Focus on Workplace Culture Helps Healthcare Service Providers Adapt to Change

(San Francisco, CA) – Great Place to Work® recognized eleven healthcare service providers on the 2013 100 Best Companies to Work For list, on newsstands today in FORTUNE magazine. This is the seventh consecutive year that healthcare service providers have comprised at least ten percent of the 100 organizations recognized as the country’s best workplaces.

Healthcare service providers on the list tend to provide a better quality of care. Nine of the eleven 100 Best that are hospitals or healthcare systems, have at least one hospital in their system that outperforms national averages as reported by HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey). Including all the hospitals in each system, healthcare organizations from the 100 Best outperform the national average, scoring a “9 or 10” in patient satisfaction, and the number of patients who would recommend the hospital, by 5 and 6 percentage points, respectively.

“A long talent shortage has motivated many healthcare organizations to focus on workplace culture,” said Susan Lucas Conwell, Global CEO of Great Place to Work. “Hospitals know that success as care providers is directly linked to employee caliber. With fewer candidates to choose from, the industry has needed to make themselves attractive to the best candidates, so they have focused on building great workplaces.”

In addition to attracting and retaining the best talent, healthcare service providers who invest in their workplace culture have much to gain as the looming implementation of the Affordable Care Act accelerates the need for change. “The Affordable Care Act is going to change a lot of things for healthcare providers. From our experience, we know that the organizations that best adapt to change have transparent leadership, motivated employees, and practices that build cohesion among administrators, physicians, nurses, and all who collaborate on the delivery of patient care,” offered Sarah Cooke, Managing Consultant at Great Place to Work. “Now that quality of care will play a more central role in how hospitals make money, providers need to radically transform how they operate, and those with high-levels of trust and a strong workplace culture will be more successful.”

Great Place to Work has long supported organizations in the healthcare sector, and is preparing to deliver an industry-focused event: the Great Place to Work® Healthcare Summit on April 16, 2013 in Los Angeles, CA. Human Resources leaders from healthcare providers on the 100 Best List will present.