Home About us South Metropolitan Health Service About South Metropolitan Health Service Our vision, values and behaviours

Our vision, values and behaviours at SMHS

Excellent health care, every time

The vision for the South Metropolitan Health Service is excellent health care, every time.

Our ambition is a future where we are the public health service of choice – for our staff, patients and community.

This means we want our patients, their carers and family members to be happy when they are referred to our services for care and treatment.

We want our staff to be happy to come to work; to feel engaged with opportunities to be innovative; and to feel listened to and respected.

We want to be an employer of choice where others wish to join.

In delivering excellent health care, every time, we will be an organisation that:

values a culture of safety and quality, and sustainability
engages with all staff
demonstrates high performance across all areas.

Our values

Many of our staff work across multiple sites. When receiving care and treatment our patients may journey through different parts of our network of hospitals and community-based services.

A unifying set of values and behaviours across the health service builds the same expectations and conduct – for our staff, patients and community. This is essential if SMHS is to deliver our vision of excellent health care, every time.

See our vision and values (PDF 324KB)

Care

We provide compassionate care to the patient, their carer and family. Caring for patients starts with caring for our staff.

We demonstrate care when we:

provide an environment that empowers the patient, their carer and family to openly and freely contribute to their care and treatment
talk with, listen and respond to the patient, carer and family
show empathy and understanding to patients, their carer and family and the situation they are dealing with in a non- judgemental manner
focus on the patient and staff experience.

Integrity

We are accountable for our actions and always act with professionalism.

We demonstrate integrity when we:

act honestly, truthfully and transparently
are accountable and take responsibility for our actions and decisions
recognise when we get it wrong and disclose it as early as possible
are consistent, fair and equitable in our interactions and decision making
consider how our individual actions and decisions will impact on others and the health service.

Respect

We welcome diversity and treat each other with dignity.

We demonstrate respect when we:

embrace cultural and professional diversity in our interactions and decisions
acknowledge and appreciate the service and care being delivered
appreciate the opinions, contribution, experience and knowledge of all staff
communicate with honesty and openness, share information and are responsive with feedback
listen to different points of view and incorporate when and where appropriate, and provide feedback when we cannot.

Excellence

We embrace opportunities to learn and continuously improve.

We demonstrate excellence when we:

give our absolute best as individuals and teams in everything we do
support opportunities for teaching, training, research and innovation
actively seek new ideas and approaches and share them across the service
accept challenges and work proactively to deliver improvements
consistently meet safety and quality standards
make effective and efficient use of available resources.

Teamwork

We recognise the importance of teams and together work collaboratively and in partnership.

We demonstrate teamwork when we:

work across boundaries to develop relationships, partnerships and share information
listen to the views of others to reach agreement
are aware of our own individual behaviour and how it impacts on others
communicate clearly and respectfully with each other
support and encourage others to develop knowledge, skills and behaviours
actively participate and seek information on our health service and its performance.