With the current changes in the healthcare industry, patients and families are more aware of treatments and medical services. Many take it upon themselves to be educated and be aware of why they require medical support. To keep up with patient’s needs and the many changes in healthcare, the industry is now insisting on increasing its focus on the patients’ experience. Hospital systems are undergoing major transformations where they go beyond offering just excellence in medical treatments and ensure that they do so while focusing on a seamless experience for the patients.

Situation

The senior leadership of this hospital chain realized that, to remain competitive in the healthcare industry and be seen as an accessible front runner in multi-specialty treatment they would have to find efficient ways to communicate their desired cultural shift that would align the quality and focus of service, with patients' expectations. This would also involve focusing on improving the hospital staff’s ability to offer care and be empathetic.

Action

As part of the work we are doing to help bring about the desired shift in culture, we found that the best way to bring about such a large change amongst approximately 2000 employees was to create a set of common identifiable values that resonated with this new culture. These values then became the basis for all communication, processes and policies. With the help of the senior leadership team, we were able to use these values across various mediums of communication to reiterate the importance of this culture shift. These values became the foundation of interviews and evaluation of potential new employees. We are currently working on creating various tools for evaluation and training material that will be used to develop and measure the changing culture. With a combination of clear, compelling and simple audio-visuals, handouts and hospital collaterals we are working on communicating and creating recall for these values, that will ultimately help each employee form an emotional and personal connection to the hospital’s purpose and values.

Outcome

The desired outcome is to ensure that all employees at every hospital unit have access to all communication material required to support and facilitate the desired culture shift.