About the Recent ROYAL RELEASE OF INFORMATION issue

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ABOUT THE RECENT ROYAL RELEASE OF INFORMATION ISSUE

I am not a ROYAL WATCHER but this was too good to pass up.

As most of the world now knows the Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Kate, was recently admitted to a London hospital with what an official dispatch from the royal family as a rare but bad form of morning sickness.

Now, I am not going to get into the medical term or what that form of morning sickness is.
While the duchess was in the hospital getting treatment for that illness a couple of disc jockeys from Australian got the bright idea to call the hospital and try to talk to Princess Kate.

So they called and got past the first person that answered the phone and in larger hospitals a switchboard operator would answer the call AND passed the call to the floor or to the room number WITHOUT giving the room number info. They got past the first person who answered the called.  WHO FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES did exactly what ANY operator in any hospital in the world would do passed the call to the FLOOR and NEVER DID MENTION what FLOOR or wing or section of the hospital.

Here is where it gets a little crazy:

The nurse that answered the phone was first duped by the crazy ex- Australian DJs by stating in a VERY BAD voice impersonation of what was supposed to be Her Royal Highness the Queen wanted to know how “her granddaughter” was doing.

At this point, the nurse starts spilling the beans. Of course she does not give up any medication or specific treatment information. However, the nurse on the floor obviously had stars in her eyes when she was talking to the “Queen”

Here is where I will stop.

What’s the take away, aside from a very tragic ending for one of the individuals involved?

What is your take away? As an organization as a business owner as an administrator you need to know what your employees are telling people over the telephone. Does your organization’s policy and procedure manual cover the release of information over the telephone?

It does not matter what industry you are in, but especially with the medical industry it is better safe than sorry. I like the attitude that someone once told me, “I would rather go to jail for releasing not enough or no information than to go to jail for releasing too much.”

If your organization does cover the release of information over the phone, this is an excellent time for a refresher.

Something else to pass along to your staff: SOCIAL ENGINEERING

Social Engineering is the “art” of manipulating people to believe that the perpetrator is who he/she is who they say they are usually in order to obtain something tangible or intangible. As in the case of the prank callers it was intangible in the form of medical information.

I can only speculate but in the case of the royals, the hospital staff was duped because they were either prepared to receive a phone call from the queen or a member of the royal family or they had previously received a call from someone from the royal family.

That may be why they were so ready to hand over information.

No matter what the case there was something lacking. A check and balance and while the QUEEN may be the Queen of England or the CEO of the hospital may be the CEO there is NOTHING that says that information can be handed over "willy-nilly" without some form verification.

Let me break it down like this: The queen while being related to the princess by marriage is NOT an immediate family member therefore no matter what her place is in society NO INFORMATION should be passed along. So no matter if she actually called or these jokers called the answer would still be NO, THANK YOU we cannot pass any information over the phone.

You may be asking yourself, how is the queen not an immediate family member?

Well, it is simple the Queen is related by marriage. The queen is the grandmother of the prince. Therefore, she is not immediate family. Her immediate family is her husband, her mother, her father, and her siblings. So the only answer that would be acceptable would I am sorry “Ma’am I will connect you with our press office or administration offices so that you can request information from them as I am not allowed to pass along any information over the telephone.”

If the caller remains insistent that they want information to your staff has every right to either asks the caller to call back and they will be passed on to administration or simply placed on a hold and have them get a supervisor to explain to the caller why information will not be given over the telephone.

Now, if they are really related they will understand the need to protect the individual’s privacy and usually that will be enough to satisfy them. It’s going to be those knuckleheads that want the information for other reasons that will complain but so long as your staff does not back down they will hang up on their own. Periodically reminding your staff about what to do what not to do in certain situations is essential to keeping your staff on their toes and to ensure that they will not get themselves into a situation they cannot get out of.

If you have any comments, questions, concerns, or need help addressing issues like what I just talked about than you can always drop us a note at admin@rrsonline.us

Thank you,
David Guerra
Rio Records Service, Inc.