The media has confirmed yet another case of norovirus at The Wilsonville Senior Living Facility in Clark County, Oregon . According to The Oregonian, the latest outbreak has included 56 residents and 25 staff members. Two family members of staff persons, one health care worker and one visitor have also fallen ill from the latest outbreak. While no deaths have been reported, several residents have been hospitalized.

Since April, The Wilsonville has been plagued with several outbreaks of the gastrointestinal illness commonly known as norovirus. The wave of sickness has also been steadily reported on by the local print media as well as local news stations. In response to the coverage, its executive director, Linda Swanson, has written letters to the local media explaining how her community is dealing with the virus and how others can try to prevent it in their own facilities. However, with more outbreaks, the Goldman Mature Market Report asks its publisher, Dean Goldman,

What step should Swanson take next to continue to protect the image of her community?

According to Goldman, despite the setbacks the community is experiencing, Swanson is still headed in the right direction.

“Linda Swanson in her letter to The Oregonian stated that the norovirus is difficult to eradicate, can be ‘quite stubborn,’ and can come back at any time. This new incident is not unexpected; however, with all the steps that The Wilson Senior Living Facility has undertaken to eradiate the virus, its recurrence must be a huge disappointment.”

“So far, The Wilsonville Senior Living Facility has taken many of the correct public relations steps to address the organization’s damaged reputation. A crucial step was for Ms. Swanson to acknowledge in her letter to The Oregonian the challenges of the norovirus and to imply that norovirus is a problem that can happen again no matter what steps they take. This honesty will serve her company well. Another company might have acted differently, trying to reassure everyone by stating ‘everything is all right and the situation won’t happen again’. This would have been a big mistake since something like the norovirus can easily reappear no matter what preventative measures are taken.” 

“Now that the norovirus has reappeared, Ms. Swanson needs to continue to remind people what they have done and why, continue to explain the challenges managing norovirus outbreaks, and describe all the actions they continue to do to address this persistent problem. Every form of communications should be used: speaking with the media, sending letters and emails to the many publics that are touched by The Wilsonville Senior Living Facility, and public speaking engagements. All this should be done as often as possible so that she can show the public that the facility’s management is aggressive in its efforts to deal with the problem. Use the outbreak stories as an opportunity to showcase positive action.”

“Once this latest bout of bad publicity is behind them, there is opportunity to turn the issue around. Ms. Swanson should undertake a series of speaking engagements and seminars to let others learn of the challenges they faced with this virus, how they weighed residents and family access, the compassion their employees showed in dealing with the problem, and what everyone did to address it. By embracing discussion of the problem and their actions, and presenting it as a case study, The Wilsonville Senior Living Facility can get before audiences that they would like to reach that other senior living communities cannot easily reach. They can hold speaking engagements and seminars before referral sources such as physicians, clergy and social workers; and, they can use it to draw media attention. The end result will be that The Wilsonville Senior Living Facility’s reputation will be stronger than before now that they are experts at dealing with norovirus, while showing how they compassionately work with their residents and staff. And they will have greater top-of-mind name recognition than their competition.”

The Goldman Mature Market Report will keep a watch over this situation to see how The Wilsonville Senior Living Facility continues to address this issue.