medical assistant

pharmacy technician

patient representative

registered nurse

internal medicine physician

Atrius Health

As soon as I walk into work I go right to work. Go to computer check work emails. Start entering patients and pull their orders and call them in to draw blood. Making sure I identified them with 2 identifiers. Checking samples to make sure that is all they need and asking if there is any questions they have for me. I would then take the specimens and drop them off to where they would go to be centrifuged or not. I would proceed with pouring off urines. After specimens are centrifuged I would pour off frozen specimens .And separate refridgerated and room temperature. I would proceed to put all specimens on tracking list and wait for runner to pick up. Meanwhile I would proceed to draw more patients. Perform EKG's. As well as drawing children,teenagers and newborns for PKU's and bilirubins. Also answer phones and answer questions to Doctors,other Labs and patients. Fax forms and pull outside orders. Each day I am learning new things such as doing rapid flus and performing stat creatinine and stat urines for hcg. I loving learning new responsibilities. I loved my supervisor . She was 90% of why I stayed at HVMA. She was extremely bright,and very fair saw the good in what you did and would let you know right away. As well as if there was an issue it was addressed right away.She would always explain things presisely and expected it done that way. She recently took another job at Needham lab. We now have a new Supervisor who is also very nice and very bright but because the way things are changing at HVMA she will not be around as much. Which is fine. The other associates I work with we all have worked together for a long time and we are like family and diversified. The hardest part of my job is sometimes we are so busy it is hard to process everything at the same time.Such as pouring off 12 urines and doing flus and stat creat and centrifudging lupus specimens and pouring off 2 times and tracking all specimens before the runner comes to pick them up. However I love a challenge and knowing I can do my job in a timely fashion efficiently gives me pleasure. I love seeing patients and making them smile. Knowing I made them feel comfortable and even made them laugh is the best part of my job. It is so worthwhile to me knowing I helped people.being a good listener.

Except it seemed like no one ever did any work. I worked in a small sub department at the administrative offices. My manager was very unprofessional. I did a lot of her work for her so we were close and she often confided in me about the other people in our department- even things that were personal. She constantly claimed to be busy but I always knew what she was working on and it was not as time consuming or difficult as she told her boss. She was also completely incompetent and it was so obvious that it was almost expected by everyone. She would even joke about it herself. She frequently turned in incorrect work if I did not review it and fix it for her first. Many times her work was returned to her to correct and she would have to ask me to help. She made so many mistakes and I was fixing the same problems over and over again. I spent so much time trying to teach her things just to end up doing it for her.  Eventually I would say I was too busy to help her and had tasks taken away from her due to incompetence. The interesting thing was that her boss (upper management) did not seem to notice or care that my boss was so useless. This was not an uncommon phenomenon at HVMA. I sat in many upper management level meetings where charts and graphs portraying confusing, seemingly irrelevant data. The presenters didn't even understand it and when one of the two smart people in the group would ask a question they couldn't answer since they did not even prepare the information themselves. Numbers at added to spreadsheets and passed up to senior leadership. All everyone cared about was reporting but no one cared to check the accuracy of their subordinate's work. Probably because they wouldn't know how to. There were so many positions that seemed unnecessary. Everyone got used to barely doing any work and never being reprimanded for it since no one really knew what anyone else was responsible for. There was constant restructure and it seemed like instead of getting rid of useless people they tried to find a place for everyone. They were very good to their employees. I will say that for sure. Great benefits, great pay. It seemed like you just had to stick around and do a satisfactory job and  you'd get promoted. Keeping useless employees is bad for business though.

