patient representative

family medicine physician

medical assistant

family nurse practitioner

pediatrician

North Country Healthcare

I was really excited to start but then realized very quickly that there was almost no training and I couldn't ask management any questions because she didn't even know the job. I was hired to basically come in and clean up an absolute nightmare that the previous employee left. I was treated absolutely horrible by 1 doctor and and couple of medical assistants. I would be yelled at, put down, and disrespected constantly and even in monthly meetings in front of the entire office. They even complained to a patient about me saying things like I had no idea how to do my job. I felt like an outsider no matter how hard I tried to fit in and get along with everyone. It was like being bullied in high school and the drama was never ending. I have never been treated like that at a job! When a doctor would put in a STAT referral it had to be done ASAP. Sometimes it would be sent to me with 10 minutes left till closing and would require me to stay past closing time. If it was not done that day I would be yelled at but then I was lectured and told that I needed to be more considerate to my co-workers and not make the stay after 5pm.

Not all of it was bad...I really loved my actual job. I loved working with the patients. I taught myself quite a bit and cleaned up over 1200 open referrals, while new ones were added every day, within less than 4 months. But then of course when management tried to give me a complement for doing a great job catching up on all of the backdated 
 and current referrals during a monthly meeting, the particular doctor had to put me down again in front of everyone for anything else he could think of.
.
I was let go due to missing to much time because of family medial reasons and I completely understood...but while I was in there turning in my badge and work laptop, management showed her true colors and pettiness. The previous employee gave me a clip to hold a work badge and when I was signing the paperwork on my last day I was told it didn't belong to me because the manager originally bought it for the other employee. So it was actually mine but it was just not worth an argument so I gave it to the manager. 

So, I guess some of the positives to working this position and for this company is:
1. The starting pay was reasonable and competitive.
2. Multiple health benefit plans.
3. Free employee dental and vision plans .
4. Some of the providers and medial assistants actually showed they wanted to be a team player and showed kindness
5. Referral coordinators at other North Country Healthcare locations were a great resource at times for questions.
6. Management did show care, concern, and did give lots of compliments.
7. The manager was not a micro-manager and did give me freedom to do my job as I saw fit for the most part.

-Micromanagement by office manager, critical of my clinical practice despite the fact that she is NON-medical. She repeatedly would be snide behind my back about simple things like having patients follow up to review labs or for medication adjustments. 
-Management was hostile and intentionally created conflict among staff. 
-Lead provider and office manager were best buddies, all other providers were treated poorly. It was a revolving door of providers, except the one who hung out with the manager outside of work, both were extremely passive aggressive. 
-Extremely high turnover, I was warned before I took the job that it was a horrible place to work. I never had a problem with an employer prior to North Country, so decided to take job anyway thinking I would be able to navigate the negative environment. BIG MISTAKE! They have had high turnover of all staff and all providers both before and after I worked there.
-They knowingly did not follow the Arizona State Board of Nursing (AZSBON) guidelines and had someone as my "MA" who had never gone to school for any medical and was originally hired for front office. I showed them the AZSBON guidelines, and they labeled me a "troublemaker." I was also a "troublemaker" when I tried to get the new/untrained MA some basic training so she stopped making medication errors (which happened almost daily, and management did not care).  
-Office manager repeatedly harassed the good MA I had before they put me with the uneducated/front office "MA" until the good MA quit. Manager could not stand the fact that the good MA and I had a good working relationship. She was very jealous of my good MA as she was more qualified for the office manager job than the office manager was. Eventually she harassed my good MA until she quit. The office manager even tried to get me to help harass her by calling me into a private meeting, then the office manager set her sights on me after I refused to bully my good MA. 
-Corporate was in Flagstaff (not on site), and I was at an outlying facility, so corporate did not know me at all and only listened to the crazy manager when I finally reported her after more than a year of harassment.
-The good thing is later the office manager did get fired at that site; however, the culture of NCHC at other facilities is equally toxic from what I have been told by providers who have worked at many other facilities. I learned this by talking to other providers who floated to my facility or when I floated to another facility. 
-Absolute worst job of my entire life. Full stop. Go elsewhere if you want to remain sane.

my position was FNP, Holbrook which i was very excited to fill; turns out this was the worst job I have ever had, medical assistants thought they were NP's and i was the MA, lending to severe role confusion; if i got a package there it was opened, never mind it was addressed to me; referral clerk mentally unstable going from desk to desk in the AM with gossip or in tears about her family member; one MA assigned to me constantly hungover with alcohol smell to breath, and irritable the entire day, 2 other MA's arguing with me and the patients routinely; at one point things were so bad i began to formulate a plan if anyone came in that clinic disgruntled with a weapon because of how they were treated; the clinic manager over all the clinic managers was an absolute Stepford wife;
One instance of drug diversion i uncovered and addressed but then was labeled a "troublemaker" who wasn't "nice:', Extremely poor leadership and hostile work environment from admin to clinic manager, clinic lead often sick or gone as was the office manager; many times I took work home or stayed overtime with no overtime pay to get the day finished; one physician working there from another company absolutely the most unpleasant thing ever to be encountered but on complaining his behavior as everyone else's behavior was excused. I wrapped things up with them paid them back the almost nothing bonus after taxes, they kept all vacation, overtime and sick leave pay for themselves; after resignation and 1 month later they began hounding me for money and how I left the clinic in a shambles, problem is it was a shambles to begin with. 
This is a company that traffics medical providers for very low wages so their upper admins can enjoy life to the fullest. Stay away....

