Family-Friendly Employment
Finding a family-friendly work environment is an increasingly important career goal, according to Working Mother magazine's "Top 100" list of employers published last month.
The businesses on this list - both large and small - try to boost workplace morale in an effort to improve employee retention with offerings like flex-time, job sharing and telecommuting. The magazine identifies seven signs of a family-friendly employer.
Increased access to healthcare services comprise three of the seven indicators of a family friendly work environment. These factors are:
- Health and Wellness initiatives, such as on-site healthcare, prenatal education and post-partum care.
- On-site Day care and/or Visiting Hours that offer favorable rates and nearby facilities.
- Elder care programs are further evidence of businesses taking a "life-cycle approach" to benefits through company resources and referrals to senior facilities.
Other factors include welfare-to-work programs and employee mobilization efforts like periodic employee surveys and focus groups.
(MJE Marketing Services, Gerald Poindexter, 619/682-3841)
Hot Career Tools
Here's the latest in career resources that will help you do your job better:
Access Hospital Data Online
ProviderView, a new browser-based analytical software package, developed by HCIA Inc., a healthcare information content company in Baltimore, Md., allows users to access the clinical and financial performance of more than 6,000 hospitals nationwide.
The package draws from more than 800 HCIA databases, like Medicare Cost Reports and HCFA information.
Features include:
- Customized reporting features for specific areas of financial and clinical performance like balance sheet indicators and cost efficiency factors.
- Online graphics and dowloadable spreadsheets.
- "Top 40 Most-Requested Data Elements" which offers an updated menu of data that is most often requested by users.
(HCIA, 410/895-7532)
Managed Care Yearbook
Get all of the latest facts and figures on managed care with The Managed Care Yearbook published by The Managed Care Information Center, an online healthcare content provider. Yearbook topics include:
- The top trends in managed Medicare and Medicaid;
- HMO enrollment growth projections;
- New data on managed care risk sharing arrangements;
- Capacitated care and its infrastructure and operations systems; and
- Managed care organizations and physician incentive plans.
The yearbook costs $275.
(Managed Care Information Center, 888/THEMCIC, http://www.themcic.com)
New Video Monitoring Service
Video Monitoring Services of America, a New York-based broadcast news retrieval service, recently launched NewsSearch, a service capable of navigating its national database in a few seconds.
NewSearch allows VMS to match news stories with key words in over 56 markets nationwide and nearly 40 broadcast and cable networks.
(VMS, Mariko Gima, 212/329-5237)
Y2K Planning Tools
To help you survive the Year 2000 crisis, a few healthcare-specific planning tools are on the market. Check out :
- System Resources Corp. (SRC) which provides Y2K compliance services, risk assessment, code renovation, validation testing, contingency planning and program management for providers. It was recently awarded the contract to work with the South Coast Health System, which has 784 beds in three Massachusetts hospital locations. It has also worked with the Department of Veterans Affairs to support the agency's Y2K compliance efforts for 22 VA networks. (SRC, 781/270-9228)
- RX2000 Solutions teamed up with MedSeek to provide a comprehensive database of healthcare Y2K projects. It contains information on thousands of biomedical devices and the impact of Y2K on patients. The Web site is located at http://www.rx2000.org. (RX2000, Joel Ackerman, 612/835-4478)
- Also PR News, HPRMN's sister publication, is hosting a Y2K crisis planning conference that will provide PR execs with tools to Y2K PR issues. HPRMN subsribers will receive a special discount.
To register, call 888/707-5814 or visit http://www.prnewsonline.com.