Institutionalizing sustainability: An analysis on the strategic narratives of private hospitals

TÜRKMEN İ., KAYA R. R.

Hacettepe Sağlık İdaresi Derg.*, cilt.29, sa.2, ss.431-446, 2026 (TRDizin)

Özet

The purpose of this research is to examine how private hospitals strategically incorporate sustainability activities into their mission, vision, and core value statements. The research population consists of 52 private hospitals operating in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The research aimed to reach all private hospitals in the region without selecting a specific sample. The researchers content-analyzed the mission, vision, and core value statements on the hospitals' websites within the scope of the "economic, social, and environmental" dimensions of sustainability. Generally, private hospitals emphasized social sustainability the most (596), followed by economic sustainability (299), and environmental sustainability the least (24). While social sustainability is predominant in their mission statements, their vision statements emphasized economic sustainability more, and their core values emphasized environmental sustainability. Another striking finding is that private hospitals did not address environmental sustainability at all in their mission and vision statements. Consequently, while private hospitals appear to include the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of sustainability in their strategic texts, this emphasis is not balanced. Hospitals need to address the three dimensions of sustainability in a more balanced and holistic way in their mission, vision and core values.