Beaufort Memorial Hospital’s IT department ranks 4th in nation

By Tess Malijenovsky
Healthcare IT News hired a market research company to find the most exceptional hospital Information Technology (IT) workplaces in 2011. Out of the 179 hospitals that were nominated, only 75 qualified. Beaufort Memorial Hospital was ranked fourth in the nation.
The Portland, Maine-based market research company, Critical Insights, determined that the best way to compare the departments was not by comparing accolades but by getting their data straight from the horse’s mouth.
Following a nomination period, employees were asked to complete a 67-question online survey about working day-to-day, their co-workers and management, hospital leadership, workplace culture, training and development, and compensation.
The study found was that the best hospital IT departments were the ones that deeply respected their employees and appreciated their hard work. Creative Insights noted that “the most ‘important’ dimensions that strongly influence employee satisfaction tend to be more subjective,” such as feeling respected and having a sense of accomplishment, a strong spirit of cooperation, a favorable sense of staff morale and effective communication at work.
Granted, the hospital does have a gorgeous location on the waterway, but the survey based almost entirely on employee satisfaction says a lot the fourth best hospital IT department workplace in the country.
“For one, we do a lot of challenging technological projects, which people really like to be challenged,” says Edward Ricks, VP of Information Services and CIO. “But it’s also probably just the fact that we promote the relationships in the department so that it’s not just work. It’s a place that people enjoy going and get along with each other.”
Ricks understands that the hospital IT field can be stressful and makes an effort to relieve some of that stress for his staff by gathering the team and having some fun: “Right after we did our big upgrade here six or eight months ago, we closed down for a couple of hours and went bowling in the middle of the day.” Just goes to show, making your employees happy goes along way in a workplace’s productivity.