The Northwell Health medical system in New York is a big business – with 23 hospitals and 650 provider offices, as well as its own medical school and research institute. Northwell serves thousands of New York residents and employs hundreds of people.

According to Northwell Vice President of HR and Chief People Innovation Officer Elaine Page, it's also a place where a lot of care and thought has been put into how health care works.

“What we try to do is really recognize and honor the fact that we are here to serve our patients,” Page told HR Daily Wire on April 12. “We're an organization that doesn't settle.”

Page said CEO Michael Dowling has built a culture that's constantly reinforced in company communications. He also puts in a lot of hours meeting with every new hire to talk about company values.

In addition, she said, the organization works to honor its everyday heroes. Employees who go the extra mile are recognized on social media channels and at rallies held in attractive destinations to promote real, natural togetherness and collaboration.

“We have a culture that recognizes the team members that go above and beyond,” Page said. “We want to make it personal … We use the rallies to put a human face on it and tell the story face-to-face.”

Page also mentioned three promises that Northwell promotes – promises of care of recognition that go to both patients and employees,  as well as five core values: compassion, innovation, ambition, togetherness and the desire to honor each individual who is part of the greater organization.

Of the latter value, which the company calls “truly ourselves,” Page said the company tries to stress that Northwell isn't trying to change employees to make them part of its culture, but instead promotes diversity of thought and individuality. To that end, she said, the company routinely creates profiles of team members to share more about who they are when they're not at work.

“We really want people to see each other fully,” Page said.

In addition, she said, to foster more diverse input, the company holds meetings that bring different levels of staff together.

“We try to make sure that there are venues to bring different roles together,” she said. “We feel that we get a much richer solution that way – you don't have to change to be part of the Northwell network.”

Page gave another example of how the company developed its vision statement in describing the culture the company aspires to, as leadership reached out to the front-line people who are getting the clinical work done.

“We had them shape every single word,” Page said. The result, she said, was the following tagline: “We are Northwell Health, and we’re made for this.”

Describing how this motto helps staff to get through the tough days, she said it’s a source of tremendous pride.

“We're really proud of what we do,” Page said.