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Welcome to Modern Healthcare's second annual Best Places to Work in Healthcare supplement. In this issue, readers will learn the rank order of the Best Places to Work in Healthcare.

Our awards and honors program, which we announced in March, recognizes workplaces in healthcare that enable employees to perform at their optimum level to provide patients and customers with the best possible care and services.

To determine those workplaces, Modern Healthcare entered into a partnership with the Best Companies Group, a firm that conducts regional “best places to work” programs across the country. Organizations and companies from all segments of the healthcare industry with a minimum of 25 full-time employees were eligible.

On behalf of Modern Healthcare, the Best Companies Group conducted two surveys of healthcare organizations and companies that volunteered to participate. The deadline to sign up for the program was June 19, and the two surveys were administered in July and August. The first survey was a questionnaire for a participating employer. The second was a satisfaction survey of a participating company's employees.

Participation was free to those companies that completed the questionnaire and survey electronically. There was a nominal fee for those firms that submitted their entry on paper. Healthcare employers that participated will receive a free summary report on the results of the questionnaire and survey.

Some 317 healthcare organizations and companies participated in the survey compared with 238 last year.

On Sept. 8, Modern Healthcare announced an alphabetical listing of the 100 healthcare companies that made the cut. And in this supplement, we reveal for the first time the ranking of those 100. We congratulate them on their achievement.

The Studer Group sponsored Modern Healthcare's Best Places to Work in Healthcare program. Per editorial policy, sponsors are not involved in the design, administration, tabulation or interpretation of the survey or the judging or determination of award recipients.

Modern Healthcare would like to thank frequent contributor Ed Finkel for writing the main story and three employer profiles that appear in this supplement. You can reach Finkel at edfinkel@earthlink.net.

Most importantly, we'd like to thank all of the 317 healthcare organizations and companies that participated in this year's Best Places to Work in Healthcare program. Watch for an announcement of the 2010 program early next year.

Thank you.

David Burda, editor
Modern Healthcare