physical therapist

physical therapist assistant

physical therapy aide

office coordinator

occupational therapist

BenchMark Physical Therapy

I was employed at BenchMark for 2 months.  During that time, I trained in various offices throughout TN and GA and attended new employee orientation at the Ooltewah business office.  The overall job responsibilities of the Office Coordinator are the same in each clinic.  However, the number of patients, demographics, insurances requiring prior authorization, etc. vary DRASTICALLY.  I was in the second largest clinic in Chattanooga.  I was only there 2 full weeks after all the switching around and training.  The Downtown clinic was run much different that the other clinics I had been in.  The other clinics had great camaraderie between the PT's and the Office Coordinator.  They were a team and the entire staff was included and respected in their work efforts.  The Downtown clinic director was a nightmare to work for.  There was no teamwork or camaraderie at all.  She constantly belittled me, was condescending, a micro-manager, cruel, hateful and at one point I was having to report my daily activities in 10-minute increments to appease her need for total control.  Nothing I did was ever good enough.  She mocked me anytime I answered her questions with what she perceived as the incorrect answer.  She would keep repeating the question louder and louder multiple times until I answered with the "correct" answer she apparently wanted to hear.  She deliberately made my work life extremely unpleasant.  Unfortunately, the negative behavior she displayed was not in private, but in front of patients on a regular basis.  Several were reprimanded for even talking to me and they apologized from hurt feelings and "getting me in trouble".  They were told I "had work to do" and to "leave me alone".  I heard from many other employees in other clinics that she had acted in this manner to them when they had filled in at her clinic.  I was constantly told by other Office Coordinators good luck with her and that I was in the worst clinic in Chattanooga.  Her bad reputation proceeds her and is quite well-known.  I firmly believe that personal issues were the cause of her behavior, and counseling for additional instruction in effective, positive managerial leadership would be most beneficial.

PROS: Working with patients was enjoyable and a good learning experience if you're looking to go to PT school. The office coordinator work is easy and overall the job is not stressful. Weekends off. The other OCs are great. 

CONS: First of all, the pay. You could do the same job for pretty much any other company in the area and make much better money. 

The higher ups don't care about you. Office Coordinators in the area were due for a raise 3 months ago and it was never mentioned. The higher ups make no effort to hide the fact that they view us as unimportant and replaceable despite the value we bring in.

Your monthly bonus is dependent largely upon factors outside of your control, such as patients being willing to get on the schedule by a certain day. 

I was an office coordinator float. As a float, you don't get your weekly schedule until late in the day the Friday before, so if you're the kind of person who likes stability or making plans outside of work ahead of time, it's a hard adjustment. Hours are pretty unpredictable. You pretty much get treated like your work doesn't matter and you're just there to fill a seat. There often isn't enough work to fill the day, so unless you're the kind of person who doesn't get bored easily you're going to be bored a lot of the time. It's pretty unfulfilling to never get to form relationships with patients and only see your coworkers briefly because chances are you'll be at a different clinic the next day. 

The health insurance isn't bad EXCEPT for the fact that you literally get ZERO mental health benefits. None. If you regularly see a psychiatrist or therapist, get ready to pay. Which isn't possible with this job, because you're getting paid $12-$13/hr in a big city. 

This is a company obsessed with numbers. Every meeting with the RVP is about how we can be more proactive about taking a higher percentage of copays in the clinic, or how we can get more people scheduled by Wednesday the week before. You are expected to schedule new referrals within 24-48 hours, which is simply not possible some weeks if your physical therapist cares about their work/life balance and doesn't want to stay outside of usual hours.

What I've gathered from my time here is that this job is ideally suited for... 
-19-22 year olds who are on their way to PT school or a career as an admin
-Someone still living at home or who doesn't have a lot of bills to pay in general
-Older people who don't need the money but want to work

I started working there almost four years ago and it was great back then, however, things did start to change after the years went on. Started out that my team did way more things but the amount of people to support are way less. The team was more laid back and the management was okay. There was someone there to speak to about things but the response was sometimes not what you expected. Now we support over 3 times the amount of people previously and they finally added one more staff on the team after 3 years. Our responsibilities are less, but the workload is unmanageable most of the time. Workflow changed from a normal IT department to a call center which was not discussed with anyone but the management. Communication lacked after a while and when changes were made, they were not discussed to allow for us to prepare for the change with scenarios that we might can think of (always best to have another set of bodies to give their input). Things discussed with management were never addressed. I did enjoy helping the users, building a rapport with them, working with my team, and some days were manageable and we were able to get other things done, the building is nice, etc. Some days though were very difficult with ticket income vs. the amount of people we had to support them, we took on more job responsibilities than we could handle forcing us to push them off on others because we did not have the right tools in our job to support the user. 