The first day that the manager of our team was working from home, EVERY team member weighed in on how incompetent and horrible she was, particularly one woman who felt she was being targeted for abuse. I was horrified and could barely concentrate on my job, wondering why everyone would tell a brand new employee such things. I had to set strict limits with the targeted employee so that I did not "go down with her ship."
Two people left because of this manager and one was suddenly fired.
It was very difficult to find out what I was supposed to be working on.From time to time, the manager would set up little projects for me to work on with others showing me the way, but I was supposed to have a one on one session with her once a week. I only had one in the three months I was there. All the time I had to guess at what was expected of me, never getting any feedback. Instead, hired as a programmer, I was made to create spreadsheets where the cell formats were questioned repeatedly and sent back to me - the manager would need these spreadsheets 5 minutes before her important meetings, but I had no idea when she needed them prior or what they were for. It was excruciating. Finally, the staffing agency called me on the phone while I was driving home in the car to tell me that the work day I had just completed was my last day!
The staffing agency told me HVMA was very pleased with me and my work. I am mystified by this whole experience. I had begun to do work that seemed to lessen the enormous workload on the others - that was my guide. So for them to fire me despite liking me and my work seemed extremely counterproductive, to say the least.
A new CEO came on board who talked about nothing but cutting costs, not quality.Another example of the top not knowing what enormous amount of work is being done at the bottom. Tragic.

The job was working in Needham as a Patient Navigator Coordinator. I was here for a little over 2 months.
I would arrive in the morning not knowing what I would be doing day to day. Most days I would be answering calls that I did not know how to answer due to the limited training that I was given. Most of these calls I would do an email encounter which would be added to the over 300 telephone email encounters that were waiting in que to be answered or just sitting there in outer space. Some days I would be initiating referrals and asking a million questions of if this should be approved or denied. There were training meeting that was done maybe twice a week by an manager who send out email all day, could not even spell, never checked her work, never responded to email,  did not know how to talk to people. I am not sure who, what, why, when and how they ended up hiring her, Her famous words were "Does that make since?" To this day when I left I still remember her saying at one of the meetings "DO NOT TOUCH THAT THERMASTAT!" 
I really feel bad for the people who have been there a long time and have to put up with this so called manager. I also felt that the management team in Needham did not care about the patients at all and they cared less about the employees. The staff was friendly but every day it was very negative  energy and people talking about leaving and how they could not stand this manager. The director was female she was ok at least she would speak and ask how everyone was doing.
The only thing that I learned from working at Atriua is sometimes you need to ask around about the management team, and if you get the  stank face from an employee run like the devil in the other direction. lol

Unfortunately, MAs are treated so poorly, without care, and they don’t value them. Every department is different, but a lot of them have the same issues as you can see in the other reviews of what it is actually like to work here. MAs turnover was very high since they couldn’t keep anyone for even 1 year. Management had a lot of turnover as well. Department management and upper senior management don’t care for the issues the staff and patients face. If you try to voice concerns about day to day issues or patient concerns, the department didn't care. Even the patients would complain about how the department is understaffed and also how hard it is to get someone on the phone. 

Every department is different but Fertility was especially poor. The manager was always gossiping in front of the staff & patients and didn’t assist much.  There wasn’t any teamwork or support because staff would quit due to the working conditions so they were constantly understaffed. Orientation and training were poor due to the understaffing and lack of care from management. There wasn’t anyone to actually help if you needed it. They would throw you into procedures on your own very quickly when it should be ensured that you still have support once freshly off orientation. It’s so busy and understaffed, they don’t care if you even get your lunch break at all. 

Seeing & learning about the procedures was interesting! The Nurse Practitioner and per diem ultrasound tech were nice and helpful.


A typical day at Harvard Vanguard would be to arrive before we take the first patient to assure that each work station is fully stocked with appropriate tubes, needles, tourniquets ect. Each patient is the asked to fill out sheets with their information and it is then logged in to the computer system. I take a sheet that is labeled with the patients name and list of draws to be done which may include urine specimens or stool collections and call the patient into the room by first and last name. I then identify myself to the patient and ask them to tell me their name and date of birth to make sure that information matches the information on the labels. I draw the patients with the correct PPE (personal protective equipment) and in the right order of draw. Before the patient leaves I thank them and escort them out to the waiting room and proceed to call the next patient. The most enjoyable part of the job is having patients request me to do their blood work, and the hardest part of the job can be that each patient deals with needles differently regardless of age. Ive learned a lot from being there from working with pediatric patients to geriatric patients. I have experience using standard needles and butterfly needles. I've helped with code blues by responding quickly and calling for help. Overall was a great experience and taught me a lot.

