medical scribe

medical assistant

registered nurse

clinical informatics specialist

primary care physician

Oak Street Health

I worked at Oak Street health for nearly two years and, while I absolutely LOVED my day-to-day coworkers, leadership and the corporate culture made continuing impossible. I am not a disgruntled employee who was terminated, I left of my own choice after being recruited by another company. 

As of writing, turnover has been incredibly high for Oak Street across various regions for some time. In Michigan, for example, we have lost 3 Practice Managers and the two original BHS within less than 6 months as well as others. When I started, in 2018, I was one of two BHS hired for the Southeast Michigan region and both of us have since left for the same reasons. 

Firstly, the BH program is routinely overlooked across all levels within the organization. During my entire time there, and even as of my last day, we (along with the Medical Social Workers) are not eligible for any bonuses. Additionally, leadership would not allow our program to have a regional lead and cited low program numbers as the reason why. This same reason was also used to justify 2/3 of our BHS (myself included) splitting their time between two clinics. When we were first hired we were told that our patient panels maxed out at 150 but when one of us met and far exceeded that number they were not made full time and the justification then became about how many patients come in on a day to day basis vs how many are on your panel overall. 

This highlights a distinct division between regional and local leadership which is an ongoing problem within the organization, at least as far as Michigan is concerned. Regional leadership, and particularly our regional president, are very focused on numbers and only view face-to-face interactions as worthwhile. Yet Treehouse (corporate) understands that there are so many more levels to what we do beyond face-to-face visits and these things (like making calls and doing case consults with PCPs) count toward our productivity to. 

However, because the purse strings are controlled by regional leadership it doesn't really matter how productive you are in other ways since only face-to-face visits will get your program the resources it needs. 

Additionally, there is very little accountability placed on the medical providers when it comes to making BH referrals. Thankfully most of them understand the need and work collaboratively as they are supposed to but there are some who don't and no referrals = no progression and when you take this to leadership the primary responsibility is always placed back on you as the BHS ("What are you doing to build these relationships?") instead of them. Even something as simple as having an office space is routinely nitpicked as regional leadership feels BHS should be sitting out among the rest of staff (despite the increased need for privacy for BH matters) because otherwise we are "out of sight out of mind". Again, the onus is placed on us and we are routinely given responsibilities and tasks that would never be asked of a medical provider (i.e. scheduling our patients). While I have no problem doing this in a crunch to be a team player, it too quickly becomes the expectation instead of an exception to the rule regardless of whatever the standard operating procedures say. 

Furthermore, some medical providers refuse to prescribe any psychiatric medications despite the fact that the psychiatrist (of which there is currently only one serving the entire region 3 days a week) may not have availability for a month or more. Obviously this creates a huge problem for patients and you are left with almost no solution as the providers refuse to collaborate. 

One of the most frustrating things about working for Oak Street is the constant rhetoric. Whenever you ask a question or propose a solution to a challenging problem you are met with the most scripted, circulatory, corporate jargon I have ever heard. Expect to "table" and "circle back" often as they're "working on it". 

On a more personal note, as of writing this there are no opportunities for raises other than a standard yearly raise and when you ask for one (as I did in December of 2019) be prepared to get no response whatsoever even after you send follow up. This definitely sends a message as to your importance. 

Furthermore, the benefits are some of the worst I have ever seen. PTO is measly as is CEU coverage for BHS ($250 versus medical providers $1200), medical deductibles are very high and health insurance is not carried out until the end of the month when you leave which seems to heavily go against the company motto of "rebuilding healthcare as it should be." 

Now, not everything about Oak Street is bad. As I said in the beginning I absolutely loved my clinic staff and will miss them terribly. This review is NOT a reflection on them as they were amazing as were both my Center Medical Directors (my direct reporting supervisors) and I can honestly say I enjoyed working with each and every person on my teams. Yet when you have a company culture that does not truly value you at a higher level, even the best coworkers make it impossible to stay somewhere long-term. 