Needless to say, there were more positives in the beginning than there were near the end, but it is still a good place to work, these are just things that might have been going on in my department. I would recommend it if you need a job in IT for experience, but be warned that the pay is lower than standards for other places and unequal as well, there is not really any position to move up (it goes your job, manager, and then director), and the workload can get a little out of hand. But they do throw company events, the benefits are that bad, they offer other treats like gym membership discounts, phone bill discounts, etc. The people there are nice for the most part. You will get lots of experience.

A typical day at work is very routine with an established checklist of things you'll need to take care of including checking-in patients, taking co-pays, completing clinic orders, data entry of patient information,etc but no day is really the same as patients come in with crazy stories and fun personalities. You hear A LOT and it really helps if you're a people person. It's very rewarding work as you see patients progress, have the opportunity to create bonds with people, and can really see that you make a difference in people's lives. Your co-workers are usually all fun loving and positive people. Management has an open door policy and are positive and loving people as well. Training is two weeks long (typically) and you still have a supervisor and weekly calls to help you if you need any extra assistance. The hardest part of the job is that it is very demanding (there are standards and numbers you are expected to meet) and the pay is low (office staff start around $12). Raises are low, just as a result of how low the pay is so a 10% raise is still only about 30 cents and it will only come once a year. However, if you meet your numbers you can achieve a bonus of $100 for a two week pay period. You have opportunities to move up, but you have to be proactive, vocal and work very hard for it! The other downside is that clinic (therapists and office) staff have swing shifts that are not very mom friendly. Yes, everyone works them so they are fair, but if you're a mom that would love to see your kids off the bus or be there every night for homework this is NOT the job for you, because this will not happen at least two days a week. However, to end on a positive note Saturdays and Sundays are completely yours and the company doesn't let office staff take anything home so once you leave the office, there are no calls, check-ins, at home stuff, etc. I love having lots of vacation time that we are encouraged to use to help us with work-life balance, and of course any job offering benefits is awesome!

I'll start off by saying I do not enjoy this job in the slightest. The amount of work that I need to do in a day could be completed in 2 hours at the most, but I have to be here sitting around for 8-9 hours a day. It is a little bit stressful starting out, but once you understand the processes for insurance and authorization then it's easy. The job is very mundane and you do the same things over and over again each day. Most of your time will probably be spent playing solitaire and watching the time veeery slowly creep by, with the occasional phone call. I am a float and the clinics I cover at expect me to help the PT with the patients as a tech. However, they don't teach you anything before throwing you into this role so if you're quiet like me and are not good at small talk then you spend that time asking the therapist what the exercises are and standing there awkwardly as the patients complete them; Not fun. The pay is not worth all the boredom you will ensue, and it is not worth all the job functions you are expected of when it comes to helping the PT as well. The people are all very nice, and I have been treated well. You do get 3 weeks PTO per year which is really nice, that's one of the only positives. This is a good job for someone who does not have a lot of bills to pay and likes to chat with patients and sit around doing nothing all day. This is not a good job for anyone who wants to feel accomplished at work and who enjoys a challenge every once in a while. The training you receive is also inadequate. They show you the basic things like scheduling patients and adding new patients and how to put in authorization, but I was never taught what authorization actually was or even how to send a fax, which I figured out about a month into my job and then felt much more comfortable. They train you on the most basic things, but don't train you on the things that regularly happen throughout the day or common issues you will run in to. The best part of my week is when someone pays in cash or check because I get to drive to the bank.

A typical day at work was having the tasks of what a group of about 3-4 individuals should have altogether. Senior Office Coordinators were never truly available when needed, and you had to make on the spot decisions, and if you were wrong about the decision, you would be responsible due to you making the action without hearing back from the SOC. Workplace culture was unprofessional, and sometimes awkward. Clinic Director/PT would try to be your friend and be in your personal business, when this is a place of work, and not social hour. When you conducted yourself professionally, you were isolated and made felt like you were the problem, because you didn't discuss your personal affairs like everyone else did. The hardest part of the job is that you would be hired as an Office Coordinator, and be seeing about 160 patients a week and about 40-50 patients a day and still would be expected to help do physical therapy technician work, that is not in your job description, nor is on the companies website while applying to the job, but still be expected to have all of your office work done at the end of the work day. Quarterly staff meetings were awful, because you have to travel about 45 mins to another office location, and be forced to travel with employees that you really don't feel comfortable traveling with, and the staff has a problem when you would like to travel alone due to them wanting to save on money. Compensation is terrible! 12 an hour for office/technician expected to be all done in a 8 hour shift, including keeping up with the loads of laundry and folding, is not acceptable at all! Employees should be able to get at least $14.50, $15 an hour for their services if the company would like the employee to do all of this work. Terrible experience and I would not recommend any working for this company. Would of gave zero stars, if I could.

Company metrics are not consistent with core values espoused by company management.  

