Shared Values and Experiences

For the 23rd time, the congress of the European Association of Hospital Managers will bring together several hundred hospital managers, who have travelled from all over Europe. It will be, without a doubt, an occasion for rich and inspiring discussions facilitated by high-level international experts. The congress will also, and most importantly permit the gathering of professionals around the same values, the values that found the identity of hospital professionals.

Indeed, beyond the unique specificities of each healthcare system, whether this may be the organisation, the method of financing or the position of the hospital manager within the hospital, it is always striking to observe the force that unites hospital managers. These shared values are generosity, sense of responsibility, caring about developing their organisations, relentlessly improving the service offered to patients but also guaranteeing quality of care.

This strong professional identity constitutes for each of us, the base upon which we depend to manage our establishments and to assure their development. It also constitutes a heritage that we need to maintain through the exchange of experiences. It is precisely because these values are at the origin of the creation, now more than 40 years ago, of the EAHM, that the association wishes to engage, in the upcoming months, in a series of initiatives designed to multiply the exchanges between directors, to develop feedback sessions on these exchanges but also to pass on our professional identity to young managers who will manage the hospitals of tomorrow.

In general terms these initiatives, which will allow the EAHM to increase its visibility and to reinforce its links with the national associations it is made up of, aim to re-centre our association around the common problems we all face and to devise shared management solutions to combat them. Thus, our mission of constructing a social Europe will continue, despite the uncertainties and the successive comings and goings, for the benefit of all European citizens.

As the crisis, in its many dimensions, strikes Europe and shakes our organisations and our health systems, the affirmation of our identity, of the values that join us together is essential. Indeed, far from being a withdrawal into ourselves or a sign of closing down, the expression of our singularity should be seen as a sign of confidence and openness; confidence in the future, openness to change and innovation.

It is this spirit that I have endeavoured, with honour and pride, to inspire within the EAHM throughout my four-year presidency. As will no doubt my successor, who will be appointed in Zurich.

P. Castel

President EAHM