Oak Street  Health has the potential to be amazing but I fear they will never meet their goal unless they start to truly value and listen to ALL OF their employees and perhaps consider new leadership at the highest levels who are more person centered versus profit centered. Your employees notice despite whatever pleasantries are said to the contrary.

I am a physician who was employed by Oak Street Health recently and wanted to leave an honest review of their company practices and work environment. 

The money is attractive, as is the care model. The promises are also alluring, but almost none of them were delivered upon starting. I was promised 4 hours of admin time per week, during which I would be able to go to doctors appointments or other errands if I chose. (You all know how hard it is to get anything done when you work the same hours everyone else works). When I started, that admin time was not present at all, and then over the course of several months, we were given 2 hours of time, and then over another couple months, 4 hours. We were forced to spend that admin time at the clinic, however. If we ever needed to leave during admin time, or any other time, we were required to give a 45 day notice and even then, it was not always approved, even when PTO was accrued in order to support this.

We had many bosses. All acronyms for titles, I never truly understood what each role did. For those of you who believe our supervisors should also be physicians, that is not always the case here. NPs can become medical directors and supervise MDs and DOs. Also the administrators galore will wear you out. We were expected to answer to many different administrators weekly. To support the layers of beaurocracy, there were meetings upon meetings upon meetings. And many during what you would normally expect to be your own time (several per week over lunch breaks or before or after business hours). NO work-life balance here.

I had no autonomy. I was not to be trusted. I was made to see aggressive/ verbally abusive patients despite my protests and discomfort (and feeling of personal safety being threatened). My medical judgement was literally questioned every day by several different company employees. Every. Single. Day. We were told that we are meant to "steer the ship" at our clinics, but in reality are only given a blueprint, and expected to follow it. And we are punished if we don't. 

I had no privacy. Doctors have no office. We sat in a group area with our support staff, and were constantly interrupted. I felt as if I had no time to think. If I had to make a personal call, I had to do that outside. We were not given internet access for our phones. 

We were also supposed to be set up with scribes, which would be great if that were consistent. Even when it was consistent, their job is to question your judgement, and to bring up medical issues with you that may not have been added before in order to upcode. For example, someone somewhere else eons ago coded for depression in this patient (Not sure how Oak Street is able to see this information). Even though we have no record of it and patient's PHQ with us is negative, and they are not on medication, we will still be asked every single time the patient comes in (and that is at minimum 4 times per year in our healthiest patients, usually more frequently as our folks are pretty sick) if we would like to code for this. Another example- a patient has a GFR of 59 one time recently. We are asked if we would like to code for CKD3. One more- patient has hypertension and is a smoker. Oak Street "suspects" they may have CHF, and requests that you order an echo. Why you ask is all this necessary? Because these are the diagnoses that make the most money. And if you say no, I do not want to code for this, don't fret! Once or twice a month, there are other meetings whose sole purpose is to ask you to look at it again! (You are encouraged to change your mind).

While not overt fraud, I do think there is a lot of moral ambiguity about coding here. They try to assuage your concern by putting a preventative bent on things, but in reality, it's about the money, not the patient. 

I also found myself supervising more NPs that I agreed to, and not getting properly compensated for such. Though the salary looks attractive, look closely and remember that "bonuses" are taxed at a higher rate. (If you get your promised bonus, that is.)

There were so many new patients brought in by recruiters that we would be booked for weeks at a time with no space for problem visits in our existing patients. There were many many issues with referrals. A couple months in, I was told several times per day by a patient that they had an issue with a referral. I passed this along to all my bosses, and not one of the 20 could figure this out. But I was the face of this incompetence as I was the one doing the actual work of seeing and treating patients. 

I had to get out of there after giving it an honest chance of a year of work there. Don't do it if you care about patients or your mental health. Never ever before have I worked in such a toxic environment. 

I worked as an outreach executive and then a community manager who was in charge of setting up events for outreach executives. One important thing that was not made clear to me at the beginning - this IS a sales job. If you aren't comfortable being a salesperson, you won't enjoy this job. The job is sold to you as something very noble and it's easy to buy into that rhetoric. But remember - this is a corporate for-profit, and their goal is to make money, just like any other company. There is nothing noble about their work, especially not lately. They want to make money and they do that by often taking advantage of senior citizens and disabled people. Before Covid, I believe many locations balanced making money with also wanting to do the right thing. Post-covid, I can no longer say that's true. 

