medical receptionist

emergency medical technician

medical assistant

registered nurse

laboratory assistant

Park Nicollet

I'll start off with saying I was glad to have a job during the recession but holy cow.  Park Nicollet Health Services has definitely succumb to the corporate slow death.  I was there for five years.  During this time the job went from an enjoyable work environment where everyone had time to work and chat to micromanaged nightmare.

About a year before I left a policy was instituted where every worker needed a sign outside of their office identifying whether they were supposed to be on work, on a break, at the bathroom, etc.  Employees were treated like children and nepotism was the only way to get ahead.  9/10 directors and managers were completely brain dead and made Dilbert's Pointy Haired Boss seem like a genius.

Unqualified people were promoted to positions continually that had neither the intelligence nor the aptitude to perform their duties while qualified people were left behind.  Pay grades for identical jobs were all over the charts with some people doing the same or less work making $1000's more a year than others.

You can't trust managers or directors either.  They'll ask for ideas and strategies from their employees, tell them they're awful, sit on them for a month or two and then present them as their own.  While there I recorded 12 instances of this happening with all communications in a single year, and brought them forth to HR who claimed it was a coincidence.  

About 2-3 times a year you'd have to spend half the day waiting for some moving company to change the height of desks because some manager needed to make a change in the department and rearranged seating thinking that it would have an effect on productivity.  When it didn't, it was the employee's faults.  (to be perfectly clear, there was no physical logistics in day to day activities).

Directors would make procedural changes that directly affected productivity (like adding 30 days to a process) and when the process took an extra 30 days, flip out and call a meeting to discuss poor performance.

Park Nicollet bought into the "5 S" and "Kaizen" kool aid hardcore too.  Which means that at least for the time I was there they would blindly adopt a lot of crazy ideas to see how things worked out, which is sometimes okay, but often it ended up that the suggesting employee would be 'marked' for it and any new suggestions wouldn't be received.  The problem with Kaizen is that you really need to assume a few things.  1) Your employees are skilled and intelligent, 2) Your managers and directors are skilled and intelligent, and 3) Your managers and directors identify people from assumption 1 and listen to them.  2 and 3 are not true.  The intelligent and skilled employees were not listened to either because they were "already good at their job" and couldn't possibly have anything to contribute or (more likely) they were threatening and their ideas would have worked.

You don't work at Park Nicollet because you want to, you work there because you need a job.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The wonderful co-workers and staff at Park Nicollet made my days of work worth while.  I also liked how most staff were willing to answer questions about the department if I needed a refresher.  I worked in the float pool so most of the staff were very happy to see me otherwise they had to work short a nurse in the department.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Getting a page half way to St. Louis Park in rush hour traffic stating they changed my clinic to Maple Grove.  I honestly just went past Maple Grove.  A page earlier would have helped me.  That was the most stressful part of my job.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Friendly and helpful staff made my day better.  Doctor's that understood I would help in the best way I could but I was not their regular nurse.  I would not be able to do  all tasks the exact same way. The flexibility of staff to have a float new pool nurse in their department to train.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Clock in at 7:30 a.m. or 8:00 a.m. find the team lead to figure out which doctor I am working for in that department.  Look at the schedule for the day.  Meet the doctor and then start pre-planning my day.  Find all paper work for patients and know what the doctor expects for each visit.  Then when patients arrive, room patients, and obtain Vital signs and gather information according to the department I am working for that day.  I also, would clean exam rooms in-between doctor visits.  Also, I assisted the doctor in calling back patients and helped with computer messages.  I assisted patients with directing them to x-ray, lab., and other departments as needed.  That is a sum of my day.

Variety (vs typical day) is what made this work so enjoyable.

Working with a group of 400 physician/owners, and a multitude of medical and administrative staff to sucessfully facilitate change, I gained an invaluable experience in leadership, the dynamics of a corporate culture, departmental interactions (both medical and administrative) and how to apply a combination of those functions to make progressive gains in process improvement, efficiency, and increased profits.

Two noteworthy events will summarize this.

I was asked find a new phone system that would satisfy the needs of (what at the time was) 26 multi-disciplinary clinics and improve communications with our clients. After surveying the needs of the medical departments, then administration, it became apparent to me that by consolidating a new larger phone system with the hospital and health plan, we could secure the latest features, for one third of the cost. It became the first joint venture with PNMC, the hospital, and health plan and provided a savings of over $600,000 in operating costs and maintenance from what PNMC was paying for their old system.

PNMC had it's first merger with another clinic with multiple locations. I had the opportunity to act as Regional Administrator for the clinic organization that merged into PNMC. Conflicting values, culture, operations and physician egos all plyed an important role in the success of this merger. In my postion I was able to see these factors all play out and am very grateful I could be a part of facilitating it.

Park Nicollet is good as a patient but treats staff as a chair warmer and easily disposable and replaced. "Paid holidays" and sick time comes out of PTO, so even if the clinic is closed on a holiday and you literally can't work, that comes out of your PTO thag you work hard to acquire. Doctors notes, even from their own providers, do not count as an excused absence, and sick time is unclear. 

You will have to work like crazy if they are understaffed, instead of them adjusting how they operate based on the size of your team. Poor management who will wait until the last minute to check in with you and doesn't really consider your team if you candidly express any stress from workload. Barely any opportunities to move up, either.

Providers are nice, but a lot of reschedules need to be done as they put in PTO requests last minute which I feel shouldn't be acceptable especially if they dont find time to put these patients, and if the clinic is backed up for months at a time.

It was rewarding to initiate patient care and try to schedule every patient in a way that works for them and our providers, and I made a lot of great connections with the people I served. Just be prepared to work at 100% at all times or get nitpicked about every little mistake you make.

