BJC HealthCare Reviews

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Scope of experience is unbeaten.

Cons – Too many layers of management

Advice to Senior Management – Flatten the structure a little.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Culture is patient oriented
Very good expected organization longevity
Very strong health innovator
Marginal business function and technical capabilities

Cons – Strategic plan for only 5 years
Executive leadership does not have a standard vision of the organization, let alone a road map to meet the future
Very strong "old boy" and "old girl" networks

Advice to Senior Management – Define your future, define the roadmap, standardize dashboards (project and operational), reward innovation, utilize best practice/expertise appropriately.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The company does try. Overall as a healthcare organization its success cannot be disputed. There are numerous opportunities for lateral movement within the organization. There is a concern for work/life balance. BJC does provide a true pension with a 5 year vesting. BJC is quite averse to layoffs. Overall employment security is comparatively high. They do try to provide recognition of performance that significantly exceeds expectations and provide a number of events and services for employees. In this respect the well exceed the marketplace.

Cons – There really is not any upward mobility to speak of, at least within the IS/IT organization. Senior positions are filled externally. IS/IT's very positive perception of itself is quite at odds with their real benchmark among other organizations, whether they be healthcare or commercial. You will not be exposed to advanced technologies or techniques. The overall culture is very averse to conflict of any kind, which engenders passive aggressive behaviors. Decisiveness is not a cultural value, nor is effective conflict management and negotiation. The healthcare plan is actually quite poor in comparison to that provided by other employers in the St. Louis market. Base pay is also considerable lower than that of other larger employers, but take into consideration that BJC Healthcare is a nonprofit organization. Forget merit bonuses - 1.5%.

Advice to Senior Management – Honestly, although I have not scored BJC Healthcare highly, and have been critical in the "cons" section, my guidance would be to stay the course. The culture is so ingrained that any significant change to bring the organization forward would be quite disruptive and the ROI would not be realized for quite some time. The organization's mission and basic business model also are not aligned like that of a commercial for-profit entity, which makes a poor environment for aggressive, visionary and high achieving talents. They simply would not fit in or effectively contribute within this organization. The ideal employee is someone possessing moderate skills with a very low ambition, high focus on customer service, and a simple desire to deliver a sustained, moderate effort over a significant period of time. The current environment, politically and operationally, is well tuned to leverage this type of talent. BJC's financial performance speaks for itself, so within those constraints it is being managed effectively. You simply cannot argue with that - just be truthful regarding who you are and what you wish to achieve, then choose accordingly.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – An opportunity to learn about a lot of things. Always hire new people with mad education credentials.

Cons – Some employees been there forever and no longer want to improve and just do a crappy job.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – * Fairly easy job and decent work life balance considering it's a non-profit
* HealthCare has a lot of growth opportunities

Cons – * Could use a management overhaul especially in IS.
* Poor cultural diversity in management.

Advice to Senior Management – The IS department needs a management makeover. Don't through a project manager to manage all the problems, hire real developers and analysts to fix and support the applications.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare full-time for more than a year

Pros – Satisfaction derived by improving business operations and ultimately patient care.
Opportunity to move into different roles within the organization.
Upper Management kept a close pulse on key initiatives that impacted all facilities.
Diversity of work.

Cons – Political environment within the organization often hindered job effectiveness.
Management did not respond in a timely manner to staffing needs until work/life balance was seriously compromised.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Flexible schedules. They try to offer a work / life balance. Generally nice people to work with.

Cons – Too many politics.
Non-technical management.
40% below market pay in most positions within IS.
Lack of following industry best practices, especially in security.
Bad architecture design.

Advice to Senior Management – An overhaul is needed. Higher technical managers to manage technical people. Remove the political machine that drives you here. Align better director structures to remove the silo style of management. Pay staff market value. Pay exceptionally qualified staff above market to retain them.Fix the non-standard architecture that the company runs on. Do not promote just because someone has tenure, promote because of skills and the ability to lead. Stop looking down on those who have passion in their work.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare

Pros – Great atmosphere to work in

Cons – I have no cons right now

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – - job security
- good career growth available for most motivated employees

Cons – - very top heavy, lots of "red tape"
- the majority of IT staff are non technical vendor lea sons, middle man
- non competitive salaries

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at BJC HealthCare full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Lots of experience, Very busy

Cons – Terrible management, low pay, constantly changing "rules"

Advice to Senior Management – Work on the floor with us once in a while to get an idea of how things actually are

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend