United, we thrive

Currently, I am looking at Mission Statements for my residency and for the independent pharmacy I work at. It is increasingly clear that there is no unified vision at the pharmacy, and it adversely affects process, and therefore patient care. When I read the article below, it really hit home how important it is to not only have a clear mission and vision statement, but to communicate that to the staff at your company.

There are many outcomes, goals and objectives outlined for my residency, and there are numerous opportunities to participate in. When I start to feel scattered, I come back to our mission, goals and objectives. If the activity does not support the mission of the residency, then it should not be done, as it will take my efforts away from activities that DO support the mission. When activities support the same philosophy and goals, then they support each other. Without that unified goal, people and programs become scattered, and the ties to the company which provide stability are weak.

I urge everyone, especially when looking for a new job, to evaluate the mission and vision of any company you are looking at. Do the employees embody that philosophy, or has the company lost direction? The value and quality of their work, as well as the long-term stability of the company, rely heavily on that unified vision.

**************************************************************************************************

Hospitals May Improve Patient Outcomes By Focusing More On Their Own Culture.

In the New York Times (3/17) “Well” blog, Dr. Pauline W. Chen wrote that “improving patient outcomes may require first investing in and focusing on the culture of the organization itself.” In a study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, investigators “visited 11 hospitals that ranked in either the top 5 percent or the bottom 5 percent in mortality rates for heart attacks, and conducted more than 150 in-depth interviews with key administrators, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, quality management staff and other healthcare workers.” The investigators “then correlated hospital performance statistics with recurrent themes in the interviews and found that what really mattered was simply this: a cohesive organizational vision that focused on communication and support of all efforts to improve care.”