WMU
Healthcare Systems: Improvements & Culture Studies
Engineering Management Research Laboratory

Stories supply rich information concerning how your culture truly operates. Specialization in Healthcare:
EMRL Studies in Healthcare Culture & Systems
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Photo Courtesy of Bronson Methodist Healthcare
 WORK IN HEALTHCARE
The EMRL has performed several in depth studies related to healthcare culture measurement. Additionally, the EMRL researchers have experience with collecting information and analyzing systems within a healthcare environment. This familiarity with the intricacies and specific requirements of healthcare allow the EMRL at Western Michigan University to add tremendous value and depth to the results of culture studies related to hospitals, healthcare systems, outpatient facilities and medical device manufacturers.

GET THE "STORIES"
"Stories," or critical incidents are collected from stakeholders that you identify. These can include employees, physicians, patients, even family and visitors. These stories supply rich information concerning how your culture truly operates. In combination with the culture profile and the custom scales, the cultural stories provide targeted information to design effective change and improvement initiatives. 
Numbers on a scale can't drive change in the same way as a set of incidents describing the specifics of patient care. Analysis of critical incidents provides an entirely new opportunity to learn about your organization from the bottom-up, rather than solely from predetermined scale questions.

TAKE ACTION
Often, organizations take action based on some comparison of their measures to a set of benchmark measures. Armed with specific incidents about your organization's culture, effective action plans flow logically and integrate into existing change processes.

Culture reflects organizational health and tracks to the bottom line.  A Healthy Culture is Important to Healthcare
In healthcare, your organizational culture drives how employees care for patients. The strength of your culture translates to tangible outcomes.

EMRL's research and practice has shown strong linkages between the strength of your culture and key outcomes, including safety, employees satisfaction, patient satisfaction,a nd persception of quality care.

Our innovative measurement techniques incorporate the collection of "stories" about actions your employees take that support or work against culture. We scientifically analyze these and other culture measures.

The result is a rich, comprehensive diagnosis of your organization's culture and the all-important subcultures operating within the organization.

1 2 Measuring Culture in Healthcare

You cannot attempt to change what you have not measured or do not understand.



We offer the following tools for measuring culture:

Critical Incident Analysis--Collection of "stories" reflecting the culture of your organization and analysis of those stories to derive a rich, bottom-up description of your culture.

Competing Values Analysis--Builds a visual cultural profile for your organization and its subcultures.

Culture Strength--Custom scales to measure your organization's unique cultural values and practices.

Built Environment--Custom and benchmark scales to measure features of the built environment. 
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PUBLICATIONS BASED ON OUR WORK IN CULTURE ANALYSIS

    1. Bronson Has Designs on Culture Change
        (Health Design)
    2. Diagnosing Culture in Health-Care Organizations Using Critical Incidents.
        (International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance)
    3. Culture, the Built Environment and Healthcare Organizational Performance
        (Managing Service Quality)
    4. Understand and Changing your Organization's Culture
        (Industrial Management)
    5. Measuring Resilience in Health-Care Provider Organizations
        (Health Manpower Management)
    6. Measuring "Customer-Centeredness": A Case Study in Healthcare
        (Industrial Engineering Research Conference Proceedings)
    7. Development and Application of the Desired Culture Analysis Tool
        (American Soceity for Engineering Management Conference Proceedings)