registered nurse

order picker

patient care technician

physician

physician assistant

Allegheny Health Network

The job culture at AGH was not, for the most part a very pleasant environment in which to work. Although a good portion of my co-workers were wonderful people and did their job extremely well, the vast majority of the immediate OR managers and  OR administration were not very adept at doing their jobs. For example, the management and execution of just the daily schedule was done in a very unprofessional manner. The majority of the time, my co-workers and I were often "mandated", quite often at the last minute and without warning to stay, indefinitely, past our scheduled shift. This was done with little to no regard as to what our needs might be outside of the hospital. People were made to stay and told to make "other arrangements" as far as picking up children from school and daycare to missing doctors appointments, etc. Not one of my co-workers nor I would have minded, and often didn't mind staying past our scheduled shift on occasion to finish a case. But unfortunately,, however, this happened on an almost daily basis.  Due to this constant mismanagement, many people quit, often in part, because of the continual  stress put upon them because of the way the schedule was handled, in other words, by how many cases could be crammed in to a daylight shift. This in turn, led to more stress and less people, leaving those of us who were left to bare the burden of trying to cover the cases. In my opinion and the opinions of my co-workers,this type of mismanagement could have, and ultimately may have put patient safety at risk, not to mention ours as well. It seemed to me that the management was more concerned with the number of cases they could fit into a day, with the average number being between 80-90 cases per day, than they were about, once again, the effect it had on us, but mostly our patients. I loved my job, all of the incredible procedures and amazingly talented and compassionate surgeons, techs and nurses with whom I had the privilege of working. Additionally, the part I played as a team member trying to provide the optimum in patient centered care was very important to me not only as a Tech, but personally as well.. Being a Level 1 trauma facility, AGH is an amazing place to learn and experience situations one might never be exposed to in any other hospital. If AGH was managed more efficiently and took into consideration the needs of their staff and most importantly, the needs of the patients who entrust their lives to them, I believe AGH could be an outstanding place in which to work.

A typical day at work really truly depends on where I am working that day. Each has different duties, back office duties are different to that of the front office. My co-worker and I switch places so that we can both stay fresh with our skills. I have learned a lot from working at the office. I have learned organization skills, learning to trouble shoot with patients and also talking to them when they are upset. I have learned to keep up with the doctors and the patients and make sure that I am able to give the best care I can. The management at my office is the most stressful. Me and my co-worker are treated such as 5 year old's, we have experienced our manager lying to use concerning certain things, our managers treatment varies from patient to patient. Some of our managers actions are not justified nor are they appropriate, rules are set for my co-worker and I to follow, but are not followed through on our managers part. We are "written" up for things that do not even justify being written up for, and for any write up, it depends on the managers mood. I feel that we cannot enjoy our job or even socialize with me and my co-worker during the day. I do not have very positive comments regarding my manager. My co-worker is great to work with, she has helped me from the start showing me the ropes and teaching me all I needed to know and still does. She has truly been a mentor to me from the start. Her and I are able to work together to get our job done and we help each other out when times get busy in the office. The doctors I work for are truly amazing. Each of them are great, the patient's love coming to see them and I feel that they are the type of doctor any patient would want to see. They are very personable, and understanding. You can approach them with any problem and they are more than happy to help. They are very good with communicating with me and my co-worker on any tests or patient information that we need to know. The hardest part of the job is keeping the patient flow going, it has become hard because we have two doctors and three rooms. It can become stressful at times and we have to know what patient must go back for what doctor. I think the enjoyable part of my job is being able to work with my co-worker and the doctor. I have received many patient compliments and it truly makes me feel like I am making a difference. I have been able to build a patient relationship status with many of our patients and they know they can come to me to help them out. 

