Eight years ago, Dianne Timmering had no budget for her new department of spirituality at Signature HealthCARE.

She now runs the largest for-profit department of spirituality in the country with a $4 million budget and full-time chaplains at all 87 facilities in Signatures network.

We built it on an ROI model, she said. It is a huge value-added component for us, it impacts clinical outcomes and retention.

The company uses an interfaith model for its spirituality programs and has chaplain advisory boards in every community. Timmering said that there is no proselytising or evangelizing. Also, if a chaplain cannot provide what an individual needs, he or she will find a clergy member in the community who can. Signature has found a way to balance respect for many religions with a genuine expression of those same beliefs.

We dont water it down; if youre Christian you get to be Christian, you get to be who you are, you get to bring your spiritual skin inside Signature, she said.

Timmering works out of the companys headquarters in Louisville, but has helped to establish the chaplain program in long-term care facilities around the country, including a community in southern Florida.

In West Palm we are highly diverse, with Orthodox Jews, Muslims and Catholics, she said. Its a special chaplain that can do a Shabbat service and a Catholic service and possibly teach Buddhist philosophy.

She also shared a story about a patient who was a Native American. The family wanted the 23rd psalm translated into the Sioux tongue. The chaplain helped make this happen so that the family could recite the psalm at the patients bedside.

Atheists are welcome, too. Everyone always says, Dianne, what about the atheists? I always reply that I would protect that atheist with every ounce of my being to be who they are, she said.

Measuring the return Timmering said that she has two measures to gauge the effect of the full-time chaplains. First, family scores of the facilities have gone up, as the chaplains helped people deal with the complex emotions involved in placing family members in a long-term-care facility. Second, spiritual support seemed to encourage patients to complete physical therapy.

Originally posted here:

Bringing God into the workplace creates calm, not controversy for Signature Healthcare