TOUCHDOWN: ORNGE AIR AMBULANCE SERVICE FLIES HIGH IN STAR SERIES

It can be one of the most high-risk media relations tactics of all, but if all goes well, the payoff can be invaluable. I’m talking about inviting reporters inside your operation, letting them observe and report on what happens during a day (or several) in the life. Health care environments, which provide both human drama and public policy angles, tend to be popular choices for this kind of embedded journalism. “Ride alongs” with cops and firefighters have generated some compelling results as well, and it was this kind of arrangement which saw a team of Toronto Star reporters spend time inside and in-flight with the ORNGE air ambulance operation recently. The resulting series of articles (and video reports on www.thestar.com) was a communications Touchdown for ORNGE, dubbed “the trauma rooms of the air” in the series. Blow-by-blow details of rescue missions made for page-turning stuff, plus ORNGE got to tell the story of how it has come from a “fragmented system plagued with medical and aviation problems” to “a world leader in air medical transport,” as described by the Star. Plus that video footage was really, really cool …