CEO Update: Serving others is the heartbeat of our mission

As we plan for the future of Citizens Memorial Hospital and the Citizens Memorial Healthcare Foundation, a theme that continually emerges is our commitment to making a difference by serving others. CMH’s very existence is rooted in the selfless service of community leaders who never gave up on their dream of opening a hospital in Bolivar.

Last year, we gathered frontline staff, physicians and leadership to determine whether our mission, vision and values accurately reflected who we are as an organization. We discussed what resonates with our previous mission, vision and values statements and asked what could be different. The group provided recommendations to executive leadership, and we adopted new statements in 2023. What we came up with really resonates with people. It reflects service as the foundation of our organization.

We also wanted to make sure that safety and quality of care are at the forefront of our statements. Personalized and safe care is something we have always valued as an organization.

Mission

Providing compassionate care for all generations by leading physicians and an exceptional health care team.

The mission explains our purpose. Our new mission statement puts a greater emphasis on compassionate care by all employees and our entire health care team being exceptional. Our physicians and support personnel have the expertise and empathy to provide the compassionate care our patients have come to expect from Citizens Memorial.

Vision

Be the first choice for health care by delivering the safest, highest quality and best experience for the communities we serve.

The vision is our goal. The beginning of our vision statement is that we will be the safest place for patients to get care. That’s what we want to be known for. It’s something our data shows that we provide. We want to continue striving toward being the safest place for care.

We also want our care to reflect the highest quality compared to other organizations nationally. I know our teams are committed to this vision.

Patients should expect the best experience possible regardless of where they go within our system. Our future is that we are the safest place with the highest quality care and the best patient experience.

Core Values

I am Safe, Engaged, Respectful, Valued and Empowered. Together, we make a difference by serving others.

Our values are how we achieve our mission. Our most significant update is to our core values, changing from the acronym PRIDE (positive, respectful, innovative, dedicated and empowered) to SERVE. I’m proud of what we do here at CMH, and I know our employees are proud to work at CMH. However, serving others is the essence of what we do. We are all here to serve our patients and communities.

Adopting the new statements

We’ve had the same mission, vision, and values for a long time. We memorized the other ones, and we will learn these over time. I sent out an organizational message introducing the new statements to our employees at the end of December. Everywhere you look, you’ll find these statements. Over time, we will update those to the new language.

The new mission, vision and values are something we can rally behind as an organization and will move us into the future.

Service in action

Our employees are already embracing the emphasis on service with their recent support for one of our own, Don Garrison. Our CMH staff and friends contributed $34,500 toward the $110,000 required for his 9-year-old daughter, Moxie, to have a life-saving heart surgery in London later this month. Join the Moxie’s Heart Journey Facebook group for updates throughout Moxie’s journey.

This outpouring of love and assistance reflects the compassionate care our patients and residents receive daily at CMH.