Strategic Communications in Healthcare: Building Trust, Reputation and Impact is a landmark textbook that combines innovative approaches to communication with the enduring principles that drive effectiveness, influence, and results. Drawing on the real-world expertise of nationally recognized leaders Rose Glenn and David Jarrard—along with a who’s who of senior healthcare communicators and educators—this hands-on guide brings together trust-building, messaging, crisis response, culture, brand, patient experience, research, measurement, AI, and more foundational elements into a cohesive framework for students and professionals alike.

Rose Glenn brings four decades of healthcare experience, including nearly 30 years in the C-suite counseling and coaching senior executives. She has led transformational change across strategy, structure and culture with deep expertise in brand strategy, executive and internal communications, media relations, issues management, and digital engagement. Today, Glenn is president of Rose Glenn & Associates, a strategic communications, branding and coaching firm, and serves of counsel for the strategic communications and change management firm Jarrard Inc. She is also an instructor in the Department of Communication & Media at the University of Michigan, where she was a 2021 finalist for the Golden Apple Award recognizing exceptional faculty.

As co-founding partner and executive chairman of Jarrard Inc., David Jarrard has a national reputation for helping healthcare systems and health services companies use their public and political strengths to succeed in high-stakes moments.  For nearly 40 years, he has advised healthcare leaders and boards on mergers and acquisitions, organizational restructurings, crisis communications, complex issue management and strategic positioning opportunities—while shaping his own firm into one of the nation’s leading strategic communications consultancies for healthcare.

Preface. 

Acknowledgments. 

About the Editors. 

About the Contributors. 

Chapter 1: Communications as a Fundamental Element of Healthcare Business Strategy. 

What happens when communications has a seat at the strategy table?

By Anne Hancock Toomey and Lauren McConville

Chapter 2: Building Trust. 

Why should anyone believe what you say…and why does it matter?

By David Jarrard and Isaac Squyres

Chapter 3: Strategic Communication Plans. 

How do you turn scattered good ideas into disciplined action?

By Pattie Cuen and Rose Glenn

Chapter 4: Research and Insights. 

What do you need to know before you decide what to say?

By Jed Lam

Chapter 5: Goals. 

What are you actually trying to accomplish?

By Rebecca Priest

Chapter 6: Stakeholder Identification and Segmentation. 

Who matters most and what do they need from you?

By Tricia Geraghty

Chapter 7: Key Messages and Meaningful Content. 

How do you make information mean something?

By David Jarrard and Tim Stewart

Chapter 8: Communication Channels. 

Where should your message show up so the right people receive it the right way?

By James Gardner

Chapter 9: Measuring Effectiveness. 

How will you know whether your communications efforts worked?

By Suzanne Hendery

Chapter 10: Media Relations. 

How do you work well with people who get to tell your story their way?

By Mary Masson and Lisa Schiller

Chapter 11: Issues Management and Crisis Communications. 

How do you communicate when the spotlight turns red hot?

By Kevin Phillips, Isaac Squyres and Tim Stewart

Chapter 12: Internal Communications. 

How do you earn the attention and trust of the people who make your organization tick?

By Kiah Calmese Walker and Kim Fox

Chapter 13: Executive Communications. 

How is communications a vital leadership practice?

By Kim Fox and Michael Knecht

 Chapter 14: Communicating the Value of Brand. 

Why should anyone choose, trust or remember your organization?

By David Feinberg and Rebecca Lingner

Chapter 15: Brand and the Patient Experience. 

How well does your brand "promise" match your audience’s experience?

By Sven Gierlinger

Chapter 16: Artificial Intelligence for Communications. 

How can you marshal the power of AI without imperiling the audience’s trust?

By Kelly Faley and Pam Landis

Chapter 17: Driving Powerful Culture. 

How can communications shape a culture to fuel an organization?

By Rose Glenn

Chapter 18: Career Paths in Communications. 

Where can a career in healthcare communications take you?

By Jhaymee Tynan

Glossary.