The beginning of the month consisted of closing the books for the prior month along with prepping data for monthly reportings for senior management, variance to plan explanation request and on the spot meetings with senior management for ad hod reporting request and analytics.  Annually preparing the budget for 23 benefit categories and being prepared to statistically justify the budget.  Training, reviewing and approving the finance teams data for accuracy and compliance to our financial platform for submission to consolidated reportings going to the parent company.   Reconciling all benefit account balances including providing detailed explanations of the balances.  Calculating a very detailed payment for our life insurance and disability benefit that averaged about $650,000 a month. Learning and calculating the ACA taxes. Annual and sporadic audit request both internal and external.  Always being prepared to be called on by senior management for meetings to supply our current status, future projections and requested analytic reports.     
I gained so much experience in this position.  I had to gain a vast knowledge of our benefit products, government compliance along with comprehending other financial and benefit platforms of newly acquired facilities.
The workplace was very demanding yet very flexible allowing for the ability to work remotely.  It was paramount to form alliances with various departments to assure you receive data needed to complete your responsibilities and AHN was great in haveing quarterly meetings so that we could meet each other personally and to form person to person relationships that contributed to a team spirit atmosphere.  
My biggest hurdle in the position was integrating and learning new facilities data with little to no guidance or insight.  It took time to decipher and assimilate into our platform but with time and dedication and good ole communication, it was accomplished.  
What I enjoyed most in this position would be the constant challenges.  The ability to create models and templates that provided management the ability to easily gain information at their leisure.  There was never a dull moment in this position you had to stay on your toes and be prepared for any eventuality.  I was constantly mentally stimulated and my experience consistently expanded.

I truly believe that AHN wants to be a great healthcare provider as well as a great employer.  I was very excited to be a part of this company after being new to the region.  After learning the ropes through a very dedicated training manager and sitting with experienced coworkers, I quickly found that the job itself has a lot of flaws.  The entire billing procedure is very flawed-particularly the confusing statements and the payment posting logic.  The ones higher up who have the power to bring these problems to light and work towards a resolution did not seem to care at all, they made weak promises for a resolution over years, but made sure to push *collections* in every single morning meeting.  My supervisors and managers were severely overworked because the ratio of supervisor to employee was terrible.  We lost a supervisor to serious illness, and all their duties fell to the one supervisor left, and manager.  For an entire floor, responsible for all the billing for the ENTIRE COMPANY.  Because it wasn't in the budget to hire another supervisor, or promote from within.  I was incorrectly taxed several times which HR ended up confirming was their error as all my paperwork had been correctly filled out, and missing an entire half of my first paycheck when I had worked the entire pay period, forced to wait 45 days for reimbursement because HR is very difficult to reach.  Once you can get ahold of a representative, they quote the policy ver batim, then open a service request which takes a full 10 business days before it gets worked.  I've worked for several places, in much worse positions, and this job was just defeating.  Will never work for them again.

When I was interviewed, I told my spouse "Wow, it's almost too good to be true."  Sadly, it was.  
A typical day here involved back to back, non-stop calls with very little support and "management" that works offsite or hides in meetings for hours at a time.  There is not nearly enough training provided for the vast amount of knowledge that is dumped on you at once, and when you ask questions you are told to refer to the standard operating procedures documents; however, those can and will change without notice or warning ALL THE TIME. 
Management is exactly what you'd expect in a call center (with the exception of one or two good people, and they know who they are), but the turnover at AHN is unlike anything I've ever seen in my life.  Seriously, the whole atmosphere in the call center is affected by the fact that people are fired ALL THE TIME with little rhyme or reason.  Best of all, the call center is so understaffed it's ridiculous (at times 35+ min waits), so firing people left and right is really not the best business model.  They offer overtime 7 days a week, as much as you want, and pressure those that don't want to "take advantage".    
The facility itself was...not the best.  Bathrooms and "break rooms" were borderline filthy, mice sightings on more than one occasion; but to be fair there was ample room in the lobby and a very nice little cafe place to get lunch and escape for your breaks.  If you drive, you have to park a couple blocks away and walk, but they do give you a decent price on the parking lease, so there's that.  
Upsides: I was amazed at the number of great people I met working there, but disheartened by the number of them that were there one day and gone the next.  The best part of this job was by far the pay ($19 hourly) but truthfully, it was not worth it in the end - not even with unlimited overtime.

Pay is decent. The job has strict guidelines on scripting. You take call after call, from sometimes less-than-willing patients to set up their appointments .You have 8 minutes and 15 seconds to complete the call. The call is broken down for quality purposes. you have  5 minutes and 15 minutes to talk. You have a minute and a half to put someone on hold while you try and track down what they want at what office, Once you've completed the call you have a minute-and-a-half to do all documentation.. So you sift through the appointments available while looking up that particular Dr.'s Protocols because even within the same office they have different rules, How was your intro? By the book? Did you say anything that would deduct quality points. The expected quality score is in the low 90% range. How did you handle that call with the person who just found out they had cancer? How did you handle that call with that elderly, sick gentleman that hates the world and calls to schedule a test but didn't know what type of test or the doctor's name that told him to get it? A lot of turnover happens in this job. This because in addition to the public, you have supervisors who are disinterested (you know who you are) and others that are overworked and don't have time for you. Supervisor turnover is high as well, so they sort of have to cover their butts before sticking their neck out for you. Upper management has seen a lot of changes as well, so stability is not an option. 

