registered nurse

nursing assistant

systems analyst

program manager

project manager

MaineHealth

The department that I work in is great to work in. (health information services) I have an awesome supervisor who is compassionate, gives great feedback, willing to work with any issues that arise & knows how to get things done - she's amazing! My coworkers are wonderful! There's no holding back information if you have questions. Everyone helps one another. They're just GREAT PEOPLE and it truly is teamwork at it's best. 

A typical day for me is editing documents for 4 hours and then moving to coding radiology & outpatient labs. I sit at a desk in front of a computer every day. If I have questions about anything, there is always someone to go to for answers and you're encouraged to ask for help in understanding. There are 2 breaks of 15 minutes but they're not strict about it. Lunch is half hour long & you punch out/in. Overtime is not in abundance in my department, but in others there is. The hardest part for me is sitting for 8 hours. The most enjoyable part is the people I work with. 

I've learned a great deal here and still learn something new every day! They paid for part of my education in coding & offer classes to benefit nurses & others for continuing education. Depending on the department you work in the management is either fantastic, or needs a great deal of improvement; however, overall management is pretty good. 

It's a small hospital, only 22 beds and is a bit politic, but what business isn't? It's difficult to create change for the employees, but the administrative offices do what they can. (sometimes not enough, especially with salary increases). We had fabulous benefits until we allied with MaineHealth, but I guess it's a bit of give and take. Still, your first year working you can earn up to 21 days off (at least that's what it was when I started), and that PTO rolls over into the next year!!! You can build your time off up to 200 hours in the first 5 years. They offer life insurance (equal to a year's pay) without cost. The new insurance isn't as good as it was when I started, but it is what it is. There is at STRICT no smoking policy - you'll pay double the amount for your insurance if you smoke, so quit 3 weeks before getting hired if you do smoke; they WILL test you, & test every year around June.

We are now a part of MaineHealth, and I find that maneuvering through the insurance carrier Anthem is a bit difficult and more complicated than it should be and the cost is much more than it was when I was first hired, but MaineHealth is the top provider in New England. You have to go to Boston for better; & who knows if it's better???

All in all, it's a great little hospital with good people and we care for our patient's & coworkers. Great family practice doctors, great surgeons (general, orthopedics, ophthalmic), 2 great hospitalists, ED physicians, nurses, PA's, NP's, MA's, and all the people who are a part of making the hospital run, from the top head honchos to the housekeepers (who work their tails off & do a great job) to the maintenance people and of course, medical records.  They care about the happiness of their patient's as well as their employees.

If you like the mountains, a small town with lots of snow and skiing (5 mountains to choose from within 30 minutes), hiking, no sales tax (but big property tax), and friendly people this area is the place to be.

I will start by saying I just left in October. I wasn't given an exit interview. So I am leaving it here. My hopes are that a CEO reads this and re-evaluates the strict environment they've created. 

Why did you begin looking for a new job?
I just wanted to get to work. The office is open concept and we are forced to do "Kaizen".  This module forced me to do a report on our current situation which sucked an hour out of my day. Then sit around and chat with my co-workers, it was very unproductive, unsettling, distracting.

2. What ultimately led you to accept a new position?
Research Medical Biller. Go to Salary sites. Know that they aren't going to to pay you what these sites say you are worth. I had been there for four years. I knew EVERY job in that department. I was still left at a level 3 out of 5. I started at 15. I left at 18.78...that was after I got a dollar raise for team lead. 

3. Did you feel that you were equipped to do your job well?
No. We weren't. Suggestions were made to the training staff, and the Training format staff. Our suggestions were blown off. The training documents are disorganized, and you never knew if the documentation was the right one. 

4. How would you describe the culture of Mainehealths company? It used to be close knit. It used to be like a family. Every one knew their expectations. The flexibility was GREAT. Want to work 4 ten hour days? Go ahead. Want to come in at 5 am and work til 1:30 go ahead. They pulled the flexibility. They stopped letting people take their own breaks. Breaks are now together and by pod. Hit the wall at 8am? Tough. Your first break is at 10. Deal with it. By the way, the coders get to work from home. The CBO? Has to come in. Even though this job CAN be done from home. 


