Can an organization have a soul?

Healthcare organizations in particular need to be highly committed to bringing all members of the team into alignment with the core values of providing maximum service and quality of care to patients. The culture, tone, atmosphere, energy and environment of the organization must all be directed to these core values.

Of course, much the same could be said of any business and its mission and vision but health care organizations have delicate, nuanced and highly sensitive missions: promoting, protecting and providing for the well-being of those we serve.

Perhaps if you have lost your job at an organization due to realignments, reduction in force or budget cuts, it is unlikely you feel the organization has a soul that is responsive to your needs. In fact, you might be angry, bitter, confused and resentful. Most people might have these perfectly valid and expected feelings. Your situation does not necessarily prove the organization does not have a soul, although this might be true.

To create its soul, a hospital, health care system or academic health center needs clear guidance and leadership about what really matters. It must focus on what is the true north. When difficult decisions are made, the compass must always point in the same direction. The best health care organizations find ways to inspire, motivate and build on the shared energy and creativity of their people. They encourage innovation, intuition, teamwork, discipline, professionalism and a culture of caring. Staff satisfaction is intrinsic to patient satisfaction and quality of care, improving patient outcomes. Financial parameters will improve as an organization gains reputation, increased patient loyalty and satisfaction, outside referrals and a vibe of being a healing environment.

Essential ingredients to a high functioning health care organization are the following: empowerment, trust, openness, transparency, accountability, involvement of employees in key decisions that affect them. We are not merely in “business” but traditionally have served as charitable, beneficent, community and people-oriented places for healing. Some of this slips away when we fail to honor our organizational mission and values and focus on anything else. That can be an inflated state of prestige, excessive focus on financial as opposed to human outcomes and seeing the staff as replaceable cogs in a machine rather than the skilled, compassionate interface to patient care that they are.

So yes, a health care organization can have a soul. It can also lose its soul. Our national health care system is under major stress and in danger of losing its soul. See the documentary, “Escape Fire,” for a perspective on how this country’s health care system has lost its way and some possible ways to reclaim the soul in health care.