Corporate culture and the healing mission

The health care revolution of the 1960s was affected not only by changes in government's public policy but also changes in Church teaching. As Medicare and Medicaid helped finance the building of many new facilities, religious institutes--influenced by the decisions of the second Vatican Council--began to redefine themselves. The growth in each area was a hopeful sign of the ability to care for more people and extend Jesus' healing mission. Today health care organizations face pressures to compete, diversify, and reorganize. To ensure that they remain renewed and vital in the midst of change, they must promote their mission and philosophy through reeducation and socialization. The chief executive officer, who ultimately is responsible for ensuring that the organization is value-driven, must not abdicate this responsibility. Maintaining a religious organization's mission is as essential to its survival as meeting the budget, developing a strategic plan, or recruiting physicians.