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ABSTRACT
The practice of public relations has experienced tremendous growth and evolution over the past 25 years, especially in the area of medical public relations. The constant changes in health care delivery have often led to increased need for communication with important publics. At the same time, practitioners in all fields of public relations have explored methods of accurately measuring the effectiveness of public relations programs. One such method of evaluation is the communication audit. This paper includes a brief overview of the communication audit concept followed by a case study based on an audit conducted for a small, multicultural non-profit health-care agency. Steps taken to conduct the audit and the methodology used are discussed. An analysis of the data is used to address two research questions regarding the efficacy of the Center's mission and vision. Suggestions for future audits are provided.
INTRODUCTION
As the practice of health care has changed during the past 25 years, so has the practice of medical public relations. If anything, the fluctuations in health care have made the public relations function more recognized, more necessary, and more significant. One piece of evidence: a survey of more than 150 top public relations firms listed health care as one of the three fastest-growing areas of public relations, along with high tech and financial (Seitel, 2001).
Concurrently during the past few years, the general practice of public relations has experienced repeated calls for the development of methods of measuring evaluation. Typical is the following from a public relations textbook: "Today's climate demands attention to evaluation research - procedures for determining the success of a public relations plan - from the very beginning. With practitioners facing greater demands for accountability, every public relations plan must achieve an impact that is measurable" (Guth and Marsh, 2003, p. 204).
The body of literature on the topic has grown tremendously in the past 10 years. Linda Childers Hon has written several journal articles on developing and expanding the use of evaluation research. A frequent theme is tying evaluation to public relations objectives, which derive from organizational objectives. She writes "Although definitions of effectiveness in public relations abound, the most prominent theme in scholarly literature and the trade press is that effective public relations occurs when...