Leading a Culture of Excellence in the Healthcare Industry

Leadership in the healthcare industry should always nurture a culture of excellence.  Such a culture promotes the highest quality of patient care while simultaneously fostering a relationship with stakeholders rooted in dignity, compassion, and respect.  Employing nurses, physicians and ancillary staff who share the mission and vision of a healthcare facility is the most effective way to foster a culture of excellence.  The entire staff should be educated and aware of the values of the facility in order to create a culture across the board that pursues and expects excellence. 

This paper will explain the meaning and importance of an organization creating and establishing a culture of excellence through their mission, vision, and values.  Lake Health System’s mission, vision, and values will be described along with how they relate to the Masters of Nursing Executive (MSN) track.  A concept map will explain the culture of excellence as stated by Lake Health System.  Finally, two leadership strategies will be discussed along with how those strategies promote a culture of excellence and how they relate to the Chamberlain Care Model.

Culture of Excellence

A culture of excellence in healthcare refers to an organization-wide approach to working and thinking that leads to everyone pursuing measurable improvements in the quality of patient care (Parand, Dopson, Renz & Vincent, 2014).  This management philosophy focuses on leading the organization toward meeting a specific shared vision while maintaining specific values.  When a system pursues a culture of excellence, it possesses some organizational characteristics that differentiate it from other organizations.  The first characteristic is the shared goals, vision and values by the employees within the system.  When employees in an organization have shared beliefs and values, this provides the social glue that keeps the organization together.  Positive values lead to an organizational culture that strives to pursue excellence and quality of care (Körner, Wirtz, Bengel & Göritz, 2015).  The leadership style provides the framework to ensure that employees rally behind the mission and vision of the system.

The second characteristic of a culture of excellence is an organization that encourages and practices teamwork and mutual support among employees.  When the stakeholders in a healthcare facility are aware that the primary goal is to help improve patient outcomes, they are more willing to support each other instead of competing.  When proper teamwork is in place the result is improved patient outcomes.  Finally, organizations with a culture of excellence use proper forms of communication which also results in improved patient outcomes.  Effective forms of communication include having an open-door policy with the ability to voice concerns, evident appreciation from senior management and positive communication between staff (Curry, et al., 2018).  This leads to less confrontation and makes employees feel like their opinion and ideas matter.

A culture of excellence is vital in the MSN Executive track because it fosters an environment where employees want to excel.  Leaders should encourage all employees to become involved and engaged.  By doing so, engagement becomes the expectation within the facility which leads to positive patient outcomes and increased staff retention.

Overview of Concept Map

The health facility selected is the Lake Health System (LHS).  The mission statement of LHS is to provide comprehensive health care services to the residents within the county they serve along with neighboring communities in order to provide local access, healing with compassion and superior quality.  Lake Health’s vision statement is to be the first choice for superior care close to home and to provide patients and families with a lifetime of health.  Lake Health’s Values statement is RITSI which stands for Respect, Innovation, Teamwork, Stewardship and Integrity.  The relationship between the mission and vision of LHS is that they are derived from one another.  The mission provides a picture of the future that the facility is trying to achieve while the vision highlights the objectives.  They include the creation of an integrated health delivery system offering health services, facilities and technology to help improve service excellence while collaborating with stakeholders to enhance health education and promotion in the community.  The values provide the critical aspects that LHS strives to nurture as the organizational culture (Lake Health, 2019).  The mission, vision and values of LHS all work off of each other and within each other with the patient as the focus providing a culture of excellence.

Proper onboarding of the staff in the hospital means that they share the same beliefs, goals, and practices based on the vision of the organization.  The value of integrity and respect fosters respect for patients and workmates in the organization.  The mutual respect and treatment of patients with dignity are hallmarks of a culture of excellence.  The staff also uses a team-based approach to patient care where every stakeholder plays an integral part in patient care.  From doctors and nurses to the ancillary staff, the organizational culture is built around a team-based approach to patient care.  This approach helps to build trusting relationships amongst the staff and with the patients.  Proper communication with patients is also practiced to ensure that they trust their healthcare team.  Management is supportive and encourages innovation and stewardship which promotes a continued culture of excellence in the future (Lake Health, 2019). 

