In the great way they so often do, Parrish Medical Center, Titusville, Florida, keeps finding new and more creative ideas to nourish loving care in their organization. Often, the Loving Care campaign needs supporting materials. Liz Vierra & Natalie Sellers, members of the Parrish leadership team, together with other staff,  brainstormed images this past spring and came up with several to support their initiative, some of which are portrayed in this photo (click to enlarge.) What’s more important, are the other elements that have characterized their success.

   The leadership of Parrish, under George Mikitarian, demonstrates a pattern of thought and behavior that characterizes successful loving care organizations.

   Here are five of several areas where Parrish shines.

   1) Persistence: More than two years into work, Parrish celebrates their successes but never rests on their laurels. Recently, they have launched an intensified effort to strengthen care in their busy Emergency Department. Physicians and nursing leadership have joined hands to create the finest ER in the state.

   2) Continuous Learning: I’ve never encountered a leadership team more open to learning from others than the group at Parrish. Constantly curious, their CEO is opening to partnering with organizations that can add value to the Parrish experience.

  3) Courage: In the face of threatening crossfire, board, administration and key physicians have taken on the challenge of strengthening medical staff quality. With the help of Dr. Brian Wong, of Seattle, the organization has set a new and higher standard for physician/nurse interactions grounded in deep respect. Physicians or nurses who continuously fall below this standard face firm discipline. Equally important, those that exceed the standard are celebrated.

  4) Total Organizational Involvement: The Communications Council at Parrish numbers nearly a hundred employee partners. This group subdivides into several teams, each with a team leader, that meet regularly to pursue continuous improvement around the drivers of culture change. Orientation keeps getting better and better. Hiring and annual review processes have been significantly enhanced. The board is engaged with regular briefings on all of this and a new medical staff initiative, nicknamed PAL, involves the medical staff.

   5) Healing Enviornment: A couple years back, Parrish opened one of the finest examples of a healing physical plant I have seen. Located on the Space Coast of Florida, Parrish has launched a facility which is the envy of hospitals around the country. Indeed, Laurie Eberst and her team from Mercy Gilbert in Arizona made a pilgrimage to Parrish to learn how to establish the spectacular facility they opened recently (see our previous story on Mercy Gilbert)

   The key thing about a Healing Hospital is that there are so many key things. A Healing Hospital is alwayws striving to improve. Strong as they are, Parrish still knows they have a long way to got to me their OWN goals of excellence. Based on the way they been performing, we think they are bound to succeed.