Creating Culture in Hospitals

In these audiograms, taken from Episode 4 of The Healthcare Leadership Experience, Lisa Miller is joined by Joe Tye, CEO and Head Coach of Values Coach. Together they discuss how to create a culture in healthcare. Joe is a former hospital COO and best-selling author of 12 books, including Building A Culture of Ownership in Healthcare. 

Culture is the superstructure of your hospital’s core values 

The character, or the personality, of your hospital is all down to your culture. High performing organizations don’t have gaps between their values and their culture. In most organizations, there’s often a gap between their stated culture values and customer perception – or the patient experience. 

Three Core Values will Create the Culture in a Healthcare Organization

Most statements of core values in healthcare are generic. The challenge for most healthcare organizations is to create a statement that authentically reflects what’s unique about your culture. In terms of core values, you need to be clear about who you are, what you stand for – and, equally as important, what you won’t stand for. 

Most health systems spend millions of dollars on a negative culture 

Understanding how negativity affects your hospital and patient experience is vital to improving your culture. Our survey results on the levels of emotional negativity in healthcare range from 10% to as high as 25%. That equates to millions of dollars when applied to your salary and benefits budgets each year – tens of millions of dollars in a large health system. Creating Culture in Healthcare organizations can elevate the investment in a negative culture.

Creating Culture in Healthcare That is Shaped by Employees

The lasting impression of your hospital is related to the patient experience and how they feel during their stay. How are they treated? How do your frontline employees interact with each other? We describe it as the invisible architecture or the blueprint behind the blueprint. Facilitating a safe environment for employees will create a culture in your healthcare organization to one of ownership rather than a culture of accountability.