5. What could have been done for you to remain employed here?
Better pay, less micromanaging, maybe try to STOP the good employees from leaving. Or listen to the people when they say the job culture is broken and depressing.

6. Did you share your concerns with anyone at the company prior to leaving? Yes. Several times. Unfortunately I was just another number. Upper management didn't care. I was willing to lose my vesting in my 403b and a bump to 233 hours in vacation a year to get out of this place. 

7. If you could change anything about your job or the company, what would you change?
Bring back the flex time. Let employees work from home. Better insurance. Better pay. Better time off.

8. Management is often a key factor in an employees decision to leave. Were you satisfied with the way you were managed?
Some managers obviously had their hands tied. They couldn't do anything to make your situation better. Others WOULDN'T. I am thankful my manager was looking out for me. She is definitely an asset to their department and they will be bumming if she ever leaves. 

9. Did you have clear goals and objectives?
I did. But then they took all my jobs away, after that, I lost all interest. 

10. Did you receive constructive feedback to help you improve your performance?
Yes, but you always feel like no matter what you do, it's not good enough. 

11. Would you consider coming back to work here in the future? No.  What would need to change? Everything. Micromanaging doesn't work. If I wanted to be micromanaged I would do fast food. For almost the same amount of pay... The morale is seriously broken. The department is distracting. You can listen to one earbud. You have to hear your team. Open concept no cubicles.

Pays better than most case management jobs. Less support for case management tasks. Poor use of staff. Managers and admins are stretched thin. Advertises a decent amount of time off, but does not tell you up front that this includes ALL holidays....it all comes out of that “personal time off,” even holidays when the agency is closed. Allows for good flexibility with schedule. Poor communication with scheduling, therapists, etc.  Poor communication between front desk and other departments. 
They have had some really ineffective supervisors who were very nice people that management loved but were unable to be found, didn’t answer emails, and in general just weren’t able to help if you had a question. 
They need more case management friendly protocols in place. If you have a question, even as a new employee, sometimes you can’t find ANY available supervisors to ask. Management has no idea what’s going with paperwork (if it’s filed or even completed). The filing room is not easily accessible to case managers. The front desk staff is treated very harshly by their supervisor. Often clients would complain that they had left messages for their psych providers about meds and didn’t know what to take if a change had been made or if they needed a new appointment and the psych providers wouldn’t call them back. It was often discussed in case management meetings that it was awkward for case managers to meet with clients who had this issue only fit us to try to help them reach the psych provider and find that we couldn’t, either. 
If you have questions about atrezzo or mainecare, you will need to call these places yourself and ask them directly. Management has no idea what the policies are and can’t help you, and the authorization department is really only going to remind you what is overdue, or answer your questions a day or two after you’ve already gotten the answer elsewhere and give you duplicate info after the issue is resolved. 
You better be a very independent case manager to work here, because management can’t help you, communication is poor, and there is no administrative support for you. Other case managers are your best bet for help and training when you are new and you will have to wait until you cross paths with one.

You are not allowed creative freedom or independence. You are not given all the tools you need to do this job. The discounts aren't any thing you can't find on your own. 280 hours PTO. Understand that a chunk of that PTO is holidays that they do not give you the option to work on. Overtime is gone as soon as it's offered. 
YOU HAVE TO PAY TO PARK GOOD LUCK FINDING PARKING!!!


Little room for advancement and underpaid. During the interview process the Director promises there is ample opportunity to advance one's career but these opportunities are few and far between. 

If you do ok, you get a 2 percent raise each year. We went open concept last year that is actually the reason a lot of people are leaving. It did nothing for us. It is now noisier, chattier, and 10 times less productive than it was. There is no peace to one's self. We made suggestions on how to fix things. We were ignored. We are frozen out of processes. People who do not do our jobs change our processes without asking us for input on how processes can be improved. The managers do not communicate with each other. They often do not know how to do what we do. The flex time is ok.

