Best Hospital IT 2016: #5 Medium Hospital
Stamford Health, Connecticut
IT Staff: 50
Overall Score: 58.97%

Taking your mind off work – even while at work – can be therapeutic. That’s why the 60-member IT department at Stamford Health has periodic get-togethers for food, fun and competition. The result has been a happier, more relaxed and more productive work environment, department leaders say.

Steve Sakovits, CIO, and John Rossi, executive director of Information Services and security officer, at the Stamford, Connecticut hospital agree that occasionally putting work aside for a couple hours and just letting loose is great for morale, camaraderie and team cohesiveness. Monthly competitions and potluck meals bring people together to just solidify personal and working relationships, they say.

“Our challenge is that we are ever-growing and we want to be the best,” Rossi said. “We have a lot of projects happening simultaneously and we need to find the balance between the heavy workload and the relieving the stress it causes.”

Sakovits should know something about building a successful IT culture. He is a veteran of Meridian Health System, which has earned Best Hospital honors three times.

Based on feedback from an IT employee survey, the Stamford leaders decided to form two committees that address workplace issues – the first is the Fun Committee and the other is the Internal Communications Committee. Not surprisingly, most people wanted to join the Fun Committee, but Internal Communications is equally important.

The Fun Committee puts together team-building events designed to help everyone blow off steam. The projects, which range from a plant-growing competition to building a ball catcher from office supplies, are intended to create competitions where there are no job titles, just teammates. Winners get a trophy and bragging rights.

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Potluck lunches involve sharing meals prepared by team members in order to “pull yourself out of the job for a couple hours and just enjoy each other’s company,” Rossi said. “We try to discourage shop talk during that time and just focus on getting to know each other as people.”

Internal Communications concentrates on getting the message out to the rest of the organization about what IT is doing and how their projects are furthering progress in Stamford’s mission of quality patient care.

“We have made an effort to build relationships across the organization, how we can work together and to give them what they want,” Rossi said. “You’ve got to have effective partnerships to make everyone’s jobs easier.”

This year has been a significant milestone for Stamford Hospital, which opened a new $450 million, 640,000 sq. ft. facility on Sept. 23. Featuring state-of-the-art technology and space-age design, the new hospital is something “everyone is proud of,” Sakovits says, but the IT team logged heavy hours ahead of its opening.

Yet because of the stress-relieving, morale-boosting activities, the department functioned as a well-oiled machine in getting everything ready for the opening, Sakovits said.

“I couldn’t ask for people to be more selfless during that difficult period,” he said.

Workplace culture was one of 87 questions senior executives (CIO, CMIOs, etc.), directors of IT, clinical and systems analysts, technicians, help desk staff and others responded to on our survey.

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