A Great Place to Work

Dee Dee Wells enjoys working as a nurse at the Fort Hamilton Hospital so much that she influenced five of her friends to become nurses at the hospital, too. Now they all care for patients on the same floor, and Dee Dee has earned $12,500 for successfully referring five new employees.

“I just love working here,” says Wells. “This is a great hospital, and they continue to impress me with the things they do to keep employees happy.”

The recruitment referral bonuses are just one of the hospital’s retention activities. “Last year we received a gift certificate for $80 because the patient satisfaction scores on our floor were good,” says Wells. “That’s so nice of the hospital to give us gift cards; after all we were just doing our jobs.”

Other employee retention activities include Spirit Awards, a “blue ribbon program” for new employees, an RN and BSN program, birthday luncheons, anniversary recognition, and other financial award programs, like our SOAR Distribution Program. “Also our employees appreciate that our senior management is always available to the staff,” said Joe Geigle, human resources director at the hospital. “They really work hard to make themselves available. They accomplish this through the Yourside Program and by frequently attending department meetings.”

The Fort Hamilton Hospital offers employees the opportunity to work at a hospital that is technologically advanced. In recent years, the hospital has added some of the newest medical technology, and has upgraded much of its equipment and information systems.

“Our employees have the opportunity to work on the same types of equipment and often with the same level of patients that the larger hospitals downtown offer,” Geigle said. “Plus for many employees, working at Fort Hamilton means they will have a fairly pleasant drive because they won’t have to fight the highway traffic.”

The hospital’s nurse vacancy rate in July was 3.2 percent, well below the average of seven percent among the Greater Cincinnati hospitals during the same time frame. However the hospital is always looking for new employees. “Of course, we always have a need for nurses, pharmacy staff, respiratory therapists, and radiology technicians,” said Geigle. “But there are also opportunities for people with almost any type of background. For example, security officers, cooks and patient care assistants can find job opportunities at our hospital.”

The Fort Hamilton Hospital and The Health Alliance (of which the Fort Hamilton Hospital is a part) offer a comprehensive benefits package and flexible policies. Some of the benefits include medical insurance, a dental plan, flexible spending account, short-term and long-term disability plans, life insurance, travel insurance, supplemental insurance, total health management, worker’s compensation, unemployment compensation, paid time off, leaves of absence, employee assistance program, educational assistance, retail discounts, convenience services, retirement benefits including a 401K, and recognition benefits among others.

Pam Klaber, RN, clinical nurse manager of the Carruthers Emergency Center, said the best benefit about working at Fort Hamilton is the lifelong friendships she’s made. “When I came to Fort Hamilton 30 years ago, I only intended to stay a year, get some experience and move on to bigger and better things,” Klaber said. “But I fell in love with this place and the people who work here. There are so many long-term associates that your coworkers become like family.”