The case study on Northwestern Memorial Hospital presents a clear linkage between the creation of a diverse workforce and improving cultural competence, and improving the business results of an institution. The Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) is a teaching hospital located in downtown Chicago and has a capacity of seven hundred and twenty beds (MediaFire, n.d.).
The hospital is located in a community that is diverse in terms of culture. However, the hospital has established strategies to ensure that it remains to show the face of this cultural diversity. This is to be achieved through an all-inclusive hiring policy. The hospital has a staff of six thousand employees and 1300 physicians. The minorities in the community account for 50 percent of the hospital services on an annual basis. To manage this diversity, the hospital hired a director to be in charge of diversity in 1990.
This office has been able to bring the face of the community not only in service delivery but also on the staff. The director of diversity reports to the senior vice president of human resources and medical affairs, which essentially gives him the powers to enforce his decisions. In the beginning, diversity was mainly inducted to the mid-level managers. However, that has changed with the hospital introducing diversity awareness measures for the entire staff. As such, the diversity is shown right from the CEO’s office to the members of staff (American Hospital Association, 2010).
The hospital has continued to incorporate the principles of diversity with those of professional development. This means that diversity is not applied for the sake of PR but rather as a human resource strategy, which is pushed on in training. Moreover, the CEO has ensured that the diversity does not undermine the performance. Rather, the different cultures interact freely, and the best and most competent staff are rewarded.
References
American Hospital Association. (2010). Workforce 2015: Strategy Trumps Shortage
MediaFire. (n.d.). Does your hospital reflect the community it serves? A Diversity and Cultural Proficiency Assessment Tool for Leaders Strategies for Leadership. Web.