Hi Everyone!
The four employers I chose to research are Encompass Health, Wellsky, Optum, and HCA Healthcare. I chose these four because they all focus on healthcare IT, which is my field of interest. Two of the employers, Optum and WellSky would be jobs similar to the one I have now where I would work on the vendor side. While the other two, HCA Healthcare and Encompass Health, would give me the opportunity to work on the client side of healthcare IT and learn how that side runs.
Encompass Health
Contact Information:
Name: Encompass Health
Link to Home Page: https://www.encompasshealth.com/
Phone: (205) 967-7116
Contact Person: Madison Freeman, Regional Recruiter
General Employer Information:
Encompass Health is a network of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals that span across the United States as well as sites in Puerto Rico. They also provide home health services and hospice care. (Source: MarketLine Company Profile: Encompass Health Corporation. (2020). In Encompass Health Corporation MarketLine Company Profile (pp. 1–34).)
Your interest in the employer because of this research:
Encompass Health has partnered with Cerner to create an algorithm that uses big data and machine learning to help enhance patient care. This algorithm is known as ReACT. I have always known that ReACT exists but my research allowed me to learn more about it. ReACT mines through the patient data and determines that patient’s risk of being transferred back to a hospital. It scores a patient based off 30 clinical categories and gives the patient a score of low, high, or very high (Unger & Stillo, 2019). This increased my interest in the employer because the use of big data and data mining can be the future of diagnosing and improving patient care and they will likely show interest in developing more algorithms as time goes on.
Questions to Help Succeed in an Interview:
- What are the responsibilities of your IT staff?
- Are there remote opportunities? Is travel to different facilities across the country required of IT staff?
- Are there plans to create more algorithms like ReACT?
- What are your expansion goals? With roughly 140 facilities, are there plans to continue growing?
WellSky
Contact Information:
Name: WellSky
Link to Home Page: https://wellsky.com/
Phone: (913) 307-1000
Contact Person: Thae Raymond, Talent Advisor
General Employer Information:
Wellsky is healthcare software company that was founded in 1980. They offer a variety of software for hospitals, home care, and doctor’s offices. They are known for creating software that helps healthcare providers improve patient care (Mulvaney, 2021).
Your interest in the employer because of this research:
I find this company interesting because they offer healthcare software like the current company that I work for. While researching this company, I found that Allscripts sold their care coordination business to Wellsky (Landi, 2020). This increases my interest in the company because it shows that they are likely doing well if they can acquire other companies and that they are looking to continue expanding their software suite as well as their client list.
Questions to Help Succeed in an Interview:
- How does your software differ from your competitors?
- What kind of software does your company provide?
- How does your company growth look? Are the amount of healthcare facilities purchasing and using your software still increasing?
Optum
Contact Information:
Name: Optum
Link to Home Page: https://www.optum.com/
Phone: 1-888-445-8745
Contact Person: Michelle Lunde, Senior Recruiter
General Employer Information:
Optum is a company located in Eden Prairie Minnesota that is a part of the UnitedHealth Group that focuses on the technology side of healthcare. Their goal is to modernize healthcare and improve the experience for those working in healthcare as well as those receiving healthcare by developing strategies to provide better healthcare at lower costs (“Our Businesses – Optum Overview – UnitedHealth Group”, 2021). According to the Optum Career page, there are five major career areas at Optum, OptumRX, Optum Care, Optum Global, Optum360, and OptumServe.
Your interest in the employer because of this research:
My interest in this employer has grown because of this research. When trying to find different companies to research, I looked for competitors of my current employer, Cerner. While I am not looking to make a career change any time soon, I would consider Optum as a choice if I decided to. I enjoy working in healthcare IT, which this company focuses on, but one of the top reasons I am interested in this company is because even before COVID19, approximately 40% of their nonclinical workforce was working remote. They are also focused on digitizing and improving healthcare, this is something that is important to me because I thrive in a career where I can feel like I am making a difference.
Questions to Help Succeed in an Interview:
- What positions are available that are 100% remote?
- How does the Optum software advance healthcare?
- How many healthcare facilities are currently using Optum software?
- What are the company’s expansion goals? What kinds of new software is being developed?
HCA Healthcare
Contact Information:
Name: HCA Healthcare
Link to Home Page: https://hcahealthcare.com/
Phone: (615) 344-9551
Contact Person: Erika Jackson, Senior Healthcare Recruiter
General Employer Information:
HCA Healthcare is one of the larger healthcare service providers. They have facilities that include acute care hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, and rehabilitation facilities. They also have surgery centers, walk-in clinics, imaging centers, and radiation and oncology centers (HCA Healthcare, 2021)
Your interest in the employer because of this research:
I am mostly interested in this company because of the corporate location in Nashville, Tennessee. My research on the company did not increase nor decrease my interest. It did show me that HCA is performing well and will continue to do so in the future. According to their Market Report, they have had multiple acquisitions and mergers with other facilities. They have also worked with other companies, like Google Cloud and EVERFI, to expand their technology (HCA Healthcare, 2021).
Questions to Help Succeed in an Interview:
- What does the day in the life look like for someone in your IT staff?
- Are your servers running Linux? If so, what kind, OEL, RHEL?
- What EMR vendor do your facilities use?
- Is this position for corporate or for IT at a healthcare facility?
References:
Landi, H. (2020). Allscripts sells care coordination business to WellSky for $1.3B. Retrieved 14 February 2021, from https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/tech/allscripts-sells-careport-health-care-coordination-business-to-wellsky-for-1-3b
HCA Healthcare, Inc. (2021) EBSCOhost, Retrieved 13 February 2021 from search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=dmhco&AN=6AC2BBF4-5BA1-401E-B21D-67FDC9A2A900&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Mulvaney, E. (2021). WellSky® Launches Suite of Services, Connecting Providers to Unparalleled Expertise Across Health and Community Care Continuum. Retrieved 14 February 2021, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200303005700/en/)
Our Businesses – Optum Overview – UnitedHealth Group. (2021). Retrieved 13 February 2021, from https://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com/about-us/our-businesses/optum-overview/
Unger, D., & Stillo, J. (2019). 6 key steps in developing predictive models in the post-acute setting | Encompass Health. Retrieved 13 February 2021, from https://blog.encompasshealth.com/2019/04/01/6-key-steps-in-developing-predictive-models-in-the-post-acute-setting/