Leading a Culture of Excellence

The MSN Nurse Executive track nurtures leadership in nurses.  Certain leadership strategies can aid in the development of a culture of excellence.  The first strategy is to foster respect by treating everyone in a dignified manner.  In healthcare, it is imperative to not only respect your superiors, but to also extend that same respect to the entire staff regardless of role or position (Vermeir, et al., 2015).  That same respect should be shown to all patients in order to establish a trusting and caring relationship.  The second leadership strategy is fostering teamwork and collaboration between the staff.  A team-based approach to patient care can help improve patient outcomes (Freytag, et al., 2017).  Leaders have a responsibility to create an organizational culture where the caregivers are willing to work together for the benefit of their patients.

The strategies of respect and teamwork aligns with the Chamberlain Care Model by promoting and creating exceptional employees.  Through learning and communication, a maintainable environment can be created which provides a safe and caring environment for both staff and patients.  Leaders have to respect and care about their employees by getting to know them and allowing them to grow within their scopes of practice (Groenwald, 2018).

Conclusion

A culture of excellence is essential in ensuring that healthcare facilities can provide the best care for patients.  When properly implemented, health facilities with a good culture of care have characteristics like shared beliefs, teamwork and mutual respect along with open communication.  The mission, vision, and values of an organization reflect goals achieved and goals to strive for along with expectations of leadership and employees.  Strategies are needed to develop and maintain a culture of excellence.  A culture of excellence promotes job satisfaction and ensures patients well-being.  Scholarly review of available literature has shown that these strategies can improve patient outcomes while fostering good staff relations.

References

Curry, L. A., Brault, M. A., Linnander, E. L., McNatt, Z., Brewster, A. L., Cherlin, E., Flieger, S. P., Ting, H. H. & Bradley, E. H. (2018). Influencing organisational culture to improve hospital performance in care of patients with acute myocardial infarction: a mixed-methods intervention study. BMJ Quality and Safety, 27(3), 207-217. doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2017-006989. Retrieved from https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/qhc/27/3/207.full.pdf

Freytag, J., Stroben, F., Hautz, W. E., Eisenmann, D. & Kämmer, J. E. (2017). Improving patient safety through better teamwork: how effective are different methods of simulation debriefing? Protocol for a pragmatic, prospective and randomised study. BMJ Open, 7(6). doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2017-015977. Retrieved from https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/7/6/e015977.full.pdf

Groenwald, S. L. (2018). Designing and creating a culture of care for students and faculty: the Chamberlain University College of Nursing model. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.

Körner, M., Wirtz, M. A., Bengel, J. & Göritz, A. S. (2015). Relationship of organizational culture, teamwork and job satisfaction in interprofessional teams. BMC Health Services Research, 15(1). doi:10.1186/s12913-015-0888-y. Retrieved from https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-015-0888-y

Parand, A., Dopson, S., Renz, A. & Vincent, C. (2014). The role of hospital managers in quality and patient safety: a systematic review. BMJ Open, 4(9). doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005055. Retrieved from https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/9/e005055.full

Lake Health. (2019). Mission, Vision and Values. Retrieved from https://lakehealth.org/About/Mission-Vision-Values

Vermeir, P., Vandijck, D., Degroote, S., Peleman, R., Verhaeghe, R., Mortier, E., Hallaert, G., Van Daele, S., Buylaert, W. & Vogelaers, D. (2015). Communication in healthcare: a narrative review of the literature and practical recommendations. International Journal of Clinical Practice, 69(11), 1257-1267. doi:10.111/ijcp.12686. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijcp.12686