Corporate Citizenship
Our Corporate Citizenship Statement articulates
how we are striving to be recognised as a responsible corporate
citizen via seven key elements.
We believe we shouldn't act in isolation of the communities
within which we operate and we therefore try to ensure our
operational success goes hand in hand with enhancing broader
community and social wellbeing.
As a ministry of the Catholic Church we
operate within a framework set by Church teaching as well
as within political and economic frameworks shaped by public
policy and available resources. The principles of responsible
corporate citizenship are already fundamental to our Vision,
Mission and Values, and are inherent in all aspects of our
operations.
Valued health service provision
We provide health care services that
continue the healing mission of Jesus Christ, promoting life to the
full by enhancing the physical, intellectual, social and spiritual
dimension of being human. We aim to provide excellent, distinctive
care that is valued by the communities we serve. We encourage
feedback from patients, doctors, caregivers and the community to
help us continually improve our services and are meeting needs and
expectations.
Ethical behaviour and legal compliance
We foster a strong culture of ethical behaviour. Learning about
ethics heightens ethical awareness and assists caregivers (as we
call our staff) to apply knowledge and learning to every day
practice and decision making. This is achieved in many ways,
including through education programs and our Code of Conduct,
Leadership Profile and Ethics
Committee.
We are also committed to meeting or exceeding legal
requirements - working to ensure compliance with council bylaws,
relevant State and Federal legislation, including trade practices,
occupational health & safety, human resources, industrial
relations, taxation, the environment and private hospital and
pathology licensing. We also strive to ensure compliance with
all aspects of the Catholic Church's canon law.
Financial stewardship & corporate governance
We are very conscious of our role as
stewards of the resources entrusted to us. Successful stewardship
of our financial, human and physical resources is vital to our
ongoing stability and growth. We work hard to ensure our facilities
and services are desired by doctors, caregivers, patients and the
general community. Maintaining financial performance allows us
to confidently invest in our future and that of the communities we
serve and to confidently partner with our bankers, creditors and
other financial partners including funders and Governments.
We adopt best practice corporate governance wherever possible.
Attractive and Principled Employment
As an Attractive and Principled Employer, we aim for a culture that values and
supports caregivers, with employment relations based on trust and
principles centred on and aligned with our Mission and Values.
Social Outreach and Advocacy
As a Catholic health care organisation,
providing services targeting poor health and disadvantage within
local, national and international communities is core to our
Mission. We have an established Social
Outreach and Advocacy program providing a coordinated and
integrated group-wide framework for extending our Mission beyond
the walls of our hospitals and other services.
Environmental Stewardship
We
are committed to exercising care and good stewardship in
relation to using the Earth's resources and protecting the environment. We strive to achieve:
- Environmental leadership
- Legal compliance
- Risk management
- Waste and energy use minimisation
- Benchmarking and sharing best practice
Community Participation
As a major employer and service provider in
the communities we serve, we also recognise we have an important
responsibility to be a significant participant in community
activities that serve to strengthen community life.
We are a major provider and facilitator of
undergraduate and postgraduate clinical and other health care
related education. We support clinical research in selected
centres of excellence where we can make a difference. We
sponsor community organisations with
aligned objectives, a broad variety of arts activities and actively
encourage our caregivers (supported by a community leave policy) to
contribute to their communities by volunteering their time to
services or programs they wish to support. We also encourage
community participation and engagement via an extensive volunteer
network, community consultation forums, partnering with community
groups and consumer representation in service planning and
development.