Case Studies

Case Study – Improving patient safety at Ascension Health: How culture affects transformational change.

Ascension health is a large US Catholic non-profit healthcare system that is comprised of 67 acute care facilities that employs 106,000 staff. In 2002 the organization launched a five year transformational change strategy to improve patient safety in identified areas. Culture was listed as one of five key challenges to successful transformational change within the system.

“The entire organization must embrace the safety initiative”

Prior to implementing the strategy quality improvement was a focus for many facilities, and culture survey results showed that employee attitudes towards safety and teamwork were positive and ahead of other comparable healthcare institutions. This openness to change and alignment of attitudes with the goal of the change was likely key to their success. The organization also planned a follow up culture survey to be administered, demonstrating their dedication to valuing the culture of their organization.

This case study demonstrates how culture can improve the likelihood of transformational change to be successful, and the importance for leaders to be aware of what the organization culture is prior to change initiation, as well as prioritizing keeping a pulse on it throughout and following the change implementation.

McCarthy, D., & Staton, E. (2019). Case study: A transformational change process to improve patient safety at Acsension Health. The Commonwealth Fund. Retrieved from: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletter-article/case-study-transformational-change-process-improve-patient-safety


Case Study – Organizational transformation to a patient-centric culture: How transformational change can affect culture.

Baylis Medical has manufactured and distributed medical devices worldwide since 1985. From inception a patient-centered focus was a core guiding principle in the culture of the organization. Over the years with company growth - customer service, leading technology, employee development, and corporate social responsibility were added to guiding principles of the corporate mission and culture. With the retirement of the company’s creator, and the continued transformational change of the company, senior leadership began to be concerned that the focus on the patient was beginning to be lost within its organizational culture. It was found through surveying employees that overall the company continued to have a strong patient-centric culture, however it was at risk of this deteriorating due to the large increase in new staff (less than 5 years with the organization). A strategy was developed to prevent this through implementation of 4 recommendations:

Improve visual artifacts throughout the organization that reflect patient-centricity
Establish a customer feedback system to increase accountability
Strengthen employee empowerment to make decisions
Introduce a training program for new employees


This case study demonstrates the effect transformational change can have on the culture of an organization, and the importance of management awareness of how it can be effected so that strategies can be used to mitigate a negative outcome on culture.

Appelbaum, S. H., Seyed, M. Z., MacDonald, A., & Amiri, Y. (2010). Organizational transformation to a patient centric culture: A case study. Leadership in Health Services, 23(1), 8-32. doi: https://0-www-emeraldinsight-com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/doi/full/10.1108/17511871011013742