Patient Information
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The MeritCare Experience
Mission
The mission of MeritCare Health System is to improve the health and quality of life of the people we serve.
Vision
MeritCare's Vision is to deliver on the promise of our integrated system to provide the best health care in the nation to the people we serve through smart medicine, extraordinary care and exceptional service.
Integration allows us to work and operate as one effective and efficient system of care and service for the benefit of our patients, families and customers. At MeritCare, every job is patient care. That's why we're all here.
Guiding Principle
We carry out our mission and pursue our vision guided by the principles of stewardship:
- We choose service to others over our own self-interest.
- We are accountable to the individuals and communities we serve for our performance and for responsible use of the resources that have been entrusted to us.
Values
Our decisions and actions demonstrate that we value:
- People - We treat all with dignity, respect and courtesy. We listen to our patients, customers and one another. We are responsive to what people say they want and need.
- Quality - We strive to achieve and sustain excellence in the work we do. We communicate our performance results. We continuously improve the processes and the outcomes of our work. We welcome new ideas and innovations that further our mission. We seek to understand, to learn, and to contribute to the advancement of knowledge through education and research.
- Integrity - We are honest and fair in our relationships with others. We do what we say we will do.
- Unity - We honor the interrelationship of mind, body, and spirit. We work together as partners and team members to achieve desired results for those we serve.
- Learning – We embrace education and research to advance knowledge, enhance innovation and excel at change and adaptation.
Ethics
We behave in accordance with MeritCare's Code of Ethics and the codes of the professions to which we belong. Culturally, we express our ethics as "taking the high road." More specifically, our behaviors demonstrate:
- Respect for the patient
- Respect for MeritCare associates
- Fair and honest business practices
- Confidentiality of patient and proprietary information
- Honesty and fairness in information provided to the public
- Reporting of conflicts of interest
- Compliance with laws and regulations and reporting of violations
Cultural Diversity
We believe that understanding and appreciation for people from diverse backgrounds and cultures is critical to our ability to fulfill our mission. We are sensitive to rituals, beliefs and practices of diverse groups within our workforce and patient populations.
Service Excellence
Service excellence is MeritCare's standard and constant aspiration for the way we do things. Our goal is exceptional service.
- Exceptional service is deliberate; a regimen; the practice of doing things right and doing the right things.
- Exceptional service is expressed colleague to colleague, associate to associate, and from us to our patients, customers and public through our demeanor, actions, interactions, and work environments and environments of care.
- Exceptional service is experienced as efficiency, effectiveness, and expectations that have been met or exceeded.
- Exceptional service is measured as clinical quality, patient satisfaction, associate engagement, market share, profit margin and public perception.
- Exceptional service is our brand. It is MeritCare's way of demonstrating that it is our privilege to serve our patients, their families, our communities and one another.
- Exceptional service is always taking the time to ask, "Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Service Excellence Commitments to Patients
Our goal is to provide a caring, compassionate place, in which we create a partnership with patients in health and healing. We do this by:
Welcoming you:
- Greeting you with a smile
- Stating our name and title, using your name when available
- Meeting your needs promptly, or finding someone who can
- Addressing problems and inconveniences
- Offering to help you or walking you to your destination
Communicating with you:
- Keeping you and your family (if desired), informed in a timely manner
- Taking time to listen, giving you our full attention, being courteous and considerate
- Making explanations brief and easy to understand
- Making sure you have the information that you need
- Explaining what we are doing and why we are doing it
- Discussing confidential matters with you privately
Providing comfort:
- Responding quickly to your report of pain and working with you to develop a plan for pain relief
- Protecting your privacy and dignity by knocking before entering a room
- Providing a robe or cover
- Responding quickly, explaining delays
- Closing doors/curtains during interviews/examinations
- Keeping your surroundings as pleasant as possible, keeping noise at a minimum
Respecting you:
- Including you and your family (if desired) in our conversations
- Being attentive, genuine, and positive
- Involving you in decisions that concern your care