New Jersey health system recognized for communications initiatives during COVID-19 pandemic
WEST ORANGE – March 3, 2021: RWJBarnabas Health has been recognized with the 2021 Association of American Medical Colleges, Group on Institutional Advancement’s (GIA) Silver Award for Excellence in the Crisis Management category for disseminating critical health and safety information to hospital system employees as well as New Jersey residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The GIA Awards for Excellence Competition is an annual, peer-reviewed competition that recognizes outstanding work by members of the Group on Institutional Advancement (GIA) and their staff. The awards honor the most creative and effective approaches used to promote academic medicine through alumni relations, communications, development, marketing, and public affairs/community relations programs and projects.
RWJBarnabas Health is the largest, most comprehensive academic health care system in New Jersey, with a service area covering nine counties with five million people. As a major health care provider in a densely populated state, the system serves an incredibly diverse range of communities, ethnicities, and demographics. New Jersey’s health providers were some of the first in the nation to be inundated with COVID-19 patients. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck New Jersey, RWJBarnabas Health was uniquely equipped to lead communications for the academic health care system.
At the highest level, the RWJBarnabas Health communications team approached the challenge as if it were creating a news outlet. Vulnerable communities – which have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic – are of particular concern for the system; addressing the adverse social determinants of health is core to its mission. The team juggled a nonstop flurry of media requests, connecting local, trade and national reporters with medical authorities from the system. At the same time, they worked to fulfill the system’s commitment to its patients and communities by proactively creating and distributing much-needed information on the virus, in English and Spanish, all of which contributed to the system’s recognition with the GIA Award.
“The AAMC Group on Institutional Advancement’s recognition of RWJBarnabas Health as the winner of the Silver Award for Excellence in the Crisis Management category is a well-deserved testament to the system’s commitment to the well-being of our New Jersey neighbors and the communications team’s agility in the face of one of the greatest challenges this country’s medical system has ever seen,” said Barry. H Ostrowsky, President and Chief Executive Officer of RWJBarnabas Health.
“As frontline staff were working nonstop to fight the virus, the communications team was also working intensely to ensure that internally, crucial communication was taking place, and externally, New Jersey’s communities were armed with the tools and knowledge they needed to stay well.”
