Three keys to incorporating Corporate Social Responsibility into hospital management

Commitment to ethical management. Sustainability is one of the requirements any company or entity that wants to be ethically responsible needs to meet. In this regard, drawing up annual sustainability reports is essential. Drafting progress reports on the 10 principles of the United Nations Global Compact helps health organisations to build a model that contributes to the improvement of health and well-being for all people.

Inclusion. Promoting the employment of people with disabilities is another differentiating element that makes health management socially responsible.

“Fostering disability management means changing the way we understand healthcare organisations. For this reason, the Espriu Foundation is committed to the inclusion of all people and proof of this is the Discret certification in disability management that one of our hospitals, the HLA Moncloa hospital, has been awarded”, says Carlos Zarco, director general of the Espriu Foundation.

Compatibility with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Integrating the 17 global goals approved by the UN in the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development is another of the requirements to be met by all health models that aspire to build a socially responsible world.

In the Espriu Foundation point out that “the co-operative health model has CSR in its genes due to its nature, achieving sustainable objectives and, finally, achieving satisfaction among people”.  “For this reason –they point out– the Espriu Foundation, through its various member co-operatives, has been committed to CSR from the outset”.

Specifically, the Espriu Foundation, comprised by the institutions Autogestió Sanitària SCCL, Lavínia SCoop, Instalaciones Asistenciales Sanitarias Scias SCCL and Asisa, points out that the co-operative model essentially complies with the SDGs and, in particular, it highlights five of them that all health management models should incorporate due to the nature of their activity:

• Goal 3: Health and well-being. Promotion of healthy living and universal well-being.
• Goal 8: Decent work and economic growth. Generation of decent employment and support for economic growth. The co-operative model especially drives the local economy. 
• Goal 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure. Promotion of innovation through ICTs in managing health care quality.
• Goal 10: Reducing inequalities. The democratic way of electing directors and making decisions, characteristic of the co-operative model, promotes equal treatment and rights, as well as quality of care.

The Espriu Foundation, a leading example in the promotion of sustainable social and economic development

The organisations that comprise the Espriu Foundation, under the model of health cooperativism, work together to achieve better health and well-being for all people.

Proof of this is their commitment to ethical management, recognised through the Forética CSR SGE 21 certificate held by the Moncloa University Hospital – the only hospital in Spain with this certificate. In addition, this hospital prepares its annual GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) sustainability reports, as well as progress reports on the ten principles of the UN Global Compact. For its part, Barcelona Hospital also publishes its sustainability reports annually.

In terms of compliance with the SDGs, the characteristics of the Foundation, made up of co-operatives, allows these goals to be achieved. Examples of these include the generation of employment and innovation in their management structures. Thus, the HLA group has the ISO 9001 certification granted by Aenor, for which the Green Cube tool has been fundamental, making it possible to standardise the way of working on a day-to-day basis, resulting in a higher quality of care.