OutBox

A Values-Based Response

By Gail Warden

All of today’s challenges can be met by aggressively applying core values

Our health care institutions are not simply a means to provide health care; they represent the highest values of our culture. But we cannot be complacent. Recent events and new information challenge everything we do and how we do it.

The Institute of Medicine sounded the first challenge: “Between the health care we have and the health care we should have, lies not just a gap, but a chasm.” And evidence challenges us to pursue perfection in 15 to 20 clinical conditions so we can promise patients they will receive the very best care. The only way we can cross that chasm is to continually improve. This requires managers who are sensitive to the cost borne by workers as organizations change, skilled in recognizing and measuring workers with compassion, and grounding workers in a commitment to patients.

The second set of challenges relates to the tragedy of 9/11, which reminded us how important freedom and liberty are and that they cannot be taken for granted. While we are committed to public service, we have not tended to our public health enterprise, which has deteriorated and is not prepared for bioterrorism.

The third challenge relates to our civic responsibility. Most hospitals try to respond to community needs, but they often ignore conditions around them while wringing their hands and saying that they don’t have the resources or the time. We cannot be spectators. The challenge is not just leadership. It is citizenship.

As our economy, political environment and society become more global, diversity takes on a new meaning. In the near future, the prototypical American likely will be a woman or a person of color. We are prepared for a diverse patient population and workforce, but we have not thought about this in a global sense.

Business and accounting practices and executives’ salaries and perks in large health care systems are under scrutiny. This destroys public trust, prompts challenges to tax exemptions and tarnishes the image of us all. Once again, we are challenged to come up with mandatory standards of financial reporting to protect our not-for-profit status and our tax exemption. Only this will restore the public’s trust.

Finally, our biggest challenge is the growing number of uninsured. We need to strengthen our safety net organizations, care for this population and aggressively pursue public-policy changes. The “blind eye” approach of making providers deliver free care is not working.

In the tradition of volunteerism, individuals and organizations contribute time, expertise and facilities. Out of volunteerism emerges social consciousness … a feeling that individuals and organizations count and they should be open to everyone. This is the core virtue of community life and is more important to American society than health care itself. To implement a communitarian vision, we must accept the responsibility of addressing these challenges and make promises to our patients and communities that build upon our values for the future.

Gail L. Warden is president emeritus of Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, and is the recipient of the 2006 HRET TRUST Award. Contact Guest Author at gwarden@hfhs.org

This article 1st appeared in the July 2006 issue of HHN Magazine.

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