Texas Health Resources Earns Fortune Best Workplace Honors for 12th Straight Year

Texas Health Resources landed at No. 34 on Fortune's 2026 "100 Best Companies to Work For" list, adding a 12th consecutive year to a streak that makes the Arlington-based health system the highest-ranked North Texas organization on the list and the only Texas healthcare provider to earn a spot.

But for Rockwall County residents who rely on the system's hospitals and outpatient clinics, the more practical question isn't about the honor itself: it's about whether that ranking translates into better-staffed units, shorter wait times, and care providers who aren't burned out.

Here's what the ranking actually measures. The list, compiled annually by Fortune alongside workplace research firm Great Place to Work, draws its scores primarily from surveys employees fill out about their direct experience on the job, not patient satisfaction scores, not clinical outcomes, not emergency department throughput. Employees rate things like trust in leadership, fairness, camaraderie, and whether they feel supported at work. A high score means employees, on balance, say they like working there.

What Texas Health is staking on those scores is a benefits package built to attract and keep clinical talent in a market where competition for nurses and support staff is intense. Chief People Officer Carla Dawson has highlighted investments that include tuition reimbursement, student loan repayment, paid parental leave, 401(k) matching, leadership development programs, and mental health resources that span both a dedicated app and in-person counseling sessions. That last item carries particular weight: national healthcare burnout research has consistently identified untreated mental health strain as one of the top drivers of nurse turnover.

CEO Barclay Berdan, FACHE, tied the consecutive appearances on the list directly to the employees who completed the surveys. "We're proud to be recognized for a culture that is grounded in respect and support for our people and for our sustained ranking on this list thanks directly to the feedback from our employees," Berdan said.

The 12-year streak carries real weight in recruitment conversations. Health systems that can point to more than a decade of third-party cultural validation hold a measurable edge when courting graduating nurses or physicians weighing multiple offers. For Rockwall County, where population growth has consistently outpaced healthcare infrastructure, drawing and retaining qualified staff at area facilities carries direct consequences for access and wait times.

The gap between a favorable employer survey and a patient's experience in a waiting room is nonetheless real. The Fortune ranking signals that employees, system-wide, report positive conditions. It does not guarantee that every facility serving Rockwall County has reached full staffing capacity or eliminated access delays. Decisions about facility expansion, new service lines, and local hiring targets remain operational matters shaped by market demand rather than ranking cycles.

Texas Health Resources, a faith-based nonprofit, covers 16 counties and more than 8 million people across North Texas. Ranked as high as No. 7 on the same list in 2021, the organization has now appeared 12 times without interruption. Whether the culture Berdan and Dawson have built in Arlington reaches individual frontline workers at specific Rockwall-area facilities is a question that only staff and patients at those locations can fully answer.