5 Best Small Hospital IT Departments, 2013

October 10, 2013

10:28 AM

5 Best Small Hospital IT Departments

The top 5 small hospitals (25 or fewer IT staff) in the 2013 Where to Work: BEST Hospital IT Departments program pay special attention to workloads and make sure that employees don’t have more on their plates than they can handle.

Ephraim McDowell Health

Rank: #5

Danville, Ky.

IT employees: 15

Licensed beds: 222

Even while tackling challenging projects such as meaningful use or ICD-10, the IT strategy at Ephraim McDowell Health focuses as much on people as it does on technology. "Rather than try to make the project fit the person, we try to make the person fit the project," said Becky Blevins, IT project manager.

Read about how Ephraim McDowell puts people before projects

Return to the Where to Work: Best Hospital IT Departments homepage

Meadows Regional Medical Center

Rank: #4

Vidalia, Ga.

IT employees: 11

Licensed beds: 57

Compared to other employees he’s managed during his 40-year career, CIO Chuck Bondurant said his team at Meadows Regional Medical Center is self-directed and enterprising. In addition to its day-to-day IT duties, the team is switching out its core information system, working on meaningful use and helping the hospital align new physician groups. “My role is really to give them the tools to shine,” Bondurant said.

Read about how Meadows' team is self-directed and enterprising

Return to the Where to Work: Best Hospital IT Departments homepage

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center

Rank: #3

Thibodaux, La.

IT employees: 13

Licensed beds: 185

Part of what makes Thibodaux Regional Medical Center’s IT team so successful, said CIO Bernie Clement, is its motivation and outlook – always searching for ways to improve. “If you need to spend all of your time motivating someone, you need to start wondering why that person is here,” Clement said.

Read about how accountability and teamwork power Thibodaux's IT staff

Return to the Where to Work: Best Hospital IT Departments homepage

Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital

Rank: #2

Barrington, Ill.

IT employees: 13

Licensed Beds: 169

The IT department holds morning huddles to check in with each employee and make adjustments to their workload if necessary. “If some folks are getting a little tired of what they are doing, I see what I can do to make it more interesting,” says Adem Arslani, director of information systems and informatics. “We do a lot of cross-training.”

Read about how collaboration and communication are the Advocate way

Return to the Where to Work: Best Hospital IT Departments homepage

MedStar Montgomery Medical Center

Rank: #1

Olney, Md.

IT employees: 17

Licensed beds: 159

In IT, you know the long hours are coming, said Chris Brown, assistant vice president, information technology at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center. Given that, “It is important that on the other side of that [employees] know they will get similar flexibility to make their child’s school play or even just head to the beach,” she said.

Read about how MedStar supports staff at work and at home

Return to the Where to Work: Best Hospital IT Departments homepage