 There are  No opportunities to work from home. You are expected to attend a lot of time consuming meetings and do the same amount of productivity as if you were never interrupted. If you have ambitions in training, know that there won't be any pay increase with the move. Allowed to listen to your radio. You are allowed to take breaks, but expect people to let your manager know if you are missing from your desk longer than 15 minutes. 

The CBO specifically, follows the lean process/six sigma. One of the philosophies of the lean process is to promote from within. No current managers were hired from within the organization. All of them came from the outside. No in-house candidates were given serious consideration.

The job itself is challenging and very rewarding however, significantly underpaid for what the job entails.

The Access Center can be a good place to start if you’re trying to get experience in healthcare. You’re exposed to a lot of different specialties, systems, and workflows, which is definitely a plus.

That said, my experience was really affected by management and workflow issues. Management often felt unreliable, communication was inconsistent, and follow through was hit or miss. It made an already complicated job more stressful than it needed to be. I also didn’t feel like people were truly supported or recognized. When people leave, it’s barely acknowledged most of the time you just notice they’ve been removed from team chats.

Another major challenge was dealing with patient behavior. Verbal abuse from patients was not uncommon, and there are often situations where support from management is requested during calls but not provided. That lack of intervention made difficult situations even harder to navigate and left staff feeling unsupported.

Feedback also tended to be predominantly corrective rather than balanced or encouraging. Positive performance often went unrecognized, which over time can be discouraging, especially in a high demand role.

There’s pretty high turnover and always open positions, which isn’t surprising. A lot of it seems tied to unrealistic expectations and how things are handled day to day.

While the role has the potential to make a difference in patient care, there’s a heavy focus on metrics and numbers. Reviews do happen, but they’re often done by a peer rather than actual leadership, which came across as unsupportive. 

Overall, many staff feel burned out, and the expectations don’t seem sustainable. That’s likely why so many people end up leaving or actively looking for other opportunities

There's 55 people in the room. 33 have left since the start of this year. We get notices every week that someone else is leaving. Sometimes two people in the same week.  Know there's a reason for that. They are going to be moving next to the mall. The traffic will be GREAT. A lot of people are talking about leaving before that happens. They don't pay to keep people. When you tell them you are leaving they can't fight to keep you. They'll hire someone else at 20 when you make 16. Pay range is 12 to 24 hourly for this job by the way. You get paid biweekly. You pay about a quarter of your income for the health insurance biweekly. They make you stand up and present your department once a week to discuss metrics and how the company is doing. They don't do anything with the info. They just make you report on the company and errors for no reason. They used Kaizen to make the teams more efficient. That means you all take your breaks together at the same time. You don't have a cubicle. Every one gets sicker because of it in winter. You cannot keep anything on your desk. You cannot work from home. You should not understand how medical a/r works to do this job. They made it so you don't need to think. Just do. Don't offer suggestions to the Kaizen people. They will argue with you that you're wrong and that you should just do it their way. Don't be creative, if you are, this isn't the job for you. Don't be dedicated, if you are this isn't the job for you. Don't get attached to your coworkers, because they aren't staying. The morale is very low. You can be late 6 times a year or you get written up. There's free cake on birthdays. Hours are 6:30 to 6. I guess they used to be 5am to 7 but they changed that. They make you use your own PTO on holidays and won't let you work if you want to. Don't bother collecting the money under 65. It just gets written off.