I left a medical call center job that I was just promoted to full time at, to come to AHN Care Connect, because they were offering more money than the company I had put in five months at.  I also love the location of the call center (North side), and had three energetic interviews.  So I felt there was a lot to be excited about.  

Upon starting my first day of training, I quickly realized that I was facing two of the biggest differences that I had encountered while working in a call center.  #1, paid time off is not given up front to use as of January 1; for the first three years, you accrue 5.4 hours per pay period, which I think is completely ridiculous.  #2, their "occurrence" policy starts with your very first call off, not the usual 5 or more like I have encountered in every other location.  You can see how this impacts the employees: one of the first things I noticed was how many sick people there were at work, and it has to be because a combination of reasons one and two.  Stupid me for thinking a health care organization would put it's employees health and well being first.  If I would have known and been clear on these two facts before hand, I most likely would have passed this up.  

It will be a year of adjustment for me for sure.  I plan on doing my best to make it the best opportunity I can.

A typical work weed included updating and reviewing various hospital policies and procedures, responding to department requests for hazardous waste pickup, conducting Environment of Care rounds/inspections throughout various departments in the hospital and completing Interim Life Safety Inspections on various renovations taking place within the hospital.

My supervisor and co-workers were great to work for and provided an environment I looked forward to going to day in and day out.

The most enjoyable parts of this internship were the opportunities I had to present New Hire Orientation information every 2 weeks as well as the chance to construct training powerpoints and various hospital policies and procedures, including a Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasures Plan.

I learned a lot, both about myself and the safety career, during my time with Allegheny General Hospital. I learned how to take what I have learned throughout my college career as well as what I picked up on the job and apply it to keep the hospital in compliance with The Joint Commission, The Department of Health, NFPA and OSHA.
I also learned the ins and outs of dealing with the storage and disposal of Hazardous Materials in an occupational setting and how to properly plan for and mitigate Hazardous Material spill potential.

The learning opportunities are great. HOWEVER, don't expect much from the educators. Everything is done on PowerPoint, haven't seen an actual educator in 2 years unless I seek them out or annual education Blitz required for JCO. 
9C is by far the WORST unit to work on. You only ever have one monitor tech for TWO SIDES 9a/9c so over 30 patients. There are hardly any CNAs available they are always getting pulled or sitting, you are constantly 'over ratio' nurses fought and fought  for a very fair contract because it is a union hospital but they disregard the contract all of the time. Ever since it was taken over from an INSURANCE COMPANY you are nothing but a number, they would rather hire new, give minimal training, because it's cheaper on their FTE than to retain their experienced nurses. The unit based counsel they have and improvement/ suggestion boxes are a joke because they are going to do what they want to do but only want it to seem like "your opinions matter". Charge nurses are ALWAYS ASSIGNED with a full patient assignment, never available to be resources for the staff or available to help because they have their own patients and THOSE poor patients never get the care they need because that RN is always running around fixing problems. 
The amount of management retaliation is SICKENING. Low Moral and BULLYING CULTURE as so prevalent on the Telemetry units. 


As I am relatively new, I will give some basics and a broad view that seems true in and out of my own department. 

The pay here is laughably poor, at least for me. I took a huge cut coming here out of necessity. The management until very recently has been non-existent. From what I've seen and gathered, typically new managers don't last long due to the large amount of leaks that need patched up here. There is an apparent lack of oversight, and most employees follow unspoken or understood rules. Everyone seems to offer me a different answer to my questions. Learning is frustratingly done by making mistakes. Orientation... well that didn't really happen. Communication is poor due to short staffing. Parking is an old lot down back with a two van shuttle service that is a slightly awkward/strange/cheap fix. It's all very "small town," and "let's just try to make this work," feeling. Many of the staff are excellent, friendly, and helpful. A few are totally apathetic and unchecked (read: lack of supervision). The cafeteria is truly excellent, like the other reviews mention. There is room for growth here, due to many roles that need filled, many patients that need help, and this hospital would benefit from the addition of good leadership. The pay, however, will likely not increase to match such merit.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 16 salaries reported	$40.44 per hour
Order picker 40 salaries reported	$35.74 per hour
Patient care technician 3 salaries reported	$16.00 per hour
Physician 5 salaries reported	$92,900 per year
Physician assistant 6 salaries reported	$118,783 per year

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