At the beginning,  I had a great manager and a really supportive team. Things were great. Teams at other locations seemed to be undergoing constant in-fighting and drama, but our location seemed to run pretty well and issues seemed to be handled professionally. However, there were cracks in the facade here and there - once I was pulled in by a manager and admonished for taking too much PTO for doctors' appointments, though it was my time to take and I'd gone through the proper channels to do so. But the overall work was good enough that I could overlook that. The real issues were always with corporate, who were perpetually out of touch with what was happening at clinics, but this never directly affected us much, until it did. 

For me, that day came at the cusp of Covid. Corporate had made a supposedly anonymous way to ask questions or express concerns about Covid. At this time, we were still being required by corporate to host events, which was obviously a poor decision at the beginning of the pandemic. I expressed concerns about this via the anonymous corporate email. Later that evening, I received a nasty text from my manager (not during work hours) accusing me of spreading lies about her and trying to make her look bad. We'd previously had a positive professional relationship so this was stunning. I also had not accused her of anything; it was a concern about corporate policy. This was an incredibly demoralizing development and our relationship was never the same after that. I was also horrified that a supposedly anonymous feedback line had been immediately turned over to my supervisor. 

Once Covid fully hit, and lasted awhile, it changed things. Obviously, a doctors office with social activities is going to be greatly affected by Covid, which I get. At first, the plan to deal with employees during this unknown time was fair and responsible. However, at one point we were all unceremoniously laid off. Again, it was Covid, so I get that layoffs were inevitable. But when we returned, corporate had restructured the entire company. I essentially got a demotion, which I played along with because I was planning at that point to quit anyway. However, I was so angry on behalf of other employees at the extremely unfair work conditions they were tasked with. There was no respect for employees at all. Employees who had been loyal, outstanding recruiters were treated as disposable. The numbers we were expected to get in order to keep in good standing were basically impossible for anyone who wasn't a standout employee. No adjustments were ever made for anyone, no matter how many above and beyond months they'd had before that. In other words, if anyone didn't meet their goal for any reason, they were treated as though they were insubordinate. We had a three strike system where if we didn't keep our numbers up more than twice, we'd be fired. Again, it didn't matter to Oak Street how long you'd been working at the company or how many times you'd exceeded your goal. It was three strikes and you were out. 

After two months of low numbers, I was fired. Because I wanted to leave at that point anyway, I didn't make a big fuss - but technically, I still had another month to try to meet my goal. So not only were their expectations ridiculous, they weren't even following them.  It was clear that they were funneling people out as fast as they could rather than work with them on improving any sort of skills. It's become a job where people burn out very fast and Oak Street doesn't care, as it now treats employees like a commodity.  It was also clear that the moral standards for getting a patient to come in had fallen very far, which is the logical consequence of running your doctor's office like a used car lot. 

At one time, I would have not only highly recommended this job, but I would have encouraged any of my elderly family members to go there as a patient. Now, I wouldn't trust this company at all and I warn patients to stay away. It really is disgusting how the standards fall so low when dealing with vulnerable populations. 

