Ebook: Culture is the Heart of a Healthcare Brand

For your brand to thrive, it needs to be nurtured by a culture that embraces your organization’s values and shares its vision.

If you were asked to name the most important aspects of a healthcare brand, what are the first few words that come to mind? Is one of them, “people?” If not, it should have been. The human element is what infuses a brand with energy. People who believe in a brand become its advocates.

They give it relevance. They help it come alive.

You can have the most phenomenal logo, theme, color scheme, tagline, mission statement and marketing campaign in the universe, but if you don’t have people who live your brand, you might as well shove it all into a dumpster. Because, when they act together and consistently, when they become the collective unit known as your organization’s culture, people elevate a brand from mediocre to meaningful.

Of all the parts that make up a successful organization, culture is one of the most integral elements, and, for many healthcare entities, the most elusive.

Part of the problem is historical. The healthcare industry has traditionally been defined by its professional silos. Physicians in this silo. Nurses in this silo. Researchers isolated in a different one, and therapists working in another. Medical people separated by their skills and the roles they play without understanding the impact their actions have on the organization as a whole. There was a time when hospitals furthered these distinctions to the point of providing a “doctors’ lounge” and, somewhere down the hall or on another floor, a separate “nurses’ lounge.” Separate.

And unequal.

This division based on specialty, skill and function did little to help the patients. Independence leads to isolation, and while isolation is good for disease, it is extremely detrimental for a healthcare organization and the people it serves. Communication came through notes scribbled into a chart. Units operated separately. Collaboration was nonexistent. There was no incentive to work together. Each group formed its own culture.

Through the years, as the healthcare industry evolved, words were introduced that prompted a change in thinking. “Organization.” “System.” “Medical center.” Words and concepts that began to erase the lines separating doctors, nurses, specialists, caregivers, technicians, social workers and scientists. And, as the lines disappeared, these groups were encouraged to become part of a shared culture. Sometimes the encouragement succeeded. Sometimes it didn’t. And, when it failed, quite often it was because, as these separate groups looked around, nothing had really changed. There was no unifying factor. No glue to join people together.

Enter the rebrand….

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