Just a few months after the head of the Catholic healthcare system in Boston resigned in disgrace following sexual harassment allegations, Caritas Christi is undergoing more upheaval. But it’s not so much the resignations that are most interesting but the “inside baseball” aspect of the media relations strategy involved.
First, Peter Holden, president of Caritas Holy Family Hospital in Methuen, resigned. Holden had sent a memo that former Caritas chief Dr. Robert Haddad had been “observed to be winking and leering” at a female employee. That report was part of the investigation that led to Haddad’s resignation. Meanwhile, Dr. Bill Morgan, the former Red Sox team doctor and orthopedic surgeon who performed the miracle surgery on pitcher Curt Schilling (cf. “the bloody sock”) that allowed him to help the team win its first World Series in 86 years, is resigning from his position as head of orthopedics at the system’s flagship hospital, St. Elizabeth’s. This isn’t related to the Haddad matter; he’s going to be head of orthopedics at another hospital.
A lesson about media leaks
However, what’s most interesting is that the hospital’s communications director had included with the internal announcement of the changes a note that they wanted to keep such internal memos quiet.
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it shouldn’t be too hard to track down who sent it
How? Polygraph tests? I don’t think the Globe‘s going to turn over its copy of the e-mail to reveal the sender.
There’s probably a short list of original recipients. Send IT to their computers and look at the sent box. In my experience, most people—especially at the executive level—are clueless when it comes to covering their tracks on computers.