Rocky Mountain Health Care Services has been regularly ranked among the top workplaces in Colorado Springs among the city’s largest employers, ranking in the top three each of the last three years, including this year’s third place finish.

The nonprofit was ranked last year as the second-best workplace for employers with 300 or more employees and as the top workplace in the extra-large employer category in 2021. Rocky Mountain also was honored as a best workplace in 2020 but did not rank in the top three. Nathan Olson wanted to make Rocky Mountain the city’s top workplace when he became CEO in 2017, said Debbie Baum, who joined the nonprofit a year after Olson as director of people experience.

“After he arrived, I wanted to work for this organization,” Baum said. “We did it! He started something here. We do so much for our employees, such as great benefits, generous paid time off, training days, a holiday party and holiday bonuses, a boot camp for leadership development, service anniversary bonuses and an employee recognition rewards program. We want to be the type of place where good people go to work and stay.” Employees also receive an annual bonus of $100 for each year of service that are distributed during a monthly service awards event during the month of their service anniversary.

The year-long leadership boot camp trains 12-15 a year with coaching to develop their talents and each participant develops a project or project that is pitched to Rocky Mountain’s executive leaders in a “Shark Tank”-like format. About a third of the nonprofit’s leadership has been through the camp.

The employee recognition program, called Kudos, allows Rocky Mountain employees to recognize each other on a Facebook-like platform for “going above and beyond” their job and living the organization’s core values. Those recognized earn points for gift cards or cash donated to nonprofits.

Rocky Mountain holds contracts totaling nearly $100 million with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to operate the PACE (Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly) in the Colorado Springs area. Under the program, the nonprofit provides a wide range of medical and social services to nearly 1,000 clients that are 55 years and older and require nursing home care.

The organization employs 438 employees that include doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, behavioral health specialists, physical and occupational therapists, social workers, dieticians, home health care coordinators, transportation providers and other roles. They provide services ranging from primary, specialty and emergency medical care to meals, transportation and prescription drugs through an adult day care center, Rocky Mountain, that operates at 2502 E. Pikes Peak Ave.

The nonprofit spent $3 million remodeling a building where it opened a second center earlier this year at 8595 Explorer Drive in the Briargate area and is spending $6 million to open a third center late next year or in early 2025 on Quail Lake Loop near the Broadmoor World Arena. Baum said Rocky Mountain has applied to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to add Falcon to its service area.

Rocky Mountain also has distributed tablet computers called GrandPads that connect to wireless networks at no cost to all clients for virtual doctor visits, to send and receive email, take photos, listen to music and participate in virtual bingo.

Rocky Mountain was started in 1976 as Homemaker Services with four employees in a small office in Grace Episcopal Church to provide home health care. The organization merged in 1993 with the Diabetes Education and Support Agency, and added programs for brain care and to assess clients to determine if they qualify for long-term care. The nonprofit changed its name to Rocky Mountain Health Care Services in 2003 and won its first PACE contract in 2008.