Hospitals in Denver

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I am planning to move to Denver area soon and I'm considering 3 hospitals: Denver Health, Swedish and St. Anthony. Does anyone have experience with these hospitals to compare?

I currently live in TX, working in the Neuro ICU of a Comprehensive Stroke Center. I'm specifically looking for either Level I trauma center and/or Comprehensive Stroke Center is why I chose these 3. I'm considering other ICUs than Neuro, but undecided at this point.

Any insight is appreciated!

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

I worked at Denver Health until last year. There has been a pretty big shakeup with a new CEO and from what I've heard, serious financial difficulties. Last year I would have recommended working there to anyone, but I don't know enough about this recent stuff to make a recommendation.

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Specializes in Med-surg (peds and adult).

Of the three, I would recommend St. Anthony first. It is run by Centura, which is non-profit, and has a reputation for treating its nurses well. I work at another Centura facility and I find that to be true. Swedish is for-profit, run by HealthOne. We have quite a few nurses who came from there and report very poor staffing and pretty miserable working conditions. Denver Health appears to pay well, but I can't speak to what it's like to work there.

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

I've worked at 2 of the 3. You can PM me if you want.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
Of the three, I would recommend St. Anthony first. It is run by Centura, which is non-profit, and has a reputation for treating its nurses well. QUOTE]

It's faith-based (StA is Catholic, some of the others are 7th Day Adventist), which may be a problem for some people, in some departments. Just an FYI.

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I actually got a job offer last summer from Swedish but I just wasn't 100% and decided to wait another year to move out. I've heard they are owned by HCA and while I've never worked for them, I've only heard bad things. Plus they use Meditech charting which sucks.

I really like St. Anthony on account of the trauma aspect and I'd eventually like to do Flight for Life. However as mentioned above, being faith-based I'm not sure that would be my fit. I'm a lesbian so I could encounter issues maybe? From what I've seen (online anyways) Denver Health seems pretty LGBT friendly.

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That Guy...I tried to PM you but I'm not sure how

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I have never heard positive things about Swedish. Know a few people that work both St. Anthony's and Denver Health and seem to like it. Klone is correct though about Denver Health having budget problems and upper management issues. Lots of good threads about these places in the Colorado forum too.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
I'm a lesbian so I could encounter issues maybe? From what I've seen (online anyways) Denver Health seems pretty LGBT friendly.

Yes, they are very much LGBTQ friendly. They have some type of certification on it (it was happening just as I was leaving last year).

I don't think you would encounter difficulty with the institutional culture at Centura being a lesbian. For me, it's a deal-breaker because I work in women's health/OB, and I feel very very strongly about the importance of contraception in women's health, as well as a woman's right to have an abortion. In OB, you're technically not allowed to discuss a woman's contraceptive choices at Centura (although a lot of nurses still do), and they do not provide contraception or sterilization in their facilities.

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
That Guy...I tried to PM you but I'm not sure how

I think you need to accrue at least 15 posts before you're allowed to PM.

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