Pros
- Good, well intentioned and well meaning poeple doing the work. - Some new innovative technologies in both the infrastructure and enterprise application arenas being implemented. - Everyone is working toward a common goal, and under the same strain & stress which builds team cohesiveness.
Cons
No strategy - Period. You ask, and you will be told - To buy and sell (divest) hospitals for profit. In the years I worked there I never saw one strategy document at all pertaining to application or infrastructure strategy. I understand there has been alot of turmoil in the Healthcare market, but not so much you can't develop a strategy and ensure your entire staff understands it and is aligned with it. Ultimately the organization is constantly taking on more efforts than they can realistically acheive with the resources they have, thus doing none of it well. Culture - Within IT, there is no pretty way to put this....it's a meat grinder. Leadership does not plan appropriately, then determines a budget and date that large scale efforts have to be completed by. You also stand a great chance that additional scope will be added along the way due to the poor up front planning in which you have no control of with no additonal dollars, resources or time. Tough place to put your folks day in and day out. Completley backwards from how it should happen. You have to be an outstanding leader, engineer or architect with amazing relationship skills to get anything done and that is still no guarantee. That is the work side of it. The other side is the undertone from leadership is one of a demeaning approach to dealing with people. It has been said in more than one meeting, if you don't like it here, leave. Not exactly the behaviour of leadership engaging their staff on what is inherently wrong with the business, especially when the visible symptoms of the problem are so preveleant everywhere you look. The truth of the matter is they just don't care. Investment in their Staff - I rarely ever saw any investment in their staff. Very, very few ever got any funds for training appropriated and even if they did, a chance to use them due to the hours they had to work. This on top of merit raises that bordered on insulting due to the hours invested by staff on weekends and nights. Lack of process - There are areas that have some more than others, but overall the control over resources allocations is bad due to resources being placed against so many initiatives in a very uncontrolled manner, it is impossible to gain a good view of each person is working on. Even if you did invest the time to document it, it would likely be completely different by the next day or the end of the week. Process is talked about alot, but is almost impossible to institute due to the changing environment cultivated by leadership. For technical process, there are some areas where it is getting better but overall it is still pitiful. Especially in the application space. The clinical applications are so undermanaged it is a real shame. There is no real governance or management of them across the enterprise. I could go on and on but I think this provides enough of an objective view into this organization for anyone interested in reading. All in all, CHS has a well earned reputation that is not overblown. Understand what you are getting into and ask the right questions if you are engaging in a possible position. It will be imperative to you making the right decision.
