IF a disaster occurs, patient care is the first priority at University Medical Center (UMC). However, any of your requests or needs will be met as soon as possible. Please familiarize yourself with the following plan:

1. If a Disaster situation exists, all members of the media are required to show media identification to gain admittance to UMC or its facilities.

2. Updates will be provided regularly on the Hospital's media section of its Web site: www.umcsn.com/media. Background information, photographs, and other information for the media is also available on the site.

3. Upon entering the hospital, members of the media are to check in at the Trauma security desk and ask that someone from the Community Relations Department be paged. A community relations representative will escort the media representative to the emergency area or to the media center, if the disaster requires that the media center be opened. Media representatives will be given an identification badge to fill out and wear at all times while on the hospital's premises if they do not have a picture identification badge from their own organization.

4. A member of the community relations staff will act as official hospital spokesperson, unless specific medical information is necessary, in which case, a medical spokesperson will be designated by the hospital's administration.

5. The Community Relations staff will release information in at least 60-minute intervals, or as news occurs. Information will be announced verbally and then distributed to all media personnel in printed form. This information will also be posted on the media section of the hospital's Web site, www.umcsn.com/media. If media personnel request information by telephone, information will be released at 60-minute intervals or as it occurs by conference call or by individual calls to the media outlet. Questions from the media will be accepted after the call, and if the answer is not known at that time, the information will be gathered and given during the next conference call or an individualized response will be provided.

6. Requests for information or interviews should be made to the community relations staff only. Media representatives who attempt to circumvent the communication process by obtaining unauthorized interviews or by releasing information not confirmed by the community relations staff will politely be asked to leave the media center and the hospital. These individuals, while no longer being granted direct access, may continue to monitor the story through the hospital's Web site, www.umcsn.com/media.

7.Community Relations will facilitate and coordinate media access to the hospital, administrators, physicians, religious personnel, patients, family and friends during the crisis. We want media to get the story while protecting the privacy of any victims and maintaining uninterrupted medical care. To expedite access and information flow media personnel will be asked to remain in the disaster media center at all times except for meals and personal necessity unless escorted by a community relations representative to family or victim interviews, etc.

Cell phones and other wireless technologies have been known to interfere with critical life-saving equipment in hospitals, therefore, general cell phone or wireless technology use within the hospital is restricted. There are designated "safe zones" (including the disaster media center) where cell phones may be used.

8. UMC adheres to the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development of the American Hospital Association for release of information.

• Disaster & Crisis Guidelines
• Disaster & Crisis Categories
• Patient Conditions