News Media Guidelines
The Corporate Communications Department of Sentara Healthcare, Optima Health’s corporate handles media inquiries about patients and our company.
To obtain information for a news story or to request an interview with anyone at Optima Health, the media should call the Sentara Media Pager -- 24-hour Media Pager 757-671-4971
The Sentara Corporate Communications (PR) team will do all we reasonably can to accommodate requests from the news media for patient conditions, interviews with members at our offices and general stories on healthcare.
We understand breaking news, deadlines and media competition. We appreciate any interest displayed in our news releases. We understand it is a two-way street.
During breaking news events, we will work with reporters and photographers to help you get the information, photos and video you need to tell your stories while protecting member’s privacy.
However, our first duty is to member privacy. We are bound by federal HIPAA laws that limit the amount of member information we may release without specific consent from a member.