The Hidden Crisis in Healthcare: Why We Must Prioritize Caring for Each Other

Pat Jackson is the Director of Patient Experience and Advocacy for Huntsville Hospital Health System. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Marketing and Business Administration and an MBA from the University of North Alabama. With over 19 years of healthcare experience, she has overseen the Patient Experience department and various programs that support the organization’s commitment to Patient–and–Family–Centered Care. These programs include patient experience, advocacy, employee engagement, service excellence and chaplaincy. Pat’s strengths are helping leaders develop and execute shared business strategies and best practices that align with the organization’s vision, mission, values and strategic goals. She works across the 15-hospital health system to ensure these priorities are consistently upheld and integrated into everyday operations.Pat believes in continuous coaching and training, understanding that building a robust organizational culture requires clinical and non-clinical involvement to engage in consistent best-practice behaviors. Pat thinks leadership must be engaged at all levels to hold people accountable for excellence and ensure continued success. She works closely with all stakeholders to gain buy-in and ensure that every patient, regardless of their encounter, has a positive patient experience.One of the highlights of her long career at HH Health was developing the Power of Excellence initiative, an internal, employee-driven effort that built a new culture for the organization and raised service performance in multiple hospitals for almost two decades. The Power of Excellence is the most extended-standing program of its kind in the 129-year history of the organization.

ENSURING STAFF WELL-BEING AND QUALITY PATIENT CARE

Healthcare is a field built on compassion, empathy and service. A growing problem threatens to undermine the core of our mission, which is that we take excellent care of the patient but fail to care for each other. The phrase “we eat our own” reflects a troubling reality in many healthcare environments, where toxic workplace cultures drive talented professionals to leave and team collaboration and healthcare organizations suffer. In an industry where we have pledged to serve patients and communities with dedication, we often need to pay more attention to nurturing the staff’s wellbeing, making excellent patient care possible.

As we move toward a new area of healthcare- marked by upcoming changes to the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey slated to begin in January 2025 –this issue becomes even more pressing. Among these changes is a new dimension focused on Care Coordination, including a critical question, “During your hospital stay, how often did doctors, nurses and other hospital staff work well together to care for you?” This question highlights what patients and families already know:

they can see and feel when healthcare teams are cohesively not working together.

THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN COMMITMENT AND CULTURE

Every day, healthcare leaders emphasize the importance of providing compassionate, high-quality care to patients. However, within many organizations, there is a disconnect between this commitment to patient care and the internal culture that staff experience. Some leaders are apt at fostering alliances across generations and departments, while others allow silos to form, isolating teams and contributing to poor morale and engagement.

A recurring theme emerges during exit interviews: staff struggle to work in hostile environments. They report rudeness and cliques that leave them feeling unsupported, undervalued and burned out. Talented employees often leave organizations because they do not feel included and it is easier to leave than remain where their mental health is being tested daily.

These internal conflicts directly impact the new Care Coordination focus of the HCAHPS survey. Patients are perceptive- they can tell when the healthcare professionals responsible for their care are not aligned. When nurses, doctors and ancillary staff fail to work well together, patients experience this conflict firsthand. It manifests as poor communication, delays in care and sometimes life-threatening adverse events, which leaves a general sense that the care team is highly fragmented—leading patients to question whether they will receive safe care or not. These known collaboration barriers affect the overall patient experience and undermine patient care quality.

HOW NEGATIVITY AFFECTS PATIENT CARE

The healthcare industry is historically team-based and the emotional toll of workplace toxicity does not only affect staff morale; it directly impacts patient outcomes. When teams are flawed, patients pay the price. Patients are on high alert when the care team is not in one accord. They quickly reach out to leaders or the patient advocate to make them aware of their concerns. The new HCAHPS Care Coordination question explicitly addresses this issue. When hospitals receive poor ratings, it has an impact on their patient experience results, which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) monitor, along with negative financial implications. It is not just about clinical outcomes—it’s about the patient experience and confidence in their healthcare team’s ability to deliver coordinated care. When hospitals provide inadequate care it can lead to excessive use of the emergency services, drug administration errors and ultimately taint the organization’s reputation and bottom line.

BUILDING A CULTURE THAT RETAINS TALENT AND ENCOURAGES COMPASSION

For many years, we have heavily prioritized patient-centered care to the detriment of staff-centered care. These two are intrinsically linked. If we expect healthcare teams to provide coordinated, compassionate care to patients, we must create a culture where toxic behavior is addressed immediately and everyone feels included regardless of who they are.

This change must start with leadership. Leaders set the tone for their organizations and must be held accountable for the cultures they cultivate and allow. First, it begins with senior leaders acknowledging a problem and actively participating in the solution. They should take the lead in this effort and support the department and frontline leaders at the local level. A positive, collaborative culture does not happen accidentally; it requires an intentional effort from every level of leadership.

CREATING A LEGACY OF COMPASSION AND COLLABORATION

Healthcare organizations must begin examining their internal cultures as they prepare for what is on the horizon with the HCAHPS survey changes because the well-being of our caregivers is directly tied to the care we provide to patients. If our staff is disengaged, unsupported, or divided, we cannot expect them to deliver the level of care that patients deserve—or the level of collaboration that will soon be measured in the new Care Coordination dimension on the HCAHPS survey.

To excel in this new era of healthcare, leaders must prioritize building a culture where negativity is not tolerated and teamwork is celebrated. Patients and families can feel when we are working together as a team—and when we are not. It is time for healthcare leaders to step up and create environments where both staff and patients can thrive. Doing so builds a foundation of compassion and collaboration to benefit everyone involved in the care process. Organizations prioritizing their staff will undoubtedly emerge victorious when the new HCAHPS results are released.