Management: They don't care about anything but getting the numbers going up. They do not advocate for you and only listens to what the nurses say. 

Nurses: They think they are better than you because you are just a "secretary" they nitpick constantly and would rather take the time to type up a whole paragraph to speak down on you and about you to the supervisors rather than click a few buttons to find the answer. Some nurses don't even bother documenting. They are so quick to call you out on something, but when it comes to their error - everyone stays quiet. 

Clinicians: Some are so picky. Who knows whether or not you prefer not to see females/male patients? There are so many providers and they expect us to know their personal preferences. It's a shame. You came in this field for a reason, didn't you? 

THE SADDEST PAY! I've been here for 5 years and I've only gotten a .77 cents in increase. It's truly appalling, but my reviews are always coming out great and "exceeding expectations" however, you see all these lazy people moving on up. How do they expect people to still have the motivation to work if they don't ever get recognized for anything they do? There's more cons than pros - I should have started off with the pros because then I wouldn't waste anymore time for this company. 

great place to work ,•	Triaging telephone calls and providing clinical advice appropriately. Additionally provides advice regarding treatment of certain minor acute problems.
•	Assisting in the provision of direct patient care.
•	Provides practice management support and patient education.
•	Acts as a clinical resource to support staff.
•	Serves as a patient educator in areas related to self-care. Includes phone outreach to referred patients to titrate and adjust medications via protocols in helping the patient improve control of hypertension, diabetes and congestive heart failure among other medical issues. 
•	Schedules surgical procedures and obtains prior authorizations as needed.
•	Oversees the intake of patient walk in triage. Following established telephone and departmental guidelines,
•	Give vaccines and injections as ordered by PCP, Cardiologist or ACP.
•	Assist with management and outreach for CHF program.
•	Provide nutritional counseling.
•	Documented EMR ( EPIC) clearly, consistently and on a timely basis 
•	Obtained lab and imaging results as needed and communicated to provider. 
•	Attended and participated in departmental meetings.
•	Assisted in making and implementing departmental policies and procedures. 
•	Assist in the training of new nursing staff.

Arriving patients
Scheduling Appointments
Phones
Entering orders
Assisting several departments
Filing

The most important thing I learned from this experience is never trust anyone you work with as they will turn on you like a dime.  Longevity for a Supervisor isn't necessarily an admirable quality.
HR does NOT care about it's employees and Administration is completely out of touch with employee bullying.  More concerned with keeping their diversity numbers up rather than letting go of low level workers.  Some Supervisors look the other way regarding employee bashing, gossiping, frequent snack breaks, using work phone to book tummy tuck appointments while working in the lab and online shopping.  Totally the most toxic work environment you can imagine thru out the entire group.

Hardest part of the job was coming to work everyday knowing I had to listen to gossiping and backstabbing all day long.  Negligence went unnoticed in the Laboratory of all places!

Most enjoyable part of the job was the patients and leaving.

I have worked at HVMA/Atrius for more than ten years.  All co-workers are helpful and friendly.  Management has changed over the last few years and it has been an adjustment for all concerned.  Basically, my manager is available and responsive within an hour or two of any outreach.  The workplace culture is helpful and patient oriented. The most difficult part of the job is the way the patients are scheduled in this outpatient setting.  They frequently come in for treatment all at the same time and there can be a waiting list for them to get into a treatment room.  This is disturbing to the patients and the RNs.  This occurs because the doctors see the patients first and then send them for treatment.  Many patients see different doctors but the same nurse, so three or four patients could arrive at the same time to be treated by one nurse and a gridlock occurs.   The most enjoyable part of the job is at the end of the day when I know I have made my patients comfortable, I have done the best for them during my shift, and they acknowledge my efforts with a "thank you." It is so gratifying to me, to be appreciated by the patients.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Medical assistant 57 salaries reported	$22.59 per hour
Pharmacy technician 9 salaries reported	$27.05 per hour
Patient representative 4 salaries reported	$23.77 per hour
Registered nurse 13 salaries reported	$55.26 per hour
Internal medicine physician 14 salaries reported	$52.96 per hour

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