Box 2 Recommendations for improvement of crisis communication

Preparedness (qualitative)

Use the experience of this pandemic to establish a future crisis communication plan, by reviewing and amending the ad hoc protocols that were established

Train staff and management in crisis communication and health literate communication

Strategy (qualitative)

Build sustainable relationships with relevant organisations to ensure consistency in messages

Inform people early and frequently, preferably in a way tailored to clinical profiles

Remain transparent about uncertainty

Reach (qualitative)

Use multiple channels to communicate your messages, including those that do not rely on the patient’s initiative (active outreach)

Use different outreach strategies to cater to a diverse audience, also beyond the clinic’s regular patients and the associations’ own members

Content of communication (qualitative + quantitative)

Adapt information to different people’s needs, considering e.g. age, cultural background. Actively discover these needs from the patient perspective (qualitative)

Ask your audience for suggestions and feedback and use it to revise your strategy and provided information (qualitative)

Combat fake news through acknowledgement and counterarguments (qualitative)

Check difficulty level of written information (aim at A2/B1) and adapt accordingly (quantitative + qualitative)

Make sure information is directly applicable in practice (quantitative + qualitative)

Health literacy (quantitative + qualitative)

Explicitly consider people’s health literacy needs throughout and provide tailored guidance and support, beyond merely simplifying written health information