Christopher Saddler had a five-year plan to relocate his young family from northern California to somewhere in Oregon – perhaps Salem or maybe Corvallis. His plan was accelerated in April 2021 when his employer included him in a large layoff of information technology workers.
That’s when he began researching his possibilities.
“I looked up a few different organizations for health care IT and Samaritan Health Services stood out to me,” Saddler said. “I was drawn to Samaritan because I saw that they were a more patient- and community-focused health system.”
He interviewed with a few different Samaritan teams and, he recalled, “met some great people I really wanted to be my colleagues. I said yes to the job offer because the people that I encountered there seemed to be really on point, really excited about getting the people on the front line the systems that they need to give innovative and good patient care.”
As a systems analyst III in IS Design and Operations, Saddler handles intake, implementation and transitional, or in-between, support of corporate applications that are internal and that drive the organization. In lay terms, these are things that Samaritan employees use in the backend, not related to patient care, but that are essential – for example, the time punch system, phone systems in the call center, applications for emails and general business management, to name a few.
He works directly with team members to solve tech problems and he makes sure to “contribute the most value where I can,” he explained. “I enjoy having a hand in bringing about new systems that will innovate and empower end-user workflows.”
Once hired, he and his wife, Meghan, packed up their grade-school son and daughter and have happily settled into their new home in Albany. He loves his work, the children have made new friends in the neighborhood, and Meghan?
“She saw me working and interacting with my team and saw how awesome I thought some of the things are that we are doing here and so she naturally started to gravitate towards it,” he explained.
She is now a clinic receptionist in a float pool. While her husband works remotely from home and has only been to the Avery office building twice, she has the opportunity to work onsite and experience a variety of clinics in different areas.
Which brings up the topic of remote work.
“My supervisor and teammates do a very good job of keeping me connected via Teams and, as a mildly introverted person, I really appreciate that. It’s not disjointed like it can be at other places,” he said.
After working at Samaritan Health Services for several months, Saddler has not been disappointed about his expectations for the organization.
“Samaritan really shows that they appreciate their employees and they make sure to state it every time that they get the chance,” Saddler said.
“Everyone in the IS organization really takes the time to let you know they appreciate your hard work, which is pretty different from other places I’ve worked,” he said. “Samaritan really values the contributions of their employees and they take every opportunity to say it.”
Looking for a new job? From housekeeping to nursing and accounting to managing, there are a lot of opportunities to explore at Samaritan Health Services.
