The Methodist Hospital System - Advanced Degrees, Minimal Mid-Level Leadership
Pros
The salary was comparable to other healthcare facilities in the greater Houston area, but their benefits really were outstanding. Senior management at The Methodist Hospital system truly had a vision for what they wanted Methodist to be, and they did a good job of communicating that to the rest of the management team and to all employees across the company. One of the best things about working for Methodist was the fact that the company had outstanding fiscal management over the past few years, resulting in a fiscal portfolio that was next to none. If you needed funding to do something, as long as you could make your case and the case resulted in efficiency or better, safer patient care...chances are you would get the funding you needed.
Cons
Being an academic teaching hospital, there was an overwhelming expectation of management having advanced degrees, regardless of the area of study the degree was in. This was never so evident as when a person was promoted to a directorship in the Information Technology department when he had a Master's of Theology, but one of our better leaders who had a military background was demoted because he only had an associates degree (but was much more competent). Very little attention was paid to the skills that it takes to lead, and although "advanced degrees" were required for management, once someone attained that degree and was in their position, there was no real expectation for continued learning throughout that person's lifetime. This fact results in a lot of "stagnant" leaders in the organization that are really just dead wood.
