Improving Clinic Culture

 As competition in the health industry continues to grow, many clinics, hospitals and other health systems find themselves putting more time and research into improving the experience for both their patients and their employees. Because of this, new positions such as patient care specialists and patient experience coordinators are becoming more popular. As these professionals have started shaping our health systems to be more successful and patient-centric, there is now a greater awareness and overall understanding of the clinic culture and its impact. Whether it is the start of a new year, season or any other reason, focusing on the culture of a health system is incredibly beneficial and getting started is much easier than it may seem.  

Better Together

First of all, in order to better develop our clinic culture, whether it is in a clinic, hospital or any other health system, we need to understand what that culture is. If you ask Google there are many definitions- all talking about the goals, standards, morals, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, etc. of an organization. And while true, the best way to describe the culture is as a reflection of the organization’s mission. Or the health system’s mission put into action. So in order to achieve a positive change in the overall culture, each employee, from the janitor to the CEO, needs to know the vision, values and overall mission of the health system.

And not that the employees have just heard the mission once or have read it somewhere; there needs to be a real saturation of the mission. Employees learning and understanding the mission should be just as important as learning the processes and procedures that they use every day.  The best way to accomplish this is through leadership. When management makes the mission a priority, reflects the mission and uses it as a guide when working with other employees, it serves as an example for other employees to follow. 

Walk the Walk

Of course, getting the employees to know the mission isn’t enough. Honoring the mission and authentically exercising it is also important. Many health systems have a mission that talks about service, compassion, integrity or respect. However, employees don’t often feel like their health systems truly have those things. Healthcare is already an industry full of people working long and stressful hours, and often without much appreciation.  Just recognizing and appreciating employees can go a long way. We should be thankful for them, celebrate their birthdays & anniversaries or be understanding during difficult times. Really pouring into employees is crucial; you can’t value them as people if they are only ever treated as a means to an end. It is the same with our patients; we can’t rush them through our services and treat them as just a number in a long line and expect them to have an incredible patient experience. And the more a health system reflects its mission to the employees, the more the employees will reflect the mission to the patients. 

Consistency is Key

There is always opportunity to improve the culture. Meetings for instance are a place where we share information with employees regularly. Rather than purely discussing business and moving along, why not carve out time to listen to employees, have team building exercises or at least end every meeting with something fun and positive. Remember, these are human people in these meetings, not robots. Or think about the break room. How does its amenities reflect to the employees a mission that cares about its people? Look for opportunities everywhere and be consistent. Improving culture isn’t an overnight thing, it’s an ongoing process. If an athlete wants to get better to break a record, or someone wants to improve a skill, lose weight, learn a language or anything else, consistency is the key to success and is what will help keep everyone accountable to continually improving the culture.   

The same is true in healthcare.

If your organization has not ever defined your mission, vision or values, this is a great place to start.  It is difficult to improve your culture if you don't even know what you want your culture to be.  

“

Culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people

”