Bringing Values to Life
Florida – Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH), knows that mission statements and organizational values are more than just words or slogans. Following a change in leadership, this private, not-for-profit community health care system involved employees in the creation of new values and mission statements that helped change the organizational culture and became the core of a recovery plan to improve morale, reputation and financial viability and serve the community with pride.
In 2003, TMH was at a significant crossroads – the organization was experiencing a financial crisis, low morale and productivity and a declining community reputation. With the commitment of the board of directors, a change in leadership and the support of staff, the TMH community came together to remake the organization as a leader in the health care field. Employees from all levels and departments, including service, clinical and professional staff, were selected to participate on committees tasked with developing new values and mission statements. The committees solicited input from all staff members, set goals and met regularly to review the feedback, draft statements and revise the documents that were ultimately approved and adopted by the organization.
TMH’s I CARE values, which stands for Integrity, Compassion, Accountability, Respect and Excellence, established a foundation from which the organization could work toward the goal of being recognized as a world-class health care provider. The values are incorporated into all facets of the organization, including reward and recognition programs, performance reviews, training programs and myriad operational components. As each department identifies areas for improvement, I CARE values are employed to drive the change process.
The fact that employees themselves worked together to create the new mission and values eased their ownership and adoption across the organization. In recent years TMH has seen a reduction in customer complaints and performance issues and Press Ganey employee and patient satisfaction scores have increased. Additionally, the health care system has seen improvements in its community reputation as well as newfound financial viability. In 2008, TMH was named as one of Modern Healthcare’s Best Places to Work in Healthcare.
Mission statements and values may be nothing new in the business world, but the way TMH developed, implemented and integrated theirs into the culture and business processes is employee involvement at its core. This best practice, driven by employees, has been instrumental in helping TMH meet and exceed its clinical, administrative and human resource goals.