This company doesn’t care about you as an employee, or as a person. The management is downright insulting and rude. The staff turnaround is constant and volatile. No one wants to stick around long. The MAs are absolutely abused and told to work outside the field of reality. They usually get stuck rooming and doing numerous assessments on patients for 3 providers simultaneously. 1 hour lunches are expected but unrealistic and everyone works straight through them or has to attend mandatory lunch meetings during these “breaks.” Clocking out at 5 is expected for hourly associates but they hardly ever get to do that. 
The scribes are overworked and underpaid as well. They generally work on notes at home outside of clinic hours and are allotted zero administrative time at work. 
NPs are not respected, all expectations are shifted toward them to cover other physicians’ patients despite the company’s bonus structure being based off quality measures for patients that are assigned to specific providers - this means NPs who see MD patients regularly are working for the MDs bonus, and are getting overworked in the meantime. 
When a provider is on vacation, no one covers their in bound labs or med refills so urgent labs sit for days at a time. 
The call center is a nightmare and makes it impossible for patients to get their concerns addressed or get through to the physicians or NPs. The C3 scheduling associates throw patients on over administrative time, lunches, double book providers, and are generally clueless. 
Meetings with members from the treehouse are repetitive, self serving, and irrelevant to the clinics actual functions. There’s just a lot of patting self on the back and empty jargon. 
The model is great in theory but terrible in practice. Providers are expected to deliver best care to their patients and manage their chronic conditions to goal and are bonused based off this measure. What ends up happening is more closely resembling a feverish scramble to convince (force) patients to do things that they are not always comfortable with doing or interested in doing. Hospitalizations are supposed to be avoided at all costs including taking on responsibility as a provider that is absolutely outside of the scope of anyone in the primary care role. Patients do suffer in these scenarios as their conditions are under treated in some cases. Even imaging is discouraged due to its high cost, so some patients don’t get the care that they deserve. 
Watching the earnings of the company grow at the expense of their employees and patients is nauseating. Do yourself a favor and either find a different place to work, or continue to keep your eyes peeled for a position while you are employed there if you don’t have any other options. You won’t want to stick around long. 

I was excited to work for this company. Things quickly changed. The company will add more work to their Medical Assistants, but they are one of the lowest paid positions in the company. Compared to other companies. Jencare is their competition, they even pay more. They don’t even consider your experience. The front desk staff get more recognition then the clinical staff. Upper management is very rude, barely speak at times, even if you speak to them. They have meetings all the time, and ask for your opinion on things, but never change anything. They make it seem “so good” but once you’re in, you see that you walked into chaos. They throw you in to the wolves. It’s a real nightmare. The turnover rate is crazy. Medical assistants practically run the clinic along with the providers. They never get acknowledged. Every clinic in this organization are short staffed and need  medical assistants, so you will be over worked and working with more than 1 provider at the same time. Running like a chicken with your head cut off. While everyone else sit back and just expect you to get it done. “As if you know what you signed up for” or “I’m sorry we’re working on getting more staff” That tells you a lot about the company. So again, that leaves medical assistants working with 2 or 3 providers at a time. You are left doing Vitals, EKG’s, Quantaflo’s, Retinavues, and sometimes your own labs because they can’t keep phlebotomist neither. No the providers do not care that it’s only you by yourself working with them and another provider. While you are getting another patient for another provider, the other provider is asking for something for their patient. No, the nurses can’t help because they are more administrative than anything. They fill pill bottles, refill medications, and answer patient messages all day. They don’t complete EKG’s, labs, vitals, injections, ear cleaning, & if you ask them for help it’s like pulling teeth. Management is more concerned about the gossip, the he say she say. They can pull you for that, but not pull you to say hey I see you working hard I want to say that I appreciate you. I feel sorry for this company. They really need more training to assist with building up the culture of the company to what they “IMAGINED” it to be. If you are a medical assistant please go where you are appreciated. I am at a different company now, and the pay is better for less work. Please do not work here if you want to avoid the stress. It probably would be good for beginners, but it can also be overwhelming as well. You will not grow in this company unless you’re apart of the clique. Don’t let them fool you in the interview, because once you clock in. You are in for a rollercoaster. 


It seems every week there is more stuff added to your plate without support from underneath. “Do this, now you have to do that, change the way you do this but we’re not going to pay you more”. They only care about their “quality score” and getting more patients in. They don’t care about your workload, they just want more volume. They are blind to how all of their employees are drowning.
 Beautiful, wonderful fanatic looking place to work on the outside; cobwebs, stress  and giving you responsibility that isn’t yours once you get to peak behind the curtain. 

This job is only good for SHORT term. Especially with the bonus system starting 2023.  They pay better than most scribe jobs but that’s because you’re required to do SO much more than scribing. 

