Methodist Health System Recognized as Frontline Healthcare Worker Champion

CareerSTAT is proud to announce that Methodist Health System has been recognized as a 2019 CareerSTAT Frontline Healthcare Worker Champion by its peers. Eight additional organizations in the U.S. have also been recognized as Champions and Emerging Champions.

Methodist’s partnership with community workforce training partner Oak Cliff Works and community education partner Dallas County Community College District represents the collaborative trifecta needed to further its patient care technician (PCT) certification program. This program first provides local unemployed and underemployed community members with work readiness education, followed by preparation for PCT certification. The program trajectory includes on-site clinical and healthcare mentoring. Upon employment, participants gain access to meaningful career pathways (which, in addition to PCT, includes nursing, surgical technologist, pharmacy technician, respiratory therapist, and radiology technologist), tuition reimbursement, scholarship opportunities, and mentoring.

“Career development is a high priority, and Methodist’s senior leadership invests more than $2 million annually to fund staff-based tuition reimbursement, career pathways, coaching, counseling, and exploration,” says Cheryl Flynn, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer.

CareerSTAT, an employer-led initiative of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, marks its sixth year of sponsoring the champion program. It recognizes employers who are making great strides to support healthcare’s critical employees — nursing aids, medical assistants, food service workers, housekeepers, and others — who make up the frontline workforce and want to grow their careers.

This year’s Champions and Emerging Champions have developed strategies to hire a workforce that reflects the community in which they operate. They have made training, education, and development opportunities accessible to more employees, regardless of financial ability or other barriers, and are helping nonclinical workers move into clinical positions with a defined career path that leads to jobs that pay family-sustaining wages.

Champion organizations will be honored later this month during the National Fund for Workforce Solutions’ national convening in Dallas.

About Methodist Health System

Guided by the founding principles of life, learning, and compassion, Dallas-based Methodist Health System (Methodist) provides quality, integrated healthcare to improve and save the lives of individuals and families throughout North Texas. Ten hospitals proudly carry the Methodist Health System brand, as owners or through affiliation. More than two dozen Methodist Family Health Centers and Medical Groups are among the facilities served by the nonprofit Methodist Health System, which is affiliated by covenant with the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Additional information is available at MethodistHealthSystem.org.

Texas law prohibits hospitals from practicing medicine. The physicians on the Methodist Health System medical staff are independent practitioners who are not employees or agents of Methodist Health System.