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Massini: Less talking, more listening at employee meetings

Penn State Health CEO Steve Massini sent an email to all Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine employees today (Thursday).

Dear Colleagues,

It’s officially autumn, one of my favorite times of the year. College football is underway, and our Nittany Lions are ranked #12. Pennsylvania’s landscape is beginning to boast beautiful shades of red and yellow. And it’s time for employee meetings.

I encourage you to attend a session, live or via Zoom. This time around, we promise less talking and more listening. For your convenience, here is a link to the schedule.

A few of the topics for conversation:

  • Employee engagement – By now, your manager should have shared the results with your team. (If that hasn’t happened yet, please let me know.) At the employee meetings, we want to hear your thoughts on the results. Did they surprise you? What’s happening in your area as a result of that survey, and what can we do to make Penn State Health and Penn State College of Medicine better places to work?
  • Penn State Health’s organizational goals – Penn State Health’s Board of Directors in September established goals for the health system in quality and safety, patient satisfaction, employee engagement and financial performance. These goals unify us so that we are all working together in a concerted effort to enhance the health of the citizens in our region. This year, for the first time, employee engagement is among our organizational goals.
  • Penn State Health’s mission and vision. For years, the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and the College of Medicine have shared a mission and vision. For even longer, St. Joseph Medical Center, including its outpatient practices, has had a mission statement for the care it provides to the people in and around Berks County. Many outstanding physicians and physician groups have joined Penn State Health and they, too, have their own purpose in their respective communities.

The question now is, what do all of us aspire to achieve together?

Perhaps you’ve already heard the story from 1961, when President John F. Kennedy was visiting NASA headquarters for the first time. During his tour, he met a janitor who was mopping the floor, and he asked him what he did at NASA.

The janitor famously responded, “I’m helping to put a man on the moon.” That janitor understood NASA’s mission and vision, and he understood his role in it.

In September, our Board of Directors spent a great deal of time talking about what Penn State Health is and why we exist. As a result of that conversation, we now have draft mission and vision statements for our health system.

Our Mission: To continually improve the health and well-being of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and beyond…

Our Vision: To be Pennsylvania’s most trusted health care organization.

So I ask you, do these statements, to you, accurately reflect why we exist and what we hope to accomplish together? I want to hear your thoughts. Creating a mission and vision across our health system will bring clarity to our purpose; determining our direction, driving our decisions, shaping our strategy and ensuring our future success.

I invite you to respond to this email – and I hope to see you at an upcoming employee meeting.

Steve Massini
Chief Executive Officer

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