Pros- Decent clinics, fairly well equipped. 
Decent health care and 401K. 

Cons- Continuing education “benefit” money is linked to extended contract, not really a benefit, more like a loan. 

Clinicians are not in control of their own schedule-My schedule was continually changed by the office coordinator to fit more patients in so she could meet her “bonus” driven goals. That led to my schedule often having 4-6 patients at one time. 

Workload - The bonus structure for clinicians - drives clinicians to see more than 18 patients per day.  Company communication is misleading or non existent. In meetings, executives have relayed to clinicians to see anywhere between 12 - 15 per day. So which is it? 18? 12-15? At my clinic it was routine for therapists to treat 4 pts per hour with no help, no PTA. 

Poor patient continuity of care - patients were routinely passed between therapists and the quality of care suffered. 

Time off- Very difficult to get time off and clinicians are required to request a float therapist to cover time off, there was a lot of pressure to NOT take time off or extend work hours in order to take time off. Culture is as if you are being punished for taking time.

Competing metrics between OCs and Clinicians - The office coordinator (OC) , has separate bonus activities. OCs are expected to schedule patients through their entire prescription, often 4-6 weeks out. 

Poor leadership on all levels - My clinic director had zero leadership skill. Never communicated with staff beyond putting up some company charts of the clinics numbers with either a smile or frown face, but never an explanation what the chart meant or how we could improve.

Promises regarding working hours or work duties were never kept.

I was an Office Coordinator for Benchmark at one of the sites located in Georgia. My interview went well, and I started out loving what I did, with a very supportive manager. Training was very lacking and you are pretty much “thrown to the wolves” on your first day once computer training is done. You are expected due to do the work of 2-3 people all while getting paid not even livable wage. 

My manager became condescending, and micro-managed everything I did . If anyone happened like clinic numbers dropping, or flow of patients changed, it was directly blamed on me. I was expected to work while sick, even with COVID. I was told I could interview and apply for one of their work from home positions due to an immune system issue. Applied, was hired, and then a few days later/ terminated without reason or warning, making me lose the work at home position as well.


They are a very two-faced company that looks at numbers, no work life balance, and you will get blamed for any concerns or issues. 

Please heed my warning. I’m now being offered work at home positions from other companies for 3x the amount Benchmark was willing to pay me, and the workload is not even half of what I was expected to handle. They will work you to the bone and not care.

Please be aware of what you are getting yourself in to.

f you want to provide excellent care to 6 patients at a time, without a tech, work through your lunch break, and then do a couple of hours of paperwork at home, then this is the job for you. If you want to spend time with your family and have a life outside of work, then look elsewhere. They will show you stats that say therapists see an average of 11 patients a day, you will not be placed in those clinics. I don't even know if those clinics exist. You will typically see 20 patients a day, and Bill 5 units, including manual therapy, without a tech. If your notes are not done in 3 days, you name will be placed on a daily report that is sent out company wide. You will be expected to see work comp evals during lunch break. You will be attending webinars on your lunch break. You WILL do 10 to 20 hours of paperwork at home, every week. There is no work/life balance, your job will become your life. You will be nitpicked for any statistic that is not up to the "benchmark " despite seeing 100 patients a week.

Excellent benefits though. And good pay. BUT, performance bonus is capped at 5 visits a day. AND salaries are capped. AND be warned, the residency program is done on your own time. As in, you will still be treating patients for 40 hours and meet all of the above expectations, then your residency is on top of that. And if you leave the company, you will have to pay them back for the residency program. 
Love my clinic staff!
Pros
Benefits
Cons
All consuming job

While the job can be fast paced depending on the clinic, the level of support from your coworkers and professional development opportunities easily make this an excellent place to work. The con ed benefits are competitive, and when combined with orthopaedic and sports residency programs, hand and manual therapy fellowships, and support for any other certifications you choose to pursue, the professional development opportunities are hard to beat. For those looking to advance their careers BenchMark provides a multitude of opportunities including overseeing multiple clinics, developing and teaching courses, and mentoring new therapists.
For those concerned about productivity demands and corporate expectations turning clinics into "patient factories", my experience has been far from that. While visit per day expectations exist, they're set at a very manageable 12 per day, and the culture is not that of a high-pressure numbers-driven "big brother" management team. We use metrics primarily to encourage evidence informed practice and improved outcomes, and work with our PTs to ensure quality is not sacrificed in the name of productivity.
Ultimately this company is focused on employee development and growth,  and provided that's what you're looking for you'll find a group of like-minded co-workers that will push you forward.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Physical therapist 408 salaries reported	$85,842 per year
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Physical therapy aide 2 salaries reported	$97,500 per year
Office coordinator 3 salaries reported	$13.67 per hour
Occupational therapist 7 salaries reported	$85,571 per year

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