If you need medical experience (you will gain medication names, diagnosis and their symptoms, common lab orders and their meanings,  and watching providers thought process) , it will give you that. But it comes at the cost of your sanity. So if you can choose another scribe job that doesn’t pay as much, but doesn’t make you manage the clinic behind the scenes while simultaneously being the least paid, least appreciated, and most necessary role - take the other job. 

You will be the backbone to the entire clinic area. 
And they will not appreciate you for it. 

Typical work day; 
As soon as you get there you print a schedule of the patients 
Then you direct a meeting with the provider and MA about what each patient needs 
Then you go to each visit and write the note (everything discussed in the visit)
Then you write the after visit summary, order labs, order imaging/test, generate referrals for speacilist, and create insurance bills. 
Then you have to input in all the data for the patients (colonoscopies, mammograms and more) 
Then you need to address the “suspects” (auto generated flags for possible conditions based off patient records) 
Then you need to attend at least 3 meets per week, one to discuss high priority patients and one with your care team and one with the whole clinic 

You will work overtime to finish your notes most likely if you work full patient days. The last visit of the day should end at 5 but then you still need the after visit summary, orders, referrals, and to clean up for the day. 

Hardest part of the job; trying to manage every single task without missing one 

Most enjoyable: the other scribes are cool 

Workplace culture: everyone hates it there but try to make it a good time 

I was hired rapidly in Cleveland Ohio. During my interview I was introduced to so many nice people I mean everyone was SUPER nice. I wasn't trained on anything. I was just brought in to be a medical assistant. So I thought! Once we arrived to the site it was a trailer space and we were told we cannot sit anywhere except in one of the maybe six rooms 4 being exam rooms.  We had a micromanaging manager that knew how to do absolutely nothing she always answer questions with how did your job before here do it, or did we ask anyone else. It became like a small prison and the manager was the warden. The set up of the way they handle patients are ridiculous and I worked for a hospital before them for years and never saw things ran the way oak street wanted. It only seem like they are out taking advantage of the older Medicare patients to receive more money. I would go to my manager about not knowing how to do things because I wasn't properly trained and it would get used against me management started to take daily pokes at me as if she was looking for a negative response, I mean she would do this to me everyday. So I went to HR who didn't handle it, I went to her higher up who never thought it needed to be addressed. I literally got bullied by my oak street management for almost 90 days and after numerous attempts to report management. The manager I reported fired me. Not only fired me but sat me in an exam room with HR the same HR lady that knew about my many bullying complaints and attacked my character, as well as work performance. Still to this day I don't know why I was terminated truthfully. All those smiling faces I meet at my interview was all devil's in disguise. The pay is great that's about the only thing I can say about Oakstreet. I even reached out to the Treehouse in Chicago and noone got in touch with me until I received an email finally from my management boss AFTER I was already terminated saying how sorry he was that this happened to me. Treehouse called me and claimed to be taking a report of my complaint AFTER I was terminated and he ended my call with he's sorry this happened to me and good luck. They are all a bunch of idiots but if you can hang in there for the money go for it it's the only thing worth it!!

Can you imagine what would happen if an insurance company ran a medical clinic with multiple MBAs running the show?  Who do you think would benefit: patient vs corporation?  What do you think would happen to provider autonomy?  This is Oak Street Health in a nutshell.  The company is relentless in their pursuit of HCC high value diagnoses. This goal is intertwined through every process and procedure.  Providers are directed regarding how often the patient should be seen in clinic, and which test to perform to search for a high value HCC diagnoses. To accomplish this task, the company culture is fraught with micromanagement and peer monitoring. This leads to a demoralizing environment with high employee turnover.  This is the reason OSH is consistently hiring.  In addition to the above, the workload is heavy. You will be told during the interview that providers see 8-10 patients per day. The real number is 14-18 per day. You will be told that patient visits are 40 minutes in length, but this applies only to the annual wellness visit.  All other visits are typically 20 minutes. In addition, the patients are often very sick and non adherent to medications, so severely elevated BP at presentation is not uncommon (200/100). This will also be a 20 minute visit.  You will be told that you will receive admin time, but this does not start until after your orientation period of 12 weeks. The orientation timeframe is the same for new and experienced providers. In addition, your admin time can be used by management to schedule meetings without notice or consent. Meetings are a very important part of the OSH culture.  You will be required to attend three 1-hour meetings per week (3-hours/week). This is time taken away from charts, labs and patient inquiries that require completion. There is the silent expectation that you complete these tasks during your off time.  In conclusion, if you are a new graduate provider, you may find the rigid structure and constant surveillance welcoming. However, if you are an experienced, autonomous provider, and fearful of walking the line with Medicare billing, I say run for the hills. 


