Q2 Report: Building a "Culture of Good"

Crystal Hinson Miller, president of IU Health Foundation, is a national leader in healthcare philanthropy. Here, she shares her personal reflections.

Most of you likely know that IU Health is Indiana’s largest healthcare system, serving more than 1 million patients a year. What you might not know is that, with 38,000 team members, IU Health also is the largest employer headquartered in Indiana.

When we consider those two facts, we are led to recognize another: The culture of IU Health is about a lot more than our organization. It has a ripple effect that touches people, families and communities all across the state.

That’s why we see our recognition as a “Culture of Good” organization as more than just another award. Presented by Fishers-based Culture of Good Inc. to celebrate organizations “making extraordinary contributions in sustainability, social responsibility and their community,” the award affirms that, in addition to being committed to providing excellent healthcare, we are committed to doing good.

While countless factors contribute to the culture that drives IU Health, a few components bear special acknowledgment.

First, our culture is a direct reflection of the values we defined a few years ago: Purpose, Excellence, Compassion and Team. If we work to do good in the lives of others (Purpose), do our best at all times and in new ways (Excellence), treat people with respect, empathy and kindness (Compassion), and count on and care for each other (Team), then we will nurture a culture with a positive impact on everyone we touch.

These culture-driving values weren’t devised by executives in a board room or conceived by a select group and pushed down into the organization. On the contrary, they came directly from our people, as thousands of IU Health team members participated in the process and provided feedback.

At the same time that we have brought everybody into the culture conversation, we also have recognized the role leaders play in supporting a healthy culture every day. To that end, IU Health has enhanced our focus on leaders, holding to a belief that everybody deserves great management, and that great managers improve employee engagement and performance. We regularly invest in training the 2,000 team members who serve in leadership and management roles, guiding them to embrace innovation and compassion, training them to be good stewards of resources and helping them encourage growth in every team member.

Another factor critical to our culture’s strength has been the support of IU Health board members, who not only encourage us to nurture an impactful culture but also support that culture with funding. The creation of IU Health’s $200 million Community Impact Investment Fund grew from this commitment, and the result has been $16 million invested in place-based initiatives, $6 million distributed as educational attainment grants and $5.6 million granted for workforce development in communities all across Indiana.

That brings us to a truly pivotal factor in our culture of good: philanthropy. It’s philanthropy that allows us to accelerate investments in our culture, in the people who drive it and the values that serve as its foundation. Let me offer a few examples of how this works.

First, consider how, a couple of years ago, a donor gave us the funds to take a cohort of leaders to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya. The team members on that trip—including clinicians and non-clinicians—had a truly unique experience to see how leaders in other settings steward finite resources, how they innovate to improve care and how they lead in challenging times.

In another example, the Lynda A. Merriman Award for Compassionate Care directly connects to our value of compassion. Made possible by a gift from Chuck Merriman, the cash award goes to IU Health team members who deliver the kind of care that Chuck says eased his wife’s seven-month battle with cancer at the IU Health Simon Cancer Center and IU Health University Hospital.

On March 8, we saw the fruition of one of my favorite examples of philanthropy at work driving our Culture of Good when a group of IU Health team members completed their tuition-free training to become medical assistants. Paid during their training and guaranteed medical assistant positions when they completed it, these team members not only help to ensure we have the staff necessary to meet patient needs, but they also have opened the door to improved long-term economic prospects for themselves and their families.

Said Kylie Lind-Johnson, who started with IU Health as a registration specialist and plans to work as a medical assistant in neurosurgery, “The educators made us feel heard and truly cared about our growth and development.”

Other gifts and dedicated funds support patients in need, team members experiencing financial crises, the recruitment of leading clinicians, healthcare equity, health-focused community infrastructure improvements and much, much more. In other words, the generous support of donors allows us not simply to deliver excellent healthcare, but to build and sustain a culture that spreads good to countless Hoosiers.

So, as we accept the Culture of Good recognition, we accept it on behalf of many people: our team members, our boards and volunteers, our partners and leaders in the communities we serve, and the visionaries who created what is now Indiana’s biggest health system. I also accept the Culture of Good Award on behalf of our donors, who play an increasingly important role in shaping our culture and realizing our vision to make Indiana healthier. We are grateful for your ongoing support.

Read more about Culture of Good Community Impact Awards.