Jersey City Medical Center Tabbed As One Of Top 100 Best Places To Work

Jersey City Medical Center has been named to Modern Healthcare’s 2011 list of 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare. The hospital is one of just three organizations in New Jersey to be recognized by the magazine as an outstanding employer in the healthcare industry on a national level. This is a very prestigious honor and, as an institution, we’re very proud to be recognized as one of the best places to work in healthcare in the entire country,” said Joseph Scott, the medical center’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We view this as one more step in our campaign of ‘enhancing life’ and our journey to becoming one of America’s best hospitals.” Earlier this year, Jersey City Medical Center was named for an unprecedented second consecutive year as the best hospital of its size in New Jersey by Castle Connolly and Inside New Jersey, as voted on by physicians throughout the state.

In addition, Scott was inducted this year into the New Jersey Business Hall of Fame. The hospital was previously awarded with the Magnet in Nursing Excellence and named an Accredited Center of Excellence by the National Academies of Emergency Dispatch. An extensive two-part process must be completed for a healthcare organization to be considered for the award. This begins with employers submitting answers to an 81-part questionnaire detailing the company’s polices and practices, benefits and demographics.

For example, to the question: “If we were to ask your employees, ‘What three things does your employer do for you that you love?’ what would you say?” the hospital’s application listed training and educational offerings in-Cluding its’ Fast Track program which provides free education and training and the opportunity to advance within the organization whether in their current or a different field; employee and family focused activities and events that include trips to amusement parks, holidays parties and wellness initiatives; and the “rounding” conducted by the CEO and senior administrators, where the team visits departments to share medical center updates, listen to employee concerns, offer refreshments and thank them for their continued dedication to the patients we serve. This was a very long and arduous process, with questions on the application such as does your organization conduct pre-employment and regularly scheduled random drug testing (the answer is yes), to what is the average number of annual training and development hours received per employee (120 hours), to what programs and practices are used to recruit and retain employees from diverse backgrounds (which includes the hosting of various multicultural programs),” said Lourdes Valdes, the medical center’s Manager of Employment/ Training and Development. “The end, however, certainly justified the means. Being recognized as one of the country’s best places in healthcare to work is a great accomplishment.” In the second part, a random selection of employees were asked to respond anonymously to a battery of questions on the eight core areas of leadership and planning, culture and communications, role satisfaction, working environment, relationship with supervisor, training and development, pay and benefits, and overall satisfaction.