registered nurse

clinical laboratory scientist

nursing assistant

patient services representative

anesthesiologist

Benefis Health System

### Pros:

#### Opportunity for Overtime:
For those looking to accumulate extra hours and subsequently increase their earnings, Benefis Health System provides an abundance of overtime opportunities. The demand for additional staffing hours can be an advantage for employees eager to earn more.

### Cons:

#### Staffing Issues:
A significant challenge facing Benefis Health System is the inadequate staffing, leading to overworked employees and compromised patient care. The staff-to-patient ratios in various units, including the Emergency Department (ED), Intensive Care Unit (ICU), and others, are alarmingly high, which affects the quality and timeliness of care.

#### New Graduate Nurses’ Preparation:
There is a noticeable gap in the critical thinking skills among new graduate nurses, attributed to insufficient guidance and orientation. This skill deficit, especially noted in the ED and ICU, impacts the effectiveness of these nurses and the overall patient care quality.

#### Workload and Burnout:
With mandatory extra 12-hour shifts on top of regular working hours, staff burnout is a prevailing issue. Overwork affects both the mental and physical well-being of the employees, reducing their efficiency and job satisfaction.

#### Patient Care Quality:
The high staff-to-patient ratios and overworked personnel lead to delayed care and missed critical aspects of patient attention. This situation is detrimental to patient outcomes and satisfaction, raising concerns about the quality of care at Benefis Health System.

#### Administration Support:
The support from the administration appears to be insufficient, especially concerning addressing staffing issues and workload management. A lack of adequate support exacerbates the workload and burnout issues, impacting staff morale and retention.

#### Provider Awareness:
The providers themselves are also overworked and underappreciated and may not be fully aware of the severity of the staffing issues. Enhancing communication and awareness among providers is essential to address and resolve staffing and workload challenges.

### Overall Assessment:
While the opportunity for overtime can be seen as a benefit, the cons associated with staffing issues, workload, and lack of support are significant areas of concern. Addressing these challenges is crucial for improving the quality of patient care, staff well-being, and the overall reputation and effectiveness of Benefis Health System. The management should prioritize a comprehensive review and restructuring of staffing protocols, enhance training and orientation programs for new graduates, and foster a supportive work environment to mitigate burnout and improve care quality.

What is the best part of working at the company?
If I could rate this place a negative I would, been in health care for over 25yrs and this is by far the worst place I have never worked, ER was a joke full of 1 or 2 yr nurses trained by baby nurses, Flight program is top when it comes to equipment. But not used to each full potential and for the most part no leadership a lot of good old boys.. “ This is how we do it and alway have so we are not going to change it.”  Not even open minded enough to listen, crew is constantly backstabbing each other or sabotage each other, No protocols no guidelines everything is called the doctor and ask for orders. Do yourself a favor and do not apply for this hospital. It was the most disappointing experience I’ve ever experienced in my career. if you are not from Great Falls Montana, you will never fit in. There’s much better places across the country than Mercy flight benefits health system.. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Dealing with poor health care, lack of good medical providers, no consistent training, no protocols or guidelines not ever knowing what to be expected because every person does something different. The ER is by far the worst place I have ever seen function in my 25 years as a medical professional lack of leadership, lack of guidance, placing patient and staff in dangerous situations..

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Good old boys club, lack of professionalism, lack of leadership or no leadership no consistency. It’s what we would call truly cowboy medicine.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
After doing your daily checks that you perform basically on your own, you can work in the ER but then the ER staff for the most part don’t want you in the ER,  flight team is cleaning rooms answering. Call lights starting IVs due to the fact that most of the nursing staff are so young they have difficult time starting IVs so you spend most of the night going all over the hospital just starting IVs most of the flights are ALS or BLS flights, very few truly critical care transports

I worked in food service here for like 9 months. It’s a good place to start and maybe transfer to another department once your probation is up. I was contracted as a .8 which meant 32 hrs/wk and I live about an hour away so I only wanted 32 hrs/wk but was constantly scheduled 40. I told my supervisors countless times that it was just too much, driving 2 hrs to/from work every day was a lot and none of them listened until I had a meltdown and told them I flat out could only work my 4 days/wk or I would have to quit. Then I ended up having to stay late most days to make up for what wasn’t done on my days off so I was still working way more than I wanted to. You HAVE to put your foot down with them or they will assume you will do anything and everything they need/want. In food service, there are no breaks except a lunch break which would be fine if it was like halfway through your shift, but in many positions you get lunch 2-3 hours in which makes for a long rest of your day. Needing a bathroom break during the last 5-6 hours can almost feel like a crime sometimes depending on who covers you for it if there’s even anyone available. The pay was good and PTO was awesome when they’d let you take some which was usually approved if you put it in early and no one else requested it first, although they’d often forget they approved it and it would cause chaos when the time came and you’d be on the schedule to work the days off you were approved for and had already made plans not to be there. My manager was pretty nice but some of the supervisors (one in particular who probably isn’t leaving anytime soon) could be extremely hard to deal with and was one of the main reasons I decided I couldn’t stay. I watched many good people leave because of the toxicity this supervisor created for everyone. I really liked my job and my coworkers, it was just all the other stuff that made it impossible for me to stay.  

