Public relations strategies employed by healthcare organizations to address vaccine hesitancy: the case of the Ghana Health Service

Background Strategies for developing and advancing good public relations can be recognized in nearly all fields of life without making an exception for the healthcare industry. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, matters of public health have gathered more force. The importance of effective public relations for improving healthcare is highlighted by the position that immediate access to reliable health information should be the hallmark of a just society. However, the strategies available for addressing major threats to the uptake of public health services such as mass vaccination campaigns are not properly studied and documented in the Ghanaian context. Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with officials of the Ghana Health Service (GHS). Participants were recruited through purposive sampling. Data collected included demographic characteristics, perspectives on public relations strategies used in the past year to improve vaccine uptake as well as successes and pitfalls. Thematic content analysis was performed on data collected using the NVIVO software. Results Healthcare workers perceived vaccine hesitancy to be a threat with the potential to undermine an important strategic organizational goal related to COVID-19 illness. A combination of informative, motivational, persuasive and coercive public relations strategies was employed by the Ghana Health Service to address the challenge of vaccine hesitancy. These strategies were deployed across both traditional (print, radio, TV) and emerging/social media networks. Officials were optimistic that the strategies would produce results but were uncertain whether they could attribute current successes or failures to the PR strategies used. Conclusion Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, several public relations strategies have been evidently employed by the Ghana Health Service to address vaccine hesitancy. The nature of the audience and PR strategies employed suggests that the effect of these strategies may be short-lived unless they are constantly reinforced by the GHS.