Mission statements: What should yours do and say?
Mission statements: What should yours do and say?
Students conduct an intensive study
By Robert T. Hall, PhD
Professor and Chair
Department of Sociology and Philosophy
West Virginia State College
Institute, WV
What should an organizational mission statement say? The short answer is that a mission statement should reflect the actual goals of the organization and that all organizations don’t have the same goals.
Attention is now focusing on health care org anizational mission statements in a variety of ways. The leadership standards of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, call for hospital planning to define an organizational mission (vision, goals, or values) and for leaders to communicate this philosophy throughout the organization and implement patient services consistent with it. The standards are found in sections LD 1.1-1.3 of the Joint Commission’s accreditation manual.
Tax officials in some states now also are reviewing the tax-exempt status of not-for-profit hospitals with a view to the social goals contained in their mission statements.
In an effort to find out just what health care organizations were claiming as their mission, students in an applied social research class at West Virginia State College in Institute, WV, collected and analyzed 108 hospital mission statements they found on the Internet.
The statements were not a random sample, but they do give a quick look into the matter of mission statement development. A preliminary review of about twenty statements provided students with a checklist of items. The whole collection was rated and cross-checked for accuracy.
Hospitals were categorized as nonprofit and for-profit, religious or secular, and small (fewer than 200 beds) or large. Although nearly all of the organizations surveyed mentioned quality patient care (94%), only about half saw physicians, professional staff development, community health services, education programs, or employee welfare as important enough to mention.
Only a quarter of the institutions surveyed committed themselves publicly to equal treatment for ethnic and racial minorities, and only 20% saw charity care as a significant goal. The results showing the percentage of hospitals that included checklist items as important goals within the mission statement can be found in the chart on p. 132.
| Percentage of Hospital Mission Statements that Included Predetermined Goals | |||||
| Organizational Goal Statements Covering | Total | Religious | Secular | < 200 Beds | > 200 Beds |
| Patients | 94.4 | 88 | 95.9 | 94.4 | 89.7 |
| Physicians | 54.2 | 48 | 53.4 | 52.8 | 51.3 |
| Professional Staff | 48.6 | 64 | 45.2 | 44.4 | 56.4 |
| Employees | 50 | 60 | 48.6 | 48.6 | 43.6 |
| Community Health Programs | 50.5 | 56 | 46.6 | 44.4 | 56.4 |
| Public Education Programs | 45.8 | 56 | 45.2 | 36.1 | 48.7 |
| Minorities | 26.2 | 48 | 20.5 | 19.4 | 25.6 |
| Charity Care | 20.6 | 40 | 15.1 | 19.4 | 23.1 |
Unfortunately, many health care organizational mission statements sound as though they were written by college sophomores in a public relations course. Phrases include, in some way or another, "we want to be the best" or "we treat our patients best." There also are a certain number of currently trendy phrases from marketing consultants, such as "the first choice of our customers" or "state-of-the-art" health care.
It is no secret that mission statements are ceremoniously passed out only to be put on the shelf until needed for the next public groundbreaking ceremony or recognition dinner. These mission statements actually say little about the real organizational goals. At best, they are vague ideals that will be have to be fleshed out when the organization faces serious questions about what it stands for. At worst, the mission statements actually are intended to say nothing — to commit the organization to no specific goals at all. If an organization is committed only to satisfying the needs and desires of its patients or to keeping itself in business with a healthy bottom line, it may not want to be on record as committed to many specific social goals.
Don’t ignore the community
Of course, organizations can claim that other goals are included in their overriding aim to satisfy patients’ needs and desires. Unfortunately, however, it is quite possible to focus on patient service while ignoring community educational needs, underserved populations, and local economic problems or while mistreating employees, suppliers, allied health professionals, and even administrators. Health care organizations can even treat physicians unfairly, although most realize that the physicians who bring in the patients are their real customers.
The fact remains that there is a great number of mission statements, including many that have been formulated by health care management consulting firms, that are worthless. If hospitals and health care organizations are committed to a broad range of social goals, they ought to state them. Otherwise, we are left to presume that their major interest is only to perpetuate the organization.
As a result of the review of hospital mission statement, students developed a model mission statement that lists several social goals. Hos pi tals and other health care organizations should consider incorporating the goals into existing mission statements or new statements that are in development.
(For a list of the suggested organizational goals, see box, above left.)
A model mission statement is not likely to be very specific or very useful in terms of helping a hospital develop a unique mission statement. A model statement can, however, assist in challenging administrators and governing boards to consider what the organization’s real mission is.
(Editor's note: Hall is the author of An Introduc tion to Healthcare Organizational Ethics, to be published by Oxford University Press next year.)
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