. Consider relevant information and underlying assumptions. Finally provide your recommendations.

As you write your recommendations, think about the following;

a. How do the cultural values at the hospital relate to communication, technology, information flow and openness?
b. As the hospital goes forward, should it stick to the espoused culture or should it change? How would you recommend that they change?
c. How would you suggest that they resolve this disparity? In other words what should they do?
d. Provide specific suggestions that will help the organization as they go forward.
e. In the closing, highlight benefits of your recommendations. As a PR director, you need to be honest but tactful in your recommendations