Health system IT departments keep their employees happy by providing mission-driven environments focused on innovation, executives told Becker’s.
In fact, 13 health systems were named among the 100 best places to work in IT for 2026 by Computerworld on Dec. 9.
Becker’s recently talked to the CIOs of some of those organizations to find out how they are creating such an inviting employment setting for tech workers. Their responses have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Duncan Grodack. Executive Vice President and CIO of AdventHealth (Altamonte Springs, Fla.): AdventHealth is a great place for IT professionals because their work supports technology-driven, people-centric care models designed to help people feel whole. As a faith-based, not-for-profit health system, our mission shapes how we serve and how we work with one another. We don’t treat technology as a back-office function; it’s part of the day-to-day work of supporting caregivers across hospitals, clinics and virtual settings.
Systemwide, we’ve moved from traditional tuition reimbursement to debt-free education and student loan support, enabling more team members to pursue degrees and certifications without taking on new debt. That’s complemented by our “dynamic learning community,” clear “lighted career paths,” and leadership development that allow technologists to move across areas like AI, analytics, digital experience and operations as their interests evolve.
We also give IT professionals the opportunity to work on some of the most complex and interesting challenges in healthcare. AdventHealth has dozens of systems that integrate AI, including more than 60 internally developed models in use today. This allows teams to work on efforts like ambient clinical documentation, smart room platforms and predictive solutions for population health, with the understanding that the work must always be thoughtful, responsible and grounded in our mission.
Richard Mendola, PhD. Senior Vice President and CIO of Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore): We’ve been at the top of this list for a number of years, certainly predating me, so it doesn’t surprise me. Every year we do an employee engagement survey for Johns Hopkins Medicine, and IT is always one of the highest-scoring departments in the institution. When you look at our turnover data, we also do exceptionally well relative to peers. We’ve been getting lots of data points that employees really, really enjoy being here.
I don’t think what differentiates us is table stakes like compensation or benefits. It’s the mission-driven part of the organization. Being at a place like Hopkins, with such an incredible reputation and some of the smartest people I’ve ever met, is inspiring. You’re not competing with the Googles and Microsofts of the world on comp alone, but you draw people who are driven by mission. Hopkins is one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been, and I think that’s the No. 1 driver.
We also give our IT staff the freedom to innovate and work on cutting-edge technology. We made early investments in a data lake to house clinical data, which positioned us to leverage that data for AI projects. One example is building a healthcare general reasoner that mines the clinical record and provides real-time feedback within the Epic workflow to enhance clinical decision-making and outcomes.
Craig Kwiatkowski, PharmD. Senior Vice President and CIO of Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles): Cedars-Sinai is an exceptional place for IT professionals because we invest deeply in our people and are rooted to our mission. We provide modern tools and continuous learning opportunities that help our teams grow their careers and stay ahead of emerging technologies. What really sets Cedars-Sinai apart is that our technologies are people-powered. The creativity, curiosity, and diverse perspectives of our teams drive how we build, use, and deploy these tools. When people feel supported and equipped to innovate, great things happen.
Cedars-Sinai stands out because we have built a modern, flexible work environment. Our hybrid and remote options attract diverse talent, and we are intentional about fostering a culture where everyone feels they belong. Most importantly, we listen closely to our front-line teams, both inside and outside of IT, and these real-world insights directly shape our strategies and the innovations we pursue. That constant feedback loop is what helps keep Cedars-Sinai at the forefront of innovation while simultaneously strengthening our culture.
Shakeeb Akhter. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: Our people are our greatest strength. Within Digital & Technology Services, we’ve built a people-first culture centered on empowering our teams, focusing on their growth, and prioritizing flexibility in their work — ensuring they can bring their best selves to work and home.
This recognition reflects the passion and commitment of our Digital & Technology Services team and their dedication to advancing CHOP’s mission for children everywhere. We’re honored to be named one of the best places to work in IT and will continue to invest in our teams and our culture.
Aaron Miri, DHA. Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer of Baptist Health (Jacksonville, Fla.): It starts at the very top. From our board of directors and our executive team with our CEO, it’s people first. Once you have that partnership with your employees — that they’re not just a number on the balance sheet, that they truly are part of the family — that permeates into wanting to be a best place to work, because you have pride in what you do, and you’re serving a higher calling.
