LifeBridge Health Makes Fortune Magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For"

LifeBridge Health announced today that it was ranked 96 on Fortune Magazine’s 2010 list of “100 Best Companies to Work For.” The full list and related stories appear in the February 8 issue of Fortune, available on newsstands on Monday, January 25.

LifeBridge Health is one of four Maryland-based companies and the only Maryland-based health care system to make the list.

“It’s a tremendous honor to be recognized by Fortune,” said Warren Green, president and CEO, LifeBridge Health. “Our position on this list demonstrates how well our employees work together, the camaraderie felt throughout the system and our continued focus on providing excellent quality of care for our patients. It’s a combination of our corporate culture and benefits that led us to being honored. Throughout our system, each employee is a valued participant doing his or her role providing excellent health care for our patients.”

Fortune Deputy Managing Editor Hank Gilman said, “The most important considerations for this year’s list were hiring and the ways in which companies are helping their employees weather the recession. All 100 companies on our list are currently hiring, many of the aggressively, leading to more than 96,000 open job positions expected in the next year.”

“We are on the continuous journey of becoming and remaining a great place to work -- where everyone can do their best work and feel his or her unique contributions are recognized and appreciated,” said Taylor Foss, vice president of Human Resources at LifeBridge Health.

LifeBridge Health helps its employees alleviate some of the financial and personal stress caused during the recession by offering various benefits and services such as negotiating lower tuition discounts at several colleges and universities; providing onsite training to prepare employees for college and higher paying jobs; providing free access to Carebridge Work-Life Services for practical advice regarding child and eldercare, financial challenges and legal issues; scholarships for employees' children who will be college sophomores, and reduced membership fees for the system-owned fitness facility.

Some of the unusual benefits and services offered to employees include adoption assistance, phased-in retirement, a telecommuting program, BridgeList, an online forum where employees with similar interests can meet, share skills, start carpools and swap free items, and the LB rewards program. Employees earn points in the LB rewards program for anything from above-and-beyond patient service to helping LifeBridge Health maintain a strong accreditation score. Employees can redeem their points at any time for various gifts, large or small, depending on the number of points they have.

LifeBridge Health is hiring in most areas of patient care, allied health and administrative positions. Currently, over 250 positions are available to qualified candidates.

“We have various entry level and professional positions in high demand right now including physician assistants, physical therapists, occupational therapists, administrative associates, central sterile technicians, drivers, geriatric nursing assistants, nurses in various specialty areas including neuroscience, and various other technician and management types of positions,” said Foss. “We are hiring daily, and will continue to hire to fill positions to maintain the most effective and efficient care for our patients.”

To pick the 100 Best Companies, Fortune partners with the Great Place to Work Institute to conduct the most extensive employee survey in corporate America. Two-thirds of a company's score is based on the results of the Institute's Trust Index survey, which is sent to a random sample of employees from each company. The survey asks questions related to their attitudes about the management's credibility, job satisfaction, and camaraderie. The other third of the scoring is based on the company's responses to the Institute's Culture Audit, which includes detailed questions about pay and benefit programs and a series of open-ended questions about hiring, communication, and diversity.