Health system turnarounds tend to be told as financial stories. Michael Stern, president and CEO of West Reading, Pa.-based Tower Health, sees another aspect of the turnaround as driving success: culture.
“I’ve come to believe that culture isn’t a soft thing, it’s a strategy,” Mr. Stern said in an interview for the “Becker’s Healthcare Podcast.” “That’s why the Tower Experience is core to our strategic plan, and it’s a work in progress, right? Because this organization has gone through a lot. We’ve had to do several restructurings to get back to where we were. Building back that trust and confidence has been going well, it’s heading in the right direction, but it’s something you can never lose sight of because nothing works without the doctors, the nurses, the caregivers, the housekeepers, security personnel, the phlebotomists, the radiology techs. Nothing works without them, and they can work anywhere. We need to create an environment where they want to work and stay here.”
The connection between how employees feel and how patients experience care is direct and measurable, a finding corroborated by Press Ganey data showing hospitals in the top quartile for employee engagement are 4.2 times more likely to achieve top patient experience scores.
“I actually believe that culture is one of the true competitive advantages left in healthcare,” he said. “If we can create an environment where people feel valued and supported, we’ll attract and retain that great talent. When you have engaged caregivers, our patients feel the difference. There is no question that when employee engagement scores go up, that patient experience scores go up, and obviously the opposite is also true.”
The workforce competition that makes culture a strategic imperative has also shifted. Patients have more choices than ever for where to receive their healthcare, and they’re willing to choose their own adventure. They want the best experience possible and building the right care teams who believe in the mission and can avoid burnout makes a big difference.
“Healthcare workers went through an incredibly difficult period, and while compensation will always matter, it’s not the only thing that matters, and what’s important to people is different than it was even 5 years ago,” said Mr. Stern. “They want to work in an environment where they feel respected and supported and connected to a purpose larger than themselves. They want leaders like myself and the team to be more visible, and I’m not sure I love this word, but more authentic. They want to know their voice matters.”
The leadership philosophy underlying Tower Health’s approach draws from an unexpected source. When asked which leader he most admires, Mr. Stern named Walt Disney.
“What I admire about him is that he wasn’t just building attractions, he was designing experiences. Every detail mattered because every interaction really mattered,” Mr. Stern said.
That principle is embedded in a book Mr. Stern distributes to every senior leader who joins Tower Health.
“I have a book that Fred Lee wrote called If Disney Ran Your Hospital,” Mr. Stern said. “I give it to every leader as they come in at whatever level, any senior leader, because it’s had a profound impact on how I think about leadership in healthcare, and I share this book with anybody that asks for career advice, because one of the central ideas is that patients may not remember all the details, but they remember how they were treated, and how they were communicated with, and how they felt during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.”
That design mindset has found its most direct expression in something Tower Health’s own employees created. The system runs a companywide contest each year to select its guiding mantra. Last year’s result: “Because every patient is someone’s everything.”
“That was submitted by one of the employees. We ran a contest to get ideas, we narrowed it down to 10 choices, sent it back out to the employees, and by I think almost 60% of 10,000 people chose, ‘Because every patient is someone’s everything’,” said Mr. Stern. “How much better could that align with Walt Disney?”
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