"Tu Souffres, Cela Suffit": the compassionate hospital

The authors propose that the characteristics of personal (individual) compassion may be extrapolated to the concept of corporate (organizational) compassion. Modern health care facilities attract staff members who are able to exercise varying degrees of compassion in their busy daily routines. However, little discussion has taken place on how health care organizations might best harness and integrate aspects of individual compassion to create an organization with compassion as a core value. We define three characteristics of a "compassionate hospital" as 1) the presence of a healing environment, 2) a sense of connection among people, and 3) a sense of purpose and identity. We suggest how a "top down" focus on compassion as a core value by clinical leaders could maximize the compassion of health care workers, and reduce the suffering expressed and/or experienced by health care workers and patients in today's health care facilities. The compassionate hospital concept is intended to act as a proposition for health policy researchers and decision-makers in health care so as to reduce the suffering of sick patients, and to restore a sense of well-being, meaning, and purpose among health care workers.