Changing hospital culture: Henry Ford Health System's new model emphasizes wellness and prevention by Marilynn Larkin, MA

At the one-year anniversary celebration for Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital in Oakland County, Michigan, CEO Gerard van Grinsven, Wellness Director Michael Seidman, MD, and Marketing and Public Relations Director Carey Chesney were exuberant—and with good reason. Their vision for the $360-million hospital—the seventh in the Henry Ford Health System—had become a reality. “The community embraced our efforts to change the definition of the word hospital,” says Chesney. “It’s a loaded word that can generate anxiety and fear. When people hear it, they think of something cold and scary and authoritarian. Our goal,” he explains, “was to explode that concept and get people to think about hospitals in a different way.”

Despite the challenges (see “Marketing: redefining ‘hospital’” on page 37), the Henry Ford team clearly has succeeded. Patient satisfaction scores reached the 99th percentile nationally in the United States three months after opening; and bed capacity increased from 60 to 160, with the hospital running at 85% of capacity. (The hospital initially built 191 of its 300 beds.) As van Grinsven observes, “We have completely changed the hospital paradigm by combining clinical care with a comprehensive wellness philosophy integrated into every aspect of patient care.”