Case Study: How to Handle Media Production during a World Wide Crisis
A Brief History
MUSC Health the top-ranked hospital system in South Carolina, serving patients across South Carolina with world-class care and research. As part of the MUSC Brand Center, I worked on a team responsible for major communications, media production, and content strategy for the health system, from state-wide health campaigns to day-to-day video needs across departments.
The Problem
When COVID-19 hit the United States in early 2020, like hospitals everywhere, MUSCHealth moved into crisis mode and lockdown almost overnight. Most of my team was indefinitely furloughed within weeks, leaving me as the sole in-house media producer (due to my contracts with the state of South Carolina that prevented sudden layoffs) for the health system during the first three months of the pandemic.
The scale of the challenge was significant. Patients were scared and confused. Telehealth went from an optional service to the primary way people received care, and most of the public had no idea how to use it. Doctors and specialists suddenly needed to communicate with their communities through videos and podcasts. The entire hospital needed a virtual communications infrastructure, and I was a part of a small team that helped build it.
The Solution
The first thing I did was sit down with the Brand Manager to build a clear request and delivery system. Without a triage process, every request would feel equally urgent, and nothing would get done well. We created a prioritization list, with content directing patients to active services came first, and everything else followed.
From there, I identified which content truly required my hands-on involvement and which could be handled by the doctors and specialists themselves at home. I wrote straightforward production guidelines so that clinicians with no filming experience could capture usable footage on their own devices. This freed up my capacity for the work that actually needed a professional touch.
I also overhauled my personal workflow to move faster without sacrificing quality by tightening my editing pipeline, standardizing formats, and cutting any step that wasn't adding value to the final product. For content that ran into production roadblocks, I developed workarounds on the fly: repurposing existing footage that carried the right message, combining archival material with new animated stills, and finding creative ways to say something new with what we already had.
The Result
In the first months of the pandemic, we pushed out hundreds of pieces of content. We produced videos walking patients step-by-step through signing up for telehealth appointments. We released locally focused pieces featuring MUSC doctors from almost every department, speaking directly to their communities and reassuring people that care was still available. We worked with a local production house to launch a hopeful television commercial, blending animated archival footage with new social distance stills, designed to meet the moment without requiring a full production crew.
We also produced a biweekly video series featuring the President of MUSC addressing the public directly, speaking with medical experts, sharing data, and providing transparent updates on the health system's response to the pandemic. I was handle the entire production by myself while adhering to social distancing rules.
Finally, we produced a series spotlighting innovative solutions developed by MUSC clinicians, from quick tips on temporarily fixing your mask strap, to printing your own N95 mask using a 3d printer. We also worked with the Legal department to include a disclaimer in each video. These pieces often went viral and were shared widely.
The rest of the content performed strongly across the board and received positive feedback from both patients and staff. In one of the most difficult operating environments imaginable, we kept the communications running and made sure people felt informed, reassured, and supported.