Throughout my experience, NCHC is not a place that welcomes growth and opportunity. Management will attempt to die down your ideas, invalidate your experiences, coerce you into doing the work of 2-3 positions, micromanage you, and still not give you the compensation you deserve. I learned quickly that if you are someone who looks to grow and prove to your team you are reliable, management can feel threatened by your confidence and willingness to do more. Ensure that you are conscientious of the legal break time you take as they will make an effort to make you feel bad if your coworkers aren’t taking advantage of their breaks. NCHC fronts operations promotes a favoritism environment. If you are not friends with your upper management, you will be treated differently. When in conflict, HR only cares about bringing resolution to upper management and will dismiss any concerns you as an employee may have. Managers will provide a false “open door policy” and will enable the actions of their supervisors. The company in itself is at a pivotal turning point and their communication to their staff is extremely poor. They do not care if you have been with the company for 10+ years, everyone is replaceable and senior management makes decisions that only benefit them. Fortunately, the only positives I experienced while working for NCHC is their PTO accrual, benefits, and the relationships that were built with colleagues from various departments. 

I created great friendships with most of my co-workers and enjoyed my job for the most part.  The clinic manager held grudges and treated certain "lead" positions better than others.  An interoffice relationship between admin and a lead position was kept quiet though it states clearly that it is against company policy and the whistleblower was basically blacklisted by clinic manager.  My job was enjoyable but overwhelming when I was obligated to back-up multiple others and told during a review that I would never receive a raise no matter what I did.  Aside from management and politics, I enjoyed my work place with the majority of my co-workers but left due to relocation.... due to being told by management I would never progress with my job or advance with any other position.

NCHC is a community healthcare clinic, and with that there are some inherent drawbacks. You are poorly paid with a heavy workload. But the benefits are great, which is what earned the 4-star rating for compensation/benefits.

Poor training on the EHR system, but great support when you run into problems. They should take a more proactive aproach and train better to limit the amount of problems you encounter once you start.

As a PA, you are expected to independently treat pretty complex patients, as complex as those treated by the doctors. But as a PA, you are able to defer further treatment to the physician, assuming your supervising doctors understand how PAs work... Also, you get some great experience trying to do your best with patients who have no other options. Great place to learn.

I use to enjoy working at North Country until we got a new manager in Feb. Not many people can say they wake up and don't mind going to work and actually look forward to it and most of us did. That was until the new manager started in Feb. and made it unbearable and miserable to work there. Quite a few people have quit since she has started, whether they were long standing employees or employees that started and simply felt it was not worth it to put up with the non-sense that was going on with-in the clinic and quit before they were there too long. It's truly heartbreaking because the providers and the company are great to work for. They offer the best benefits package and are one of the highest paying medical practices I have encountered in the area.

Raise freeze for 3+ years.  Manager at the time I was hired was very rude and critical of all staff.  Monthly staff meetings were employee bashing's.  We would spend the day up tight and on edge.  She was a wonderful person and friend outside of the office, but demanding and overly forceful in the office.  She groomed the supervisor to be a mini version of her which was difficult.  There was no one to go to for support.  

When the next manager took over, she tried to change the culture, but she was fought be the supervisor and lead trained by the former manager and received little support from those above her.

The CEO couldn't tell you staff's names.  Staff that had been there 5 and 10 years.  She used to walk by my desk regularly to go up the stairs.  She didn't know my name in 3 and 1/2 years.

Start off by turning on equipments, room lights, and log into computers 
logins. Look at physician's schedule and plan out each schedule patient's visit. Learned that every phyisician likes their daily duties done differently. Each deoartment were managed by their own supervisor. I would have to say having to work with many different medical assistants as well as many different physicians weekly. The most part I found enjoyable is intaking patients and communicating with patients and knowing that your helping them.

Management has a revolving door. I went through at least 3 different managers while I was employed. They had some really bad managers that did not help you nor care to see you succeed & one was always so inappropriate causing quite a few people to leave. Lots of drama within the office. They do offer decent training occasionally but their main trainer for PPR doesn't actually train you. I learned more on my own just figuring things out than with the help of the trainer. Good Benefits/time off and understanding if you have to leave early or something.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Patient representative 51 salaries reported	$16.68 per hour
Family medicine physician 9 salaries reported	$198,889 per year
Medical assistant 1 salary reported	$22.14 per hour
Family nurse practitioner 5 salaries reported	$114,000 per year
Pediatrician 3 salaries reported	$210,000 per year

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