How do you change the culture of a large, decades old organization? It start with a vision that flows from a new look at a too-often dishonored subject: mission.

   Most hospitals are engaged in mission fraud. They proclaim a commitment to "best patient care" & deliver far less than that. 

   It does no good for a faith-based hospital to trumpet high-sounding commitments to practicing the God's mission of loving care & then spend most of every executive meeting focused on money.

   Long ago a well-meaning finance officer at a Catholic hospital defended his focus on the bottom line by saying, "No money, no mission." Sadly, the phrase caught on & was used by countless executives to focus on how much money they were making. Reportedly, the CEO of giant Ascension Health bragged in 2003. "Our bottom line is bigger that (for profit) HCA!"

  Neither patients nor first line caregivers value the wealth of any hospital. What they count on is clear: When a patient is in dire need that need must be meet to care that is of High Competence & Deep Compassion. 

   The only way to change culture is to adopt a vision grounded in what became the new Riverside mantra: "We honor the dignity & worth of each person." A leadership philosophy that puts caregivers, not money at the top of the leader's focus.

   Leaders do not care for patients. Their job is to take care of the people who do. 

   Love, not fear, needs to be the guiding principle. It is leaders practicing these principles that generate culture change. 

   Soon, our new team was assembled. Some that I hired had no direct experience in health care but transformed their learning from other disciplines. Mark Evans, a former Department Store executive, not only took over Human Resources but became the best HR leader in the country.

   Jeff Kaplan, formerly a top assistant to the President of the University of Vermont, joined our team & quickly revolutionized fundraising. Then, he galvanized Riverside's heart program helping us recruit banner cardiologists like Dr. Barry George & supporting existing stars like Dr. Dick Candella & Dr. Al Nichols. Dr. Charles Bush along with others in a rapidly expanding program, became a premier heart surgeon.

   The late Marian Hamm (pictured) took over nursing & began changing the culture of that key group of caregivers by enriching her circle of leaders including Kathie Wickemeir, Fran Shonkwiler, Claudia Wilder, Erin Keller, Elaine Losego, Mary Ann , Judy Herendeen among many others who I plan to reference in subsequent articles.  

  The challenge with writing any history of any large organization is that it is so dense with so many beings too numerous to honor adequately. There is more to come in this marvelous story of an exceptional organization that learned how to honor the dignity and worth of each person. 

-Erie Chapman

Photograph of Marian Hamm by Barb Schwartz.