Memorial Healthcare shows 'genuine interest' in staff development

Memorial Healthcare System takes seriously its responsibilities towards patients. As one of the top employers in the south Florida community of Hollywood, it takes seriously, too, its responsibilities towards its employees. 

"We have created a culture of a great workplace where our employees are fully engaged and buy into our goals and objectives and the overall vision of Memorial Healthcare System," said Dave Alexander, Memorial's vice president of corporate finance.

"What we do special is that we give customer service a high priority, show a genuine interest in our staff's progress, establish performance targets for both short-range and long-range, give the highest priority to achieving accuracy and adherence to ethical principles that reflect the highest standards of organizational and individual behavior."

They achieve their goals by, first and foremost, Alexander said, being a team. 

"When one person is struggling, we all pitch in to get across the finish line," he said. "We either succeed as a team, or sometimes we unfortunately do not meet expectations, but it's still as a team."

To help everyone succeed, the department adheres to Kaizen, a philosophy of continuous improvement. The finance department meets regularly to discuss upcoming deadlines and priorities, share topics of importance, learn new things and review at the end of each month to see if expectations were exceeded or met, and if not met, what work needs to be done to meet expectations.Just like the rest of the health system, the finance department faces fast-moving changes. 

It's one of the department's biggest challenges, Alexander said. And that's why communication and celebrating everyone's hard work is so important.

"Our vision is to be a world-class finance organization, which is a never-ending journey," Alexander said. "Knowing that we are on this journey together and that it is more of a marathon than a sprint, we try to enjoy it along the way."

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