The Role of Social Media in Crisis Management: A Case of Kenyatta National Hospital Rape of New Mothers and Wrong Patient Brain Surgery Crises

Abstract

This study examines the place of social media during two crises that occurred at Kenya's leading referral hospital, the Kenyatta National Referral Hospital (KNH), in 2018 of the rape of new mothers and the wrong patient's brain surgery. Social media brought these crises into the limelight bringing into question the hospital’s ability to fulfill its mandate as the leading referral hospital in the country. This study examines how audiences used social media during the crises, the strategies used by the hospital to protect its reputation, and how the response impacted the public's perceptions of the referral hospital. The study uses a qualitative approach with data collected from Twitter social media platform. The data collected was collated and analyzed thematically. Findings show that the hospital applied denial and victim strategies to distance itself from the crises, strategies that did not help protect its reputation since the level of attribution of crisis responsibility was high. The study found that accepting responsibility and expressing empathy can cushion an organization against negative stakeholder perceptions. The hospital as an institution did not have an internal communications team or an agency to help with crisis communications management. This study recommends that institutions like KNH should be equipped with public relations specialists who focus on the role of social media in crisis management as part of a comprehensive communication strategy. Healthcare institutions need to be cognizant that the public is taking to social media to communicate issues around various crises, including putting forward their complaints and sharing diverse negative experiences. Therefore, there is a need to have a strategic approach to crisis communications within their communication dockets that are equipped to handle different aspects, including monitoring, conducting follow-ups, and informing the external public how they have been addressed. This study suffered limitations that can be addressed in future studies, such as expansion to other social network sites, since this study only focused on Twitter, to provide a detailed statistical analysis.