Children's Online Newsroom
About media relations
As the nation’s seventh-largest pediatric facility, Children’s Medical Center is an excellent source for news about pediatric health care treatment and research. The Media Relations team is committed to helping international, national and local news media with stories, from providing experts for interviews to arranging interviews with families.
All requests for interviews are handled by Media Relations, and we strive for a quick turnaround on your request. Advance notice is needed so we can arrange a space for the interview and line up physicians and families. We also may be able to provide alternate suggestions for sources or other information to help you.
Meet the team
The Children’s Media Relations team understands your deadline and sourcing needs. We’re ready to be a source of evergreen ideas or an expert for a quick-turn breaking story.
We may be reached during regular business hours at our direct numbers or on our cell phones (below). After hours, call 214-456-7000 and ask the hospital operator to page the on-call Media Relations person. Email requests also are welcome.
Laurie Holloway
Media Relations Manager
Office: 214-456-5318
Cell: 214-862-3478
Laurie.holloway@childrens.com
Laurie was a reporter and editor at eight newspapers, including the Dallas Times Herald, during her 25-year newspaper career. She left journalism in 2006 to join Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, where she was manager of public affairs at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital. She returned to Dallas in 2010 to join Children’s Medical Center. She’s a diehard blogger and amateur photographer.
Peggy O’Hare
Media Relations Specialist
Office: 214-456-5355
Cell: 214-850-2439
Peggy.O’hare@childrens.com
Peggy is a 20-year newspaper veteran who previously worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle for 11 years. She joined Children’s Medical Center as a media relations specialist in April 2011. She still has a love for breaking news and enjoys reading every newspaper she can get her hands on. She is a lifelong Texan and loves animals, good food and good music.
Reporting from Children’s
We welcome journalists at Children’s, because we’re proud of the great work being done here. To protect the privacy and confidentiality of our patients, the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requires that media be accompanied by a member of our team while in the hospital or on the grounds, among other restrictions.
At Children’s Medical Center, we take our responsibility for patient privacy seriously. Some important details to help us work well together:
• Media cannot enter the hospitals or our campuses unannounced. This includes the emergency department, our Plano and Southlake facilities, and live shots from the streets outside of the hospital. If you would like to do a live shot, call Media Relations and we will work with our Security team to help you.
• Federal law allows patients to opt out of being listed in the hospital’s directory. In that case, information about the patient will not be available, including confirmation of whether he or she is being treated here. Other public service entities, such as police or fire officials, may say that a patient was brought to Children’s. However, this doesn’t release Children’s of its privacy obligations, and we still will not be able legally to share information about that child.
• Please contact us as early as possible about your story. We are responsive to deadline requests, but advance notice about non-deadline stories gives us the time to ensure that your story will go well. This includes finding good patients and physicians to interview, notifying team leaders that that we’ll be shooting in their clinics or unit, discovering unique visuals or details that you may want to use.
• Patients and families may not be approached directly at the hospitals. However, we understand that patients and families provide a critical element to your stories. If you’d like to interview a patient or family, call the Media Relations team and we will contact the family on your behalf. Please understand that our patients are sick or injured children, and families often are stunned to find themselves here suddenly. The Media Relations team will approach them at appropriate time.