Health care organizations often receive awards for the quality of the care they give to patients. In April, 16 health care workplaces were honored for how they value their employees in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s 2012 edition of Metro Atlanta’s Top 100 Workplaces.
More than 43,000 employees responded to a Workplace Dynamics survey in which they were asked to rate their workplaces and choose what was most important to them in terms of job satisfaction. The top five factors were company direction, job appreciation, confidence in the future, career opportunities and confidence in leaders.
What makes a great health care organization for employees? We talked to leaders from four large (at least 500 employees) metro Atlanta health care organizations that made the Top 100 Workplaces list. Those leaders said an employer that is dedicated to caring for others must begin by caring for its own. How they accomplish that differs slightly, depending on the culture, philosophy, needs and unique practices of each health care system.
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
The need for pediatric hospital services is growing and Children’s has been growing with it. The health care provider (ranked 6th among large workplaces) added Hughes Spalding in downtown Atlanta in 2006, the Marcus Autism Center in 2008 and continues to open outpatient centers in Atlanta’s suburbs to serve the needs of its young patients closer to home. Children’s comprises 7,800 employees and 1,600 physicians.
“Our values require that employees care about people, be committed to kids and always are dedicated to doing things better. Ours is a culture of caring and commitment to excellence,” said Linda Matzigkeit, chief administrative officer.
A unique Children’s practice is asking potential employees to job shadow for a few hours in the unit to which they are applying.
“Nurses need to make life-and-death decisions quickly with critically ill children, as well as care for their families,” Matzigkeit said. “Letting them see what they are getting into has given us very high nurse retention rates [94.4 percent overall].”
Children’s encourages employees “to be strong enough to care enough,” and helps them stay strong with weekend fitness programs, exercise and stress-relief classes, informational and gift showers for expecting mothers, and ongoing clinical education.
“We encourage them to ‘think beyond their badge,’ by participating in decision-making committees,” Matzigkeit said. “Our educators help people explore career development choices, whether they want to pursue a clinical or management track.
“Our employees are engaged and love what they do. Our job is to give them the resources they need to do it.”
Visiting Nurse Health System
“Our mission is to improve the lives of those we serve, so the work itself creates high employee satisfaction. Employees tell us that they know their daily caring for patients brings value to the world,” said Mark Oshnock, president and CEO of Visiting Nurse, one of Georgia’s largest home-health and hospice providers. “Our job is to make it easier for them to give that care. They [also] tell us that we’re pretty innovative with technology.”
Visiting Nurse Health System (ranked 19th among large workplaces) employs nurses, therapists and aids who work in geographically based teams that visit patients in their homes. Laptops and wireless and cellular technology keep employees in touch with one another and with the office.
“The industry requires a lot of medical record documentation, so we try to make that less painful,” Oshnock said. “I’ve never heard a clinician say they got into health care to fill out forms.
“We also use the latest equipment to monitor, test and provide medical services to a patient population that five years ago would have been in intensive care rather than at home.”
Ongoing training (such as wound-care education for all nurses), wellness benefits (Weight Watchers, fitness classes and gym memberships) and staff appreciation events promote worker development and bonding.
“They do their work individually, but we want them all to feel like they belong to a solid organization that values them and their work,” Oshnock said.
Northeast Georgia Health System
The 5,000-employee, 500-physician system in Gainesville is one of the largest employers in Georgia’s northeast corridor. Generations of residents have received care from Northeast Georgia Health System, and employees describe the organization’s culture as “collegial and caring.”
“Our compensation and benefits are competitive, but what employees tell us they like most is our focus on communication,” said Carol Burrell, president and CEO.
The organization puts out a weekly Friday Flyer that contains internal news, and holds town hall meetings several times a year for all shifts.
“It’s not every 5,000-employee organization where employees can talk face-to-face and ask questions of its senior leaders,” said Sean Couch, a public relations staffer at Northeast Georgia Health System (ranked 12th among large workplaces).
With so many changes going on in health care and the economy, the news isn’t always good, but NGHS believes in addressing what’s going on upfront.
“Our people know that we care about them and that we are willing to listen,” Burrell said.
NGHS also has instituted Six Sigma lean manufacturing principles. Leaders talk to employees about their individual responsibility in the system’s quest for excellence in patient care.
“We want them to be [as] empowered and efficient as they can be, to have a sense of ownership about the journey,” Burrell said.
As a result, many policy and practice refinements come from front-line staff.
“When a problem is identified, we put together a multidisciplinary team to find solutions,” Burrell said. “The members come from different departments and may not know each other, so the process creates learning and greater understanding across all parts of the organization.”
Emory Healthcare
“Inclusive” is the word Dallis Howard-Crow, Emory Healthcare’s chief human resources officer, uses to describe the company’s culture.
“Our philosophy is that we’re not going to make a change that involves them without them,” she said.
Since the Emory Healthcare family has grown to 14,200 employees and 1,400 physicians representing four generations of workers, inclusion takes a substantial effort. Most units have multidisciplinary practice councils that ask questions about processes and budgets and share in decision-making.
Systemwide changes call for increased employee involvement. Emory (ranked 18th among large workplaces) recently pulled 50 people from various departments and facilities for a committee to study and design a new retirement plan.
“Since no one was an expert, we spent the first nine hours educating them about different plans. After that, they were all doing their Internet research on issues that mattered to them,” Howard-Crow said.
Group members were encouraged to share the process with their units and to solicit feedback. The proposed plan was put out for empoyee opinions and got 7,000 responses.
“As we had hoped, by the time the change was announced everyone already knew about it. There were no surprises,” she said.
The system’s generous paid-leave policy (37 days a year for senior employees) is a benchmark in the industry. Employee training and development is ongoing, as are celebrations of accomplishments.
“These are stressful and demanding jobs, but I love seeing how our employees care about each other every day,” Howard-Crow said. “People celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, certifications. Seeing that they love their jobs — and each other — makes me really proud to work here.”
OTHERS ON THE LIST
The other health care-related companies that made the list are Laureate Medical Group, Gastroenterology Associates of Gainesville, Resurgens Orthopaedics, NASCO, CSI Laboratories, Meadows & Ohly, Coalition America Inc., Annadale at Suwanee, Southern Crescent Women’s Healthcare, PT Solutions and UroMed Inc. For complete coverage and to see the entire list, go to ajc.com/business/topworkplaces.
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