While an employee with the company I researched and studied laws, rules and statutes regarding workers compensation practices for more than the state of Minnesota, many patients resided in Minnesota but work carried them to other states i.e. professional athletes. I worked particularly in the medical equipment department which meant I was the only workers compensation biller for the entire company, which I found that to be both the most challenging and rewarding part of the job. I enjoyed having to push myself. The problem was I wasn't supported however I was expected to support other co workers. I noticed that not only was the management team lacking in conflict resolution both internally as well as externally they lack creativity and personal discretion. I mean they would allow their personal feelings for a situation to determine the outcome regardless if it was best for the company or not. They weren't clear and impartial when those two traits mattered the most. They allowed other employees to bully others even against their own policies (which it was mandatory to take online courses regarding policy). The company had/has excellent employees who often times were not applauded when applaud was due for a job well done. This wouldn't be bad if employees were applauded for simply doing their jobs.

I have worked a total of 15 years at Park Nicollet in various areas of the lab and health information management. My first expierience at Park Nicollet was from 1990 - 99. During that expierience, everything about the organization was wonderful including the pay, benefits, management and work/life balance. I changed career direction and was eventually laid off and came back to Park Nicollet ready to give my all. This organization has changed a lot during my absence. There have been so many changes including impossibility of moving forward in this organization which is very frustrating. Personally, I have an exemplary record as well as a 4.0 GPA in my education and because it is difficult to replace my position in a suburban clinic, they wont let me move up. Staff has been cut and creates too much stress on serving the patients like we would want to. Changes occur without notice from management and no one even asks the people who do the job for possible ideas on improving our area.

The most enjoyable part of my job is the patient interaction. Coworkers at the same level are also fun to work with and there is a great team environment. Unfortunately many are leaving because of the environment that management is creating by cutting staff.

Assisting therapists that are working with anywhere between 60-100 patients a day is extremely rewarding.  Compassion, empathy, cultural understandings, these are a few of the skills I have strengthened during my time at Park Nicollet-Methodist Hospital.  

We have a strong rehabilitation department that takes time through our Like Rehab program to get to know each other outside of work, solidifying our work ethic and productivity during work.  Working in the Physical Therapy Wound Clinic is very enjoyable due to the relaxed but steady and demanding work ethic required to create a trusting and healing environment.  

The hardest part of my job is continuously attempting to keep the therapists on time and re-arrange schedules for patient care needs.  It is not a walk-in clinic but sometimes it feels that way when patients show up with wrong schedules or inaccurate information.  Coincidentally this can also be a more enjoyable part of the job for me, personally, because as much as I love having a schedule I excel in coordinating and leading (or attempting) when curve-balls are thrown into a days work.

Wish I could give 0 stars. Every location of park Nicollet, management are LITERALLY  narcissists and psychopaths. They also lie, harass, discriminate, bully, backstab & retaliate. They have the highest turnover possible for a company. All the new employees quit or got fired within first 2 weeks, that's how toxic Park Nicollet is.Your feedback & complaints get you fired. The St. Louis location is filled with miserable, angry, disrespectful employees. Burnsville location has dangerous backstabbing management & coworkers & they will overwork you. Company culture & reason they hire is to make people worship them for they have hierarchy and entitlement mentality & job evaluation is based ONLY on how employees feel about you. They will find any reason to target you for disciplinary action if you stand up for your rights. They're low staffed, training is terrible. The stress you'll endure is insane. Please I beg you, don't work for Park Nicollet. I was also a patient & I'm glad I know how harmful they are now. It's not typical toxic company with bad management in some areas, they are literally psychopaths and narcissists.

answering phones. I first worked in reception in radiology. I would check in patients for their appointments. I had to give great customer service to these people because of what a lot of them were there for. I really felt for some of them. I got doctors films for their patients. I them worked in Workers Comp billing/collections. That was a great position. I answered phones, but also made calls to get accounts paid up for the patients that were calling. I would submit the bills to the companies they were working for, or had worked for, to get their claims paid. I would make calls to these companies to collect the payments from them. When we got them I would do some of the data entry to apply the payment to the accounts to show that the date of service had been paid for. I would balance accounts and make sure they were paid in full. I worked with the same management here as I did when I went to Bioscrip. They were great people. I do however wish I had stayed at Park Nicollet instead of following them to Bioscrip. I really liked Park Nicollet Health Services. I liked all of my co-workers there. The hardest thing for me was learning to overcome my fear of talking to all the different places I had to call. Just learning the collections end of the job, but it was worth it.

Working for PNC was a great experience working for the top of the line Clinicians and nursing staff.  The merger with Health Partners did change things with PNC in regards to the work culture and patient focus.  Seemed to be more bottom line with the dollars and cents rather then the actual heart and soul of the patients and families anymore.  Patients are roomed within a specific time and also time spent with the patients is limited as well.  Much of this is due to insurance reimbursement in some ways.  Frontline staff needs better training regarding listening to patients when they come out of the exam room and acting on what they hear by speaking with nurse triage, nursing staff or clinicians themselves.   Many patients do not share everything with the Clinician when they are in the office and at times reject going for further testing.  PNC as a whole should be developed into a community where helping one another is fostered and talking under the tables about one another is squelched Focus should be uplifting and celebrating coworkers successes and helping each other to foster that success.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Medical receptionist 78 salaries reported	$24.11 per hour
Emergency medical technician 82 salaries reported	$27.71 per hour
Medical assistant 72 salaries reported	$27.45 per hour
Registered nurse 10 salaries reported	$49.13 per hour
Laboratory assistant 37 salaries reported	$23.45 per hour

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