(a continuation of yesterday’s Meditation: Mission Fraud, Part I)

Is your organization promising compassion and caring in its mission  statement and rarely delivering it? Are you who you say you are, or are you living a fraud? All employees of hospitals, hospices and charities are caregivers. They report to patients and clients, not to bosses. They need our support and our encouragement, not our condemnation. That is the challenge for America’s health care leaders. And here are some ways to make it happen. It starts with re-examining all the systems that support, or don’t support caregivers, and it continues with these ten steps…

1.      Hire people who care by using behavior-based questioning & careful processes.

2.      Orient staff with inspiration and fun as well as information

3.      Provide meaningful training and renew this training regularly.

4.      Communicate that charity work is sacred. People come to charities because they have deep needs, not because they’re looking for entertainment or need to buy a shirt. This is NOT about customer service. It’s about Loving Service.

5.      Design annual reviews that emphasize loving behaviors. If employees are reviewed only by whether they showed up for work on time and didn’t argue with the supervisor, than the mission is being frustrated. 

6.      Be sure that meeting agendas are sprinkled with discussions of loving care as well as the nuts and bolts work.

7.      Rounding: Leaders need to spend less time in their offices and more time on the floors with staff. Best of all, nursing leaders need to get back in uniform and work alongside staff whenever they can. The same with other leaders. Take a day a month, every month, put on a housekeeping uniform, and mop the floor with the rest of the staff. (I did this monthly for most of my twelve years as President & CEO of Ohio’s largest hospital, 1000-bed Riverside Methodist in Columbus, Ohio. It’s a step above management by walking around and it’s a powerful tool if done with sincerity)

8.      Revamp employee recognition events to affirm employees for more than just length of service. Recognize compassionate caregivers as well as veterans.

9.      Form Circle Groups of leaders and other staff to solicit ideas for how to improve the workplace culture and environment. Many hospitals, like Parrish Medical Center, Wuesthoff Health System, Mercy Gilbert Hospital, and Beth Israel in Bostonare doing these kinds of things with great results.

10.  Use the Mother Test. Is your organization offering services so well that you’d feel comfortable having your mom come in for care (without your intervention) ?

For more detail and the materials and support that can help make these steps work, go to the Healing Trust Services website: www.healinghospital.org.

How will you know if these steps are working? David Whyte’s poem says that the truths we speak out loud are the ones we break. Is your Mission Statement a broken promise? Is your organization perpetrating a fraud by promising loving care and delivering mediocrity? Walk on down to the ER some evening when volume is high. Sit down and watch. Apply the Mother Test. And you can apply a second test as well. Match staff and leader behavior to that Mission Statement on the wall? The one in the black frame posted so everybody can see it. Make it come true.