University of Iowa hospitals ranks among nation’s best employers

IOWA CITY - Forbes this week unveiled its 2015 list of America's best employers, and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics ranked No. 12 out of 500 large employers - making it the top ranked hospital of the bunch.

The UIHC - which last year employed 1,617 physicians, residents, and fellows, and 6,730 non-physician employees, like nurses - was bested on the Forbes list by fewer than a dozen companies, including Google, Costco, and L.L. Bean.

The Iowa City-based hospital and clinics was the highest ranked employer associated with a university. Washington University in St. Louis ranked No. 13 and Massachusetts Institute of Technology ranked No. 20. The closest ranked health care systems were Northside Hospital in Atlanta at No. 23 and Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City at No. 25.

Forbes ranked 500 employers using data from an independent survey by Statista.com. That poll asked 20,000 American employees working for large U.S. companies and institutions - those with at least 2,500 employees - one question: on a scale from one to 10, how likely would they be to recommend their employer to a potential employee?

Respondents varied in gender, age, region, educational level, and ethnicity, according to a Forbes report. The ranked organizations spanned 25 industries, including retail, education, health care, restaurants, and information technology.

Other Iowa companies ranked include Des Moines-based Principal Financial Group at No. 63, Cedar Rapids-based Rockwell Collins at No. 96, and West Des Moines-based Hy-Vee at No. 273.

Google ranked No. 1 overall, followed by Costco at No. 2, Marathon Petroleum at No. 3, the Container Store at No. 4, and L.L. Bean at No. 5. But UIHC bested organizations like Facebook, which ranked No. 15, the New York City Fire Department, ranked No. 17, Whole Foods, ranked No. 47, and Apple, ranked No. 55.

Walt Disney Co., which oversees the Disney Institute that in recent years has trained thousands of UIHC employees on strategies to improve business and customer service success, ranked No. 110 on the Forbes list. Coming in at the bottom of the list was Pearson at No. 503, which is based in New York but has offices in Iowa City, Marshalls at No. 502, and Motorola Solutions at No. 501.

According to UIHC officials, the organization uses more than 9,000 employees, students, and volunteers to serve hundreds of thousands of patients annually. The 730-bed hospital admits more than 32,000 individuals for inpatient care a year, and it accommodated more than 56,000 emergency department visits last year.

The organization, which represents more than 200 outpatient clinics and care areas, received more than 914,300 visits at its main campus and outreach clinics, according to hospital officials.

U.S. News and World Report recently ranked UIHC nationally in nine adult and eight pediatric specialties. The publication ranked UIHC as Iowa's No. 1 hospital.