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Advertise With UsProMedica strives to recruit, retain staff
Written by Duane Ramsey | | news@toledofreepress.com
Brian Biggie
Brian Biggie said his career demonstrates ProMedica’s dedication to retaining and educating employees.
He began as a patient transporter at The Toledo Hospital in 1994, and then started nursing school with the help of ProMedica’s tuition reimbursement program. The hospital accommodated his school schedule.
“Without a tuition reimbursement program, it would have been much more difficult to do,” said Biggie, who balanced work, school, serving in the military and supporting his wife and three daughters.
He began working as a nursing assistant in neurovascular medicine just before graduating with his associate degree in nursing from Owens Community College in 1996. He passed the state boards and went to work as a registered nurse in the neurointensive care unit.
Biggie transferred to the emergency room as a staff nurse in 1998 and began working toward a bachelor’s degree in nursing at Lourdes College. In 2004, he joined the management team in emergency services and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing in 2006.
Earlier this year when the director of emergency services moved to a job in another city, Biggie was promoted to that position.
The hospital’s emergency services include a 52-bed trauma-one facility and an 11-bed children’s emergency unit that expects to serve 82,000 patients in 2008, Biggie said. It’s one of only three trauma-one facilities in Northwest Ohio with the others located at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center and UT Medical Center.
“In addition to recruiting the right talent to begin with, we are committed to developing and nurturing talented employees to expand their experience and prepare them to move up the ranks into new areas when opportunities become available,” said Charlie McDowell, chief human resources officer for ProMedica.
With the high demand for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals, ProMedica looks within its own system first to fill patient care positions, according to Randy Schimmoeller, vice president of human resource operations for ProMedica.
“Retention is critical at ProMedica, where we strive to provide a work environment that supports employee development and growth,” he said. “With continuing education and tuition reimbursement programs, our employees have the opportunity for pursuing their career choices and advancement within the system.”
ProMedica works closely with local schools and colleges to discuss career opportunities in the medical field. It also recruits locally, regionally and nationally on its Web site.
“The most important thing is that people must have a passion for serving others in direct patient care positions,” said Jewell Lightner, who is the director of diversity in corporate human resources for ProMedica. “We look for that attribute in candidates along with medical qualifications.”
“We’re very fortunate to fill patient care positions internally, but there are also great opportunities for people in finance, human resources and medical records technology,” Schimmoeller said.
ProMedica continuously looks for qualified doctors, nurses, physical therapists, radiologists and medical, nursing and physician assistants —medical jobs in the highest demand across the country.
The UT Medical Center faces challenges in filling openings, too.
“Health care is one of the few growth industries today,” said Dr. Jeffrey Gold, provost and executive vice president of health affairs at UT. “We always have a number of open positions in the medical fields and are fortunate to have education programs in all those fields.”
Gold said UT tries to attract the best and brightest graduates from those programs at the medical college to fill openings at the hospital.
“We have the ability to develop the educational programs so students have the knowledge and skills we need in medicine and health care. We build our programs to meet those needs,” according to Gold, who oversees the clinical operations and educational programs.