I would recommend working as a CIS/scribe only if you are pre-med (or pre-PA- but there's no PAs to work with so keep that in mind). You will be able to learn a lot of medical terminology, common diagnoses/ medications. However the responsibilities are  a LOT more than a traditional scribe role. I worked with some wonderful physicians and NPs, and some horrible ones (horrible both in terms of patient care and to work with as colleagues). I think they give CISs too many responsibilities that are essential for good patient care, rather than just documentation (especially considering CISs do not have any kind of medical license).

There is opportunity for mentorship if you get lucky enough to get a permanent partnership with a good physician (or NP but this is less valuable for a pre-med in terms of letters of rec). 

The management and culture of the specific clinic/region is also a big factor in whether you are successful. Some of my management was terrible/ unsupportive. Some of my coworkers were a joy to work with, others made me dread seeing them in the clinic (and the management did nothing to create a better environment even when informed of problems).

The training is bad- overall it lacks structure and your training will fully depend on if your trainer is good at their job, and has enough support to be able to take time to train you (because trainers are expected to train while also managing a full patient schedule with their assigned provider).

The hours are supposedly clinic hours (8-12, 1-5), but you are expected to get there early (7:45ish), and stay until the last morning patient is done (sometimes I did not eat lunch until 12:40 or later), and stay until the last afternoon patient is done (often staying past 5:30). Providers are generally not trained on how to complete the note, print after visit summaries, place orders (these are all CIS responsibilities)- and so they rely on the CIS to stay with them if they run late. 

The pay is better than other scribe jobs, some bonuses available. 

Where to start? Oakstreet health is by FAR the worst company I have ever worked for. When I was first hired they were still relatively small and just starting to expand so things felt more personal with the workers and their company values were something that captured me. In the beginning working for the company was a little rough but I understood that they were still a new company and there would be a lot of growing pains but I was hopeful that things would gradually get better. WRONG. Fast forward a 1yr 1/2 later and things are a complete gong show, especially in the call center. This place is run by people who lack any proper qualifications for the position they were promoted or hired into. Management is extremely unprofessional and I believe this is mainly because they were placed in positions due to who they knew. Everyone is either a relative or a friend of an Osh worker. There is no order or real protocol whatsoever and you are left having to figure things out yourself because things fly over Management's head. Every worker in the call center hates it there.  Employees are not valued here and neither are the elderly patients. I was completely disgusted to see how patients were treated not only behind their back but to their face. I would never recommend Osh to a friend looking for employment or even anyone looking for a healthcare provider. Provideds are like a revolving door there because they are constantly quitting. When I was hired the pay started at $18hr but that has gone down to $14 for new hires. The pay isn't worth working in such a stressful environment that they have created.  Nothing is confidential even if it's discussed between you and HR. I wouldn't be surprised if this company is shut down completely within the next 5yrs Do to a lawsuit or just because everyone has left. Needless to say I quit.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Medical scribe 7 salaries reported	$20.36 per hour
Medical assistant 3 salaries reported	$20.90 per hour
Registered nurse 3 salaries reported	$91,855 per year
Clinical informatics specialist 1 salary reported	$14.00 per hour
Primary care physician 221 salaries reported	$273,259 per year

Working at Oak Street Health, part of CVS Health: Company Overview and Reviews

Oak Street Health, part of CVS Health

Oak Street Health, part of CVS Health Ratings

Popular jobs at Oak Street Health, part of CVS Health

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected