Newswise — LOS ANGELES (June 22, 2011) – Cedars-Sinai Medical Center rose for the third year in a row in a national ranking of best places for technology specialists to work, becoming one of the country’s top 25 IT employment spots and winning continued recognition for how it values diversity among its employees

The industry standings were issued by Computerworld, a leading national publication devoted to information technology.

Recognizing dynamic work environments in which IT professionals support new technologies and contribute to projects critical to the business goals of an organization, Computerworld ranked Cedars-Sinai No. 24 among its top 100 “Best Places to Work in IT.” “Cedars-Sinai recognizes that IT initiatives directly contribute to the quality of patient care and treatment. Of all the places I’ve worked in the past 25 years, this organization has shown the highest commitment to the technology staff and infrastructure, and this is reflected in our ranking as a top place to work,” says Darren Dworkin, senior vice president and chief information officer at Cedars-Sinai.

Cedars-Sinai’s IT team places a strong value on diversity, as the hospital recognizes that different points of view encourage creative approaches and solutions to complex problems.

“People here are given the opportunity to take part in the decision-making process,” says database administrator Dawn Faircloth.

The medical center, Computerworld noted, has a significant percentage of women and minorities in its IT workforce, earning it a No. 5 ranking in the Top Ten employers honored for diversity, a sub-category in the survey. Almost half of IT managers at Cedars-Sinai, the publication reports, are women and more than half of the technology specialists at the institution are minorities.

Cedars-Sinai’s more than 350 information technology experts provide a wide variety of services to support the technology infrastructure of the medical center while creating programs that help physicians, nurses and staff provide quality patient services and care more efficiently.

Since 1994, Computerworld’s annual “Best Places to Work in IT” feature has ranked the top 100 work environments for technology professionals based on a comprehensive questionnaire regarding company offerings in categories such as benefits, diversity, career development, training and retention. This year, Computerworld surveyed more than 29,000 IT workers for the list and their responses factored heavily in determining the rankings. Cedars-Sinai ranked No. 32 (last year) and No. 47 (2009)

To learn more about Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, visit www.cedars-sinai.edu.

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