We have custom-tailored plans for every single one of our employees called a “developing you” plan. We sit down with that employee over the course of a year and plot out what technical certifications, what project management certifications, and what they want to have in their career so we can help build them up. We invest heavily in education, partner with organizations like CHIME, and provide those opportunities free to our employees so they’re constantly growing, exposed to new technologies and building belief in themselves.
Some organizations see technology as a liability — we see it as a strategic asset. When an entry-level help desk analyst comes to work, they know they’re not just completing tasks. They’re creating strategic value for Baptist Health, helping nurses and physicians become more efficient, leveraging AI smartly and intelligently, and making a real difference for their neighbors and their region. You can’t put a price tag on that.
Mark Zeman. CIO of SUNY Upstate Medical University (Syracuse, N.Y.): One of the things we really try to do is be as transparent as possible. Every other month I have an all-hands meeting, where I talk for about an hour about various subjects, and people have the opportunity to ask questions. We’ve gotten a lot of very positive feedback on that. We also put a lot of focus on the professional versus personal life balance. After COVID, attitudes have changed, and achieving that balance has become more important, so we try to acknowledge that and support that.
We’re over 400 employees now, and we do a lot of different things — we do clinical equipment support, we have robots, we have a robot fleet, we have drones, the network, telecommunications, Epic — you name it. We really focus on innovation and giving people opportunities where they can be challenged. The drone program was brand new as a startup — it was a couple of guys who had an interest — and we said, “We’ll give you an opportunity, see what you can do with it,” and they made it into a nationally recognized program.
We did something very similar with data analytics — we started a group called Moonshot, took 13 volunteers, and the team became a catalyst for getting the organization to a better position on data analytics. We now have a data users group of about 160 individuals.
Jeremy Meller. CIO of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta: Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta provides an inherently compelling mission, but the larger culture and focus on our employees is equally as important. In addition to competitive benefits and compensation, we provide a wide array of self-care and wellness services and intentionally and routinely recognize teams and staff for their work.
Our Information Services & Technology team established a shared leadership council of nonmanagerial team members with the charter to help establish fair work processes, provide leadership opportunities for staff, and support division employees.
Within IS&T, we focus on ongoing staff development through the creation of our IS&T professional ongoing development program — a set of internally developed learning tracks for team members who want to grow skills in areas such as AI, project management, and cloud technologies. We also have an excellent cohort program for new employees that connects them with one another while orienting them to the department and organization.
Together, these programs reinforce a culture where people feel seen and valued, as is demonstrated by the IS&T team’s 90%-plus retention over the past three years, the most recent being 94.8%.
Sissy Schilling. Vice President and CIO of Moffitt Cancer Center (Tampa, Fla.): The staff in IT are really committed to the mission. All of our tenure has to do with why we come here every day — to prevent and cure cancer.
We have a very strong relational culture, where success and failure are recognized as a whole, not dependent on one area. We’re not an order taker — we’re a partner working alongside the business. At every level of the organization, there’s insight and support around how we all make this successful as a collective, and that’s different from what you sometimes see in other organizations.
We’re also going through major platform transformations, including moving to Workday and Epic, which has been exciting for both recruitment and our existing teams. It gives our IT staff incredible opportunities to work on large-scale, meaningful platforms while continuing to innovate, especially as we think about AI and how technology can improve outcomes for our patients.
Joy Oh. Chief Information and Digital Transformation Officer of The Christ Hospital Health Network (Cincinnati): We really focus on driving good participation in our engagement survey. Last year, we had 95% plus participation, and we gamified it — we made a little competition among the departments. But then it’s really, what do you do with the results you get back?
What we heard was our staff were looking for training and upskilling, but they were very single-threaded, and they were saying, “Our time doesn’t allow us to spend a week going to a conference.” So we invested in Udemy for the entire IT organization, and honestly, it was at the cost of sending 30 people to a conference.
This year, the themes that came out were reward and recognition and career-pathing. We’re looking at creating a program called IT badges — like a fun way team members can earn badges for process improvement or getting certifications — and then tying in small spot bonuses to them. We’re also developing a career pathing framework so team members can see, “If you’re an engineer level two, this is what the next step looks like,” and also understand that in your career, you don’t always just go up — you can go across.
Our voluntary turnover has always been hovering right around 5%, and last year we had close to 10 promotions into leadership in a department of about 200.
