CEOs from America's Healing Hospitals met in Nashville Monday to talk about a single subject: Loving Care. It is a select group. Their numbers are all too few. Every CEO in the country should be discussing the same subject.
Still, it was encouraging to listen to a wide range of leaders describe caring environments like those that exist at Parrish Medical Center (see photo). Presidents Larry Ainsworth and Jason Barker from California's St. Joseph Health System talked about sacred encounters among nursing staff. CEO Laurie Eberst from Arizona's Mercy Gilbert Hospital discussed the way in which she encourages celebrating employee associates. George Mikitarian from Florida's Parrish Medical Center talked about the tough-minded disciplining of physicians who abuse hospital staff. And all of this work is in the service of growing cultures of loving care.
There are many reasons to feel hopeful about the progress of the Loving Care Movement....
Mark Hazelwood, a CEO from the Seton System in Texas, attended because his hospital is under construction. Mark is wise enough to grow a culture of loving care through the staff he hires BEFORE the hospital opens.
CEO Dennis Vonderfecht wants to spread the culture of loving care to all 13 hospitals in the Mountain States Health System. CEO Dennis Swan wants to see deeper progress toward loving care in the Sparrow Health System that he heads. Leader Chantal LeConte believes that the culture of loving care is the only way her Florida hospital can truly succeed. The leadership of the Griffin Hospital in Connecticut have already been so successful that they have the most positive employee culture in the entire state - and one of the best in the nation. And there were many more stories from others.
Each of these leaders offers hope that major hospitals are getting the message. They need our encouragement as well. The old leadership style of governing by tyranny is falling by the wayside. Loving leadership is blooming from coast to coast. In some areas of the country, the signs are far too random. But in the Healing Hospitals whose leaders attended this Summit, Love is not just surviving, it's thriving!
-Erie Chapman
