ROLE OF PUBLIC RELATION IN MANAGING CORPORATE REPUTATION AND CRISI MANAGEMENT IN FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER (FMC) ABEOKUTA

Healthcare is at the front burner of a nation’s economic growth such that the image it portrays to the public as well as the services it provides is of utmost priority noting with fact that crisis may occur at any point in time. In the bid of managing crisis in the health sector, certain strategies are expected to be deployed especially in cases that are of public interest which should be managed using different communication tools that has been neglected over the years. Hence this study investigated the role of public relations in managing corporate reputation and crisis management of Federal Medical Center Abeokuta (FMC), Ogun State Nigeria. The study was hinged upon the tenets of situational communication theory and image restoration theory thereby adopted the explanatory sequential mixed method as its methodology. The Population of this study was 3259 clinical and non clinical staff member of the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Abeokuta Ogun State, Nigeria where a sample of 360 members were purposively selected for the quantitative aspect of the study while the public relations officer was interviewed in depth for the qualitative aspect of the study. The discovered that public relations tools such news release, press conference, health seminars like world breastfeeding, HIV/AIDs, Malaria days are some of the strategies deployed by the Public relations unit of FMC Abeokuta to engage its host communities and patients. Similarly, the public relations unit established healthcare centers in neighboring communities in Joga orile, Ajebo, Ayetoro and Idi-Aba communities of the state. The recommended that the management of FMC Abeokuta should invest in regular training and development programs for skill enhancement of its Public relations staff members. Conclusively, the study provided gap for further researchers to investigate the corporate social responsibility strategies adopted by private healthcare givers.