Dear patients of the Endoscopy Center of Nevada it was found out in February 2008 that our clinic was reusing single dose vials of medication. This went on for four years before an investigation began that eventually uncovered these highly unethical and dangerous practices. Unfortunately almost 800 patients were infected with hepatitis C and HIV before the investigation took place. Luckily the practice of using unsanitary syringes was brought to a halt before anymore people could be affected, but every sick patient is one to many sick patients.
Now that the incredibly negligent staff of our clinic has been caught we plan to take every action possible to fix this situation. First of all everyone who was employed at our clinic during the time that these infections occurred will be questioned and scrutinized to the greatest degree so that we can find out who specifically is responsible and once we do legal action will be taken to the fullest extent. As a company we also plan to pay for any patient of ours that desires to be tested. For those of you who have already been infected we will assist in the payment of your medical bills if not make them in full. We plan to be here for any of our patients that need us and corporate wants to help in any way we can.
As for the future of our company it is uncertain. We realize this is the sort of incident that will put a business down forever, but I assure you if we do recover the new staff will go through one of the most rigorous interview processes ever. If and when the Endoscopy Center opens back up it will operate with the greatest degree of business and moral ethics, also its operation will be closely monitored to make sure nothing even remotely similar to this situation ever happens again. As a company we realize the severity of the mistakes that were made and we aren't trying to justify the actions of our staff in any way we simply want to pick up the pieces and try to move on the best we can. Thank you for reading and to our patients we are truly sorry.
-President of Endoscopy Center
ACORN review from Firestone Group
Formatting is good. No grammar errors or common mistakes.
ACORN, a national non-profit organization, was recently filmed advising applicants on how to start an illegal business.
Isolated ACORN Incident Taken Seriously
The group does step 3 of the 10 tips well, describing the news and who announced it.
The group may wish to include a contact name instead of just ACORN's general number and email.
ACORN group
1. Review the format guides for press releases (headline,contact information, etc.)
2. Style of writing should be more like a news article than a narritave. Make sure to use commas where necessary as well for example, "First of all, everyone who was employed..."
3. Endoscopy Center of Nevada Prosicutes Careless Employees for Dangerous Practices
4. The Endoscopy Center of Nevada is taking several measures to correct unethical medical practices.
5. Good job avoiding "the hype." Make sure you are writing for the media.
TEAM EVAN comment
1. The only aspect of the standard format this group's press release contains is the body.
2. The document needs to be read over to make sure that it is gramatically correct. Your format is hindering the significance of the content.
3. 800 Patients Infected Due to Reusing Unsanitary Syringes.
4. It was found in February of 2008 that the Endoscopy Center of Nevada was reusing single dose vials of medication.
5. Based on the first resource, this group did not try to use their press release to make a sale, their purpose was to inform. On the other hand, there was absolutely no contact information available as discussed in '10 Essential Tips for Writing Press Releases.'
edited press release
HOLD FOR RELEASE UNTIL 10/19/09:
Endoscopy Center of Nevada Acknowledges Misapplication
Las Vegas, Nevada - February, 2008
Dear patients of the Endoscopy Center of Nevada it was found out in February 2008 that our clinic was reusing single dose vials of medication. This went on for four years before an investigation began that eventually uncovered these highly unethical and dangerous practices. Unfortunately almost 800 patients were infected with hepatitis C and HIV before the investigation took place. Luckily the practice of using unsanitary syringes was brought to a halt before anymore people could be affected, but every sick patient is one to many sick patients. Now that the incredibly negligent staff of our clinic has been caught we plan to take every action possible to fix this situation. First of all everyone who was employed at our clinic during the time that these infections occurred will be questioned and scrutinized to the greatest degree so that we can find out who specifically is responsible and once we do legal action will be taken to the fullest extent. As a company we also plan to pay for any patient of ours that desires to be tested. For those of you who have already been infected we will assist in the payment of your medical bills if not make them in full. We plan to be here for any of our patients that need us and corporate wants to help in any way we can. As for the future of our company it is uncertain. We realize this is the sort of incident that will put a business down forever, but I assure you if we do recover the new staff will go through one of the most rigorous interview processes ever. If and when the Endoscopy Center opens back up it will operate with the greatest degree of business and moral ethics, also its operation will be closely monitored to make sure nothing even remotely similar to this situation ever happens again. As a company we realize the severity of the mistakes that were made and we aren't trying to justify the actions of our staff in any way we simply want to pick up the pieces and try to move on the best we can.
Dr. Dipak Desai, Dr. Eladio Carrera, Dr. Clifford Carrol, and Dr. Vishvinder Sharma cannot be reached for questions at this time.
###
response to edited press release
1. The format is correct this time
2. No contact information is available
3. 800 patients infected due to neglagence
4. Many patients are sick today because of carelessness at the Endoscopy Center of Nevada.
5.- Telling why the information was intended for them and why they should keep reading was done well. It was shown that peoples health was at stake and a reader could potentially be a patient that needs to be tested or treated.
- A serious lack of contact information
Team SSS Response
1. This is not formatted correctly. The body is good, but every other aspect is absent.
2. While there is not lack of content, it is not laid out properly at all.
3. ECN is Responding Thoroughly to Needle Re-Using Atrocity
4. It has come to our attention recently that employees were reusing single does vials of medication.
5. The information is certainly newsworthy. This is a shocking case which demands immediate response and compensation from the company responsible. In the revision process, the press release needs to focus on formatting issues. This will allow the reader to draw out essential information and be able to contanct the neccesary parties.
Firestone response to Endoscopy group
Formatting: No city, date, no headline, no contact info, no release info.
Grammar errors: One to many;
Not entirely factual; a tendency to editorialize against your own business. Sentence structure could be better.
re: Endoscopy Center of Nevada Press Release
Your commenters have mentioned this, but this draft needs to be rewritten to fit the conventions of a press release. Format issues such as contact information are one aspect, but more importantly, a press release is not an apology letter for customers. We will produce other texts for that purpose. Reread the materials for Wednesday of week 7, which explicitly cover what a press release should look like and how it should function.