When I first started the job, everything was great! I had the best supervisor (well organized with very good leadership skills), and a very good teaching instructor as a co-worker/supervisor.  After about 1 year of being there, things changed when a co-worker, with only a year of experience, moved into the supervisory position (with no prior supervisory experience at all), and the office moral and financial needs changed drastically.  The previous supervisor moved into a different position, so it was very difficult for everyone during this transition.  Moral became very low, as well as support with any technical questions due to the fact that the new supervisor had not only less experience than most sonographers there, but also because he was just thrown into a position that he had no training or experience in, thus making it impossible for him to help other below him.  The budget for the office was drastically mismanaged, resulting in people getting "let go" and or "terminated" for made up reasons, ultimately allowing them the opportunity to at least get unemployment, yet still without employment, benefits, etc.  I hear that it has gotten a lot better, and with the awesome sonographers there, I am sure that even though it might take a while to improve, the sonographers really make it worth working there.

I had heard working in hospitals could be difficult but I had always assumed that it was in nursing or in the departments that had direct contact with patients.

I was so wrong. 

This hospital is terrible and the nutrition department is no better than any of the other departments. The management plays favorites and the lead supervisors and dietitians are catty, gossipy, and downright mean. 

I worked on the kitchen line, directly with the food, and also in the call center where I took food orders for patients wanting their meals. The training is "extensive" but really there was very little training at all, especially in the kitchen. 

I also didn't feel comfortable approaching management. Some supervisors were okay and one even gave me rides home when my ride wasn't able to. But my direct supervisor and manager of the call center made me really uncomfortable and the lead dietitian was just unbearable.

There was a clear line between the ages as well. You either worked with a bunch of high school students who were judgmental and condescending, or there were the older folk who were working for a little extra income. Personally, the older coworkers were great, very welcoming, and more than willing to answer any questions or show where things are. I even adored several of them.

But unfortunately, my sanity wasn't worth the pay and free food. Half the employees were in high school and the other half acted like they had never left. I know that every work environment has the cliques and the cattiness because I've encountered it at every job. But here, at SMHC, I have never experienced it so blatantly.

Maine Health has a monopoly on health care facilities in Southern Maine since they bought everything up. It was like PAC MAN. Chomp. Chomp! Unfortunately the culture and the management didn't change with the extra facilities or the overflow of patients in all of the facilities. They bought the places before they planned out how things were going to work. Front line staff still suffer. They still have the same unsafe nurse to patient ratio's , still have unacceptable rates of hospital acquired infections , still don't provide front line staff with what they need to get their work done and still treat nurses as " children who are lucky to work there " instead of the professionals that they are. Front line staff work 12 HR shifts , get verbally abused, physically abused, ordered around, go without breaks , bend over backwards every day to provide excellent patient care and when review time comes around are told " sorry "they" are just giving 2 percent this year" . Hardly worth the paperwork. 
Maine Health prides itself on having a Magnet hospital at Maine Medical which is about professional practice, safe pt care, excellence and inclusion of staff..  If the raters only knew what really went on in some departments - not all mind you- but enough- the hospital would be ripped of its status. 
Take away- unless you are in Upper Management, all is not as it seems.

I will start with a positive in that those performing the work in the lab are among the brightest, most talented, and quality people I have known. They deserve much better leadership. Administration are bullies and it trickles down into most of management. Of course, this is not true of every manager. But good luck trying to step outside of the mold. You can tell who tried. Think Jack Torrance from The Shining. 

Decisions made at the top seem to always be about penny-pinching or profiting and not about the best interest of the patients on the other end of the needle.  

Don't expect your pay to be commensurate with your education or experience. Don't expect to be paid more for taking on more responsibility or covering more departments either. Shift differentials are not worth it. 

Benefits are decent and you get a good amount of PTO. Good luck trying to use it, however, as the persistent understaffing is not conducive to time off. I only rate job security high because the constant turnover prevents management from being able to let anyone go. Don't expect them to look in the mirror for a solution, though. You will be blamed. You'll be blamed for a lot. No matter how much good you do, they will find the minutest of errors and harp on that. 

NorDx represents the Walmartization of laboratory medicine and it is suffering from a culture created by its leadership.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 1 salary reported	$20,000 per year
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Program manager 3 salaries reported	$87,167 per year
Project manager 4 salaries reported	$88,338 per year

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