Community Health Systems Reviews in Franklin, TN

I have been working at Community Health Systems part-time for less than a year

Pros – Great people, great experience. Well respected in its field

Cons – HUGE company, can be overwhelming

Advice to Senior Management – Keep on keeping on

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Community Health Systems as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Healthcare is a popular industry in Nashville, and having healthcare experience on your resume is valuable. Depending on the area you work in, there is a reasonable amount of work/hours.

Cons – Being a contractor at CHS is difficult. I would not recommend it. A very clear distinction is drawn between FTEs and contractors. Management takes great pains to emphasize that being an FTE is much more desirable than being a contractor. Contractors are considered to be expendable and are often cut on zero notice. This attitude is hard to understand, because historically there has been a great dependence on contractors at CHS, with contractors outnumbering FTEs by a large margin -- particularly in IT. A number of FTEs are coasting due to the management philosophy that FTEs will never be laid off, only contractors.

CHS has had explosive growth by acquisition in the past few years. Management in general, and IT management in particular, is geared toward a much smaller company. There is micromanaging in some cases (any expenditure, including waste baskets and white boards, must be approved by upper management) and ignoring large problems (lack of resources to accomplish the approved projects).

A PMO is greatly needed, as project managers (my experience is in IT) very loosely follow rules set by a committee. No oversight once the project is underway, with the exception of some weekly statistics that are largely meaningless, measuring the number of tasks accomplished vs. the number scheduled for a given period (no accounting for the complexity or length of the task). Resource planning is nonexistent, and many projects are stalled due to a lack of resources with the necessary skills. This is slowly being recognized as an issue but not yet dealt with.

Advice to Senior Management – This could be a great company to work for; they need to create the structure of a large company, without excessive bureaucracy. Those in management not prepared to operate in a large organization should be replaced, or at the very least, retrained. A PMO should be established and projects run with reasonable schedules and goals, with meaningful measurements. If you employ contractors, treat them with the same respect you would require from them -- honoring contracts. At the very least, provide adequate notice when terminating before the contract is up, as you would expect if a contractor leaves before the contract ends. Terminating without notice is not good business practice (contractors have found out they were cut by coming to the office and having their badge not open the door) becomes known, and it will be more difficult to get quality help in the future.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Community Health Systems full-time for less than a year

Pros – Company leadership seem to understand that good pay helps with attracting talent

Cons – Great disonnect between departments within the corporate building leading to poor communication and an attitude of self-preservation among people rather than a shared sense of mission

Advice to Senior Management – Concern yourselves with being on the same page as the employees and hospitals you already oversee as you are with buying new facilities whenever possible

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Community Health Systems full-time

Pros – Decent pay, if you negotiate properly. Promote from within. Some depts are better than others.

Cons – Poor communication. No transparency into what the goals and future is of the organization or how your role fits into that. Lack of interest by upper management, directors and vps in their full time employees, more vested interest in their contractors. A lot of politics and favoritism and incompetent executives in positions they should not be in. No desire to support staff and are very quick to sell out their own employees or pass the buck in order to avoid blame from business partners. Very poor relationships and communications between depts, too many politics causing unnecessary confusion and barriers. Some vps are only concerned w/quantity not quality of projects. Rush rush rush. High turnover among FTEs in certain depts due to lack of work, opportunities for advancement and work being given to contractors instead who are paid flights, hotel, expenses and salary to come to corporate weekly when there are FTE's that can do the exact same job. Wasting money constantly. No training whatsoever, no support, help or guidance from directors. Just thrown to the wolves. Poor planning across the whole organization and too much red tape to get a decision made. Giving contractors new projects where they learn new technology and then ultimately leave to get more pay when FTE's should be given these opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management – Appreciate your full time employees, show a vested interest in their happiness and developing them so they can grow. They would work very hard to make you look good if they felt appreciated. Need to have directors take leadership courses because managing and leading are two different concepts. Being unapproachable,
lacking social skills and just being plain rude is unacceptable at that level of management. But it starts at the top...Losing a lot of good people that aren't as costly & just as qualified as the hundreds of contractors you bring into corporate every week and don't even get a full week of work out of them. Meanwhile ftes are there Monday - Friday. Not Monday evening - Thursday. All because of favoritism. I can only imagine the money CHS could save if they monitored and reevaluated their contractor spending.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Community Health Systems full-time for less than a year

Pros – Laid back atmosphere depending on team lead.
New equipment.
Great co-workers.

Cons – Not the best pay.
Medical is ehh.

Advice to Senior Management – Set realistic goals. Reward your employees with proper compensation for their work.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Community Health Systems full-time for less than a year

Pros – I don't work there anymore. The building is very pretty and tall and nice and there is a large parking lot with nice bushes.

Cons – I was terminated after being falsely accused of something I didn't do, the day after a new person was hired to my department who knew more about the type of work than I did and was also being paid less than I was. Coincidence? I think not. They make all hourly employees get out the door the minute they reach their hours, but salaried are expected to work all the time. I learned after beginning there that many times, people just disappear, without any explanation or warning--their stuff is packed and they're escorted out, and none of the current employees are allowed to talk about it. Future CHS employees, beware. I wish I had found this site before starting there.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire middle management who know more about the job description than the people they supervise, and who are willing to actually manage, delegate, and make the decisions instead of just wanting to run around doing the underdogs' work. Or better yet, cut the middle layers of unnecessary management. And ease up. I know it's corporate, but I didn't even get a chance to defend myself in the face of the false accusations. Ridiculous.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Community Health Systems full-time for more than a year

Pros – They offer interesting benefits but...

Cons – Benefits are difficult to use (such as vacation). There's no time to rest. Rush rush rush. My leadership wouldn't allow me to enjoy my multiple vacation attempts because of emergencies that really weren't critical, but political. Weekend --GONE. Family life -- GONE. The politics are incredibly vicious. The culture is consistently dog-eat-dog from top to bottom, no team work..

It's my opinion this ultimately affects health care delivery. I'm only still at this job until I find another place to land.

Advice to Senior Management – Change the culture starting at the B level and work it down to the managers to be team oriented. The caustic leadership needs to go if you want to retain new talent.

I have been working at Community Health Systems as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Good teams at the project level

Cons – Layoffs, project failures, look bad for good project managers, needs leadership, and trnasformational guidance.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire managers that have education and experience.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Community Health Systems as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – It's a job and not much work

Cons – No remote, on-site no matter what and 100 consultants traveling to sit at corp with no cube or chair most of the time. Totally squatting wherever. No communication w/ contractor's unless headout at last minute, with no plan. Hard to deal with expenses, have to go round & round. Management does not communicate between areas or try to use resources where needed.

Advice to Senior Management – Management does not communicate between areas or try to use resources where needed. Try to run this like a business and respect employees & contractor's and not waste OUR government money!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I worked at Community Health Systems as a contractor for more than 3 years

Pros – Most general employees are great.

Cons – when it comes to management they are old school, stuffy suit and tie types who demand 60 hours worth of work in a 40 hour week, none of which can be done remotely. If you aren't in the building, you aren't working. They can't keep their full time staff because of the low pay. They have high turnover. They had management come into a major systems area and completely clean house of all contractors without notice, which is unprofessional in the consulting world. They also had a management mass exodus. where they had sr vp and all directors and manager leave at the same time but one.

Advice to Senior Management – its time for the cio and several vps to go.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company