Having the opportunity to use one’s native language significantly influences patients’ perception of care quality. Our aim is to provide specialized healthcare in the patient’s native language in Finnish or Swedish. Our bilingualism program supports this objective.
We began reforming our language policy in 2019 in response to the new HUS strategy and changes in the current organization and operating environment. The result was a new bilingualism program based on the HUS values: caring, pioneership and equality. After extensive external and internal rounds of feedback, the HUS Executive Board approved the proposed bilingualism program in August 2020.
One of the aims in the program is to advance our healthcare pioneering in terms of bilingualism as well. HUS promises to provide better care for every patient each day. Caring is the core of all HUS activities. Excellent care requires that employees be able to speak Finnish and Swedish from first contact until the end of treatment.
“The perceived quality of care is born in those moments of caring. Patients being able to receive care in their native language either in Finnish or Swedish supports our strategic goal of providing the best possible measurable medical care and service,” says Chief Executive Officer Juha Tuominen, who is the patron of the bilingualism program.
The bilingualism program was created with two target groups in mind: patients receiving care and service in their native language in Finnish or Swedish, and the personnel providing care and services in these languages.
“Our goal is that patients feel safe being able to use their own language, Finnish or Swedish, when receiving care at us,” Tuominen says.
The bilingualism program also includes a detailed action plan. The program will be in effect throughout HUS’s entire 2020-2024 strategy period.