I would avoid this work place at all costs, as it is very toxic. The signing bonus is not worth it. In my 20 months there I was #14 to leave. Management continued to increase pressure on the therapy staff leading to 6 therapists (including myself) leaving  my last 4 months. I know of several staff members who would like to leave by the limited employment opportunities in town prevents them form securing employment without moving. Thus they are trapped. I know of at least 5 people, including myself, who had to seek medical attention for conditions resulting form the high levels of stress.

There are many contributing factors to such poor working conditions which include but are not limited to poor employee retention,  poor communication, unhealthy communication styles employed by management, management holding staff to contradicting standards determined by whatever is most convenient for the bottom line. Therapists are not valued beyond a resource to wear out and toss aside. The facility does not have a therapy gym and also lacks a therapy office. Rather than being centrally located the equipment is scattered all over the facility. I could go on will just sum everything up with this last thought: Do yourself favor and move on to the next job posting.

What is the best part of working at the company?
There are some wonderful people working there and the gentleman that runs the hospital is a super great guy. Benefis pays decent and they do have some nice bonuses periodically.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful thing about working at the hospital for me, but have to be the hustle and bustle of it. There is so much to do yet. The folks that are skilled like doctors and nurses tend to stand around while the CNA‘s do everything but get paid minimal, the CNA‘s are by far the hardest workers in the hospital 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The culture at the hospital is diverse and friendly for the most part.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day is simply clock in. Get the shift report from the last employees that are leaving for the day. You make your rounds and play catch-up. You get a break every two hours and a 30 minute lunch. Sometimes you might do a little continuing education during lunch or after your shift, but one things for sure, there’s always continuing education. Benefis is huge on keeping their employees up-to-date with the newest information and tools of the trade.

I do not know where to start. The interview was great! Everyone seemed lovely and sweet. However, if you have a strong personality, watch your back. The work is sad. Medicare waiver is not an easy business. People will try to cheat the system and those that need certain supplies and services sometimes cannot get them. The travel is nice. You are in the car for several hours a day, typically, with a partner. There was one nurse to two social workers when I was there. There is also a lot of grey area where the documentation and obtaining of supplies and services are concerned. This may be a good fit for some. However, I would not recommend this place to any person that I know. Management caters to those that they feel will either complain or to the ones that they can manipulate. When hired, staff was told that it would take anywhere from 6 months to a year to even start to understand the role. They also state that staff will have all of the support that they need. Not if you question situations. Supervisors will have one or two social workers in their pocket to report back to them. If you enjoyed high school drama, this is the workplace for you. 

Administration runs this facility poorly. Nepotism is rampant, and non-qualified or experienced people are placed in positions of authority. A large portion of the truly experienced staff has left, and new grads are working in the ICU and ER. There is not a robust residency program or preceptorship in place for new grads to be working ICU/ER. It is not surprising that it lost level II certification. Pay is not as competitive as HR makes it seem. As one of the largest employers in town, the mindset is that people will have to work for them, so they lowball wages. The worst health insurance of any previous job. No Christmas bonuses anymore, however the organization continues to buy property to expand. Staff ratios are not good and staff is constantly running short with 7 or more patients per nurse. Incentive pay and shift differentials are only given to bedside nursing and direct patient care staff, so other ancillary staff like transport and food services are excluded. 

Work usually starts out very busy, answering the phone, processing first doses & credits, restocking the robot, prepping items for nightly cart fill, completing & delivering cart fill, delivering medication as needed throughout the night, restocking kits and floor stock requests as time allows, processing charges as time allows, processing credits and restocking the robot again.  We're constantly changing and adapting to drug shortages, learning new drugs as they get added to the formulary. I meet once weekly with my manager to discuss any issues that have risen throughout my work week.  There are typically only three pharmacy employees covering night shift for the entire hospital, which can sometimes prove the largest challenge when census is high & it gets very busy.  It's great to work a set schedule, with the same basic routine, knowing that there is a time frame to have certain tasks accomplished.

It is all about who you know! People are promoted without any type of leadership skills or experience as long as they are in the "in crowd". Patients are never the priority to upper leadership, only on complaints that are reported and documented.

I have seen good people come and go. Their complaint is consistently that if you don't know the right people, you get blacklisted and erased. Policies are applied to you that are not applied to others who do the very same things.

The biggest problem is inconsistency. There are too many EHR systems and they do not communicate with one another. Patient care is suffering because of it and no one is doing anything to fix it. This isn't something that should wait for three years, it should be done immediately! Maybe the money spent on food and alcohol could go toward the upgrades.

This culture is toxic and good people won't stay long or they get numb and just go through the motions and stop caring.

Benefis Health System Emergency Room was very busy. I learned a tremendous amount but none of which included Customer/patient relations. I felt that with the busy work load and lack of adequate staffing that the patients and their families didn't receive the "Patient is #1" attitude from all staff members. 

My immediate supervisors/managers were highly disappointing. We were over worked, underappreciated and made to work in a hostile environment do to other co-workers and the pressure of our work load.

The hardest part of my job was trying to work as a team with no solid, strong coach. Everyone wanted to be the "BOSS" and most of the time there was no real "boss" to be found.

Overall, I loved the nursing staff and the patients. They really appreciated ME and I could work with them.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 5 salaries reported	$36.70 per hour
Clinical laboratory scientist 5 salaries reported	$32.58 per hour
Nursing assistant 3 salaries reported	$17.33 per hour
Patient services representative 5 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour
Anesthesiologist 6 salaries reported	$435,417 per year

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