ophthalmic assistant

patient services representative

clinical research assistant

patient advocate

desktop support technician

Retina Consultants of Minnesota

Working at VRS was an experience I am thankful for and one where I gained tools to grow but am glad that I no longer work there.
The Doctors - The doctors you work for have very high expectations and will help you to gain the knowledge to meet those expectations, if you are willing to put in extra work and time. Do not expect to receive praise or acknowledgment of your growth, your growth in knowledge is an expectation and not an achievement to them. Most of them are very down to earth and easy to be around.
The Clinic Atmosphere - There are multiple clinics that YOU WILL TRAVEL BETWEEN. If you live in Woodbury and work in Woodbury when you are asked to go to Edina or St Cloud, you are expected to go and makes it work. The staff gets familiar with one another and you will eventually know a majority of the people in the company. Competitiveness and climbing the ladder is the name of the game here and there isn't a spot for everyone at the top. Trust should be given to your co-workers with hesitation and expect to be thrown under the bus for mistakes. Accountability is not a strong suit in the staff. If they can place the blame on you for a mistake they will. You will be highly criticized and watched under a microscope for mistakes. The environment is one that can make even the most diligent and detail oriented people have anxiety and second guess their every move.
The Pay - The pay is fair for the position. The pay is not fair for the amount of extra time you are expected to spend studying outside of work. Pay raises are yearly but based on your review and their "star system" (Each location has a certain amount of "stars" the manager can give out, every starts with 5 stars but any number of them can be taken away from you and given to another person. (insert competitiveness). Bi yearly bonuses are also based on your review and "stars" as well as your time with the company.
The Management - This is the largest weakness of the company. Management is not personable, unapproachable and uninterested in hearing from you regarding your ideas or any problems you are having at work. You are to report to your direct supervisor who will bring it up the ladder if they deem it "important enough". If you are having trouble with your direct manager, you are expected to work it out with that manager and not bring it to upper management. The upper management is cold and unforgiving. No personal problem or life changing situation is expected to interfere with your work. You are given PTO and vacation but expect to be given the cold shoulder and your co-workers/management upset with you upon calling in sick or calling in because your child is sick. The job is expected to be your #1 priority, not your health, not your family, not your personal life, not your mental well being, not your children, not your sanity. If you intend to make any of those things a larger priority in your life, this is not the job for you.

You will gain from this job a lot of knowledge, and experience that can qualify you for careers in medicine and health care admin. Outside of that, this job has the ability to break you down physically and mentally based on the culture of the practice.

If you are a type A perfectionist who doesn't make mistakes, doesn't need breaks during the day, can learn something after being told once, never gets sick or need a day off, can let consistent criticism roll off your back and are okay with working in a environment where your every move is monitored under a microscope, then you have found your dream job.

First off, RCM is a great place to advance in the eye world. For any certification you earn, they compensate any fees you paid for tests and CE credits. Every certification comes with a dollar raise. I feel this should be more given the amount of work and knowledge it takes to earn your COA, COT, COMT etc. Especially considering most upper management don't know much of anything about eyes. They're putting a price on something they have little knowledge of. We save people's vision!!

There is basically no way to make more money other than your yearly raise if you don't have your COA. From there you can get signed off on scribing and triage. There is some discrepancy on requiring staff who are not triage certified to stay and do triage anyway, without the pay. Those are very long and exhausting weeks. 

My main complaint would be the absolutely unbelievable amount of patients they cram into a schedule. Often patients end up waiting over one to two hours to see the doctor because people just add emergencies/add ons to the schedule with no repercussions. Lots of double booking. This causes scribes to have to answer many questions that are above our job title and pay grade, the patients get maybe 5 minutes with the doc if they are lucky. 

Some clinics are almost always short staffed and rarely get help from other clinics, but then their staff always get sent off to help when other location supervisors allow too many of their staff to take PTO at the same time which is BS. 

Most staff are very friendly throughout the organization. 

Last January I accepted a position at VitreoRetinal Surgery and had NO idea that a year later I would have learned as much as I have and would now be scribing for several doctors within the practice. Having gone to college for Psychology, this was a huge career change and I am so incredibly glad that I gave this career path a chance. I can now say I am part of an innovative practice that helps thousands upon thousands of individuals every year with retinal diseases. Moral of the story, DO NOT feel trapped in your current job or what you went to school for. There are so many options out there for you and you can do whatever you put your mind to! VRS is an amazing company that can educate you on the job and hires individuals with no prior ophthalmic experience. The hours can be long and the patient load can be heavy, but every day is different and new and overall it’s a great atmosphere and great place to work!

I won't lie, this is a fast pace career and if your looking for something with a lot of down time then this is not the job for you.  

This is an amazing place to work, full of great people with enormous amount of ophthalmology experience. If you want to learn new things and develop new skills then the sky is the limit!  At VRS you can train in whatever area you wish as long as your willing to work hard and put in the effort. 
         The one thing that I have noticed time and time again is that the people who are hard working, take pride in what they do and have a love for working with people are the ones who thrive at VRS. The people who don't possess these qualities and are more interested in causing drama are the ones who struggle here.

The doctors are Amazing!!! Management on the other hand pretends to be something/someone they are not. They have ALL the freedom, weather it seems right or not. Since when does a company let a manager do a meeting on her phone while her phone is cutting in and out driving to a Twins game?! Upper management needs to get a grip on under management!!! The workplace is not anything to look forward to each day. If you are a robot and do only as told, never give an opinion or argue that someone was wrong, you will fit right in. Just be a YES person, that’s what they want. Worst management I have ever experienced, hands down!!! 

What is the best part of working at the company?
The uniform allowance was nice

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Seeing a patient every 5 minutes and jam packed schedules. You were supposed to be quick but also thorough. Rush patients thru the rooms without showing them that your rushing them thru the rooms. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Busy and stressful - sometimes fun

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Open screening rooms
Patients start filing in and then it's go time until your done
Sometimes you got your full 30 minute break and other times you were advised to only take 15

RCM has great doctors, and they do awesome work. the ability to handle all the pressure from upper management, not so great. they are very picky and will allow others to make mistakes but then others are treated differently for making the SAME mistakes, they gossip amongst each other, and discuss your personal business no way another coworker should know what i discussed with my personal manager but they will, they can be extremely rude, and if you are trying to go about things the proper way HR is NO HELP. 

This practice has an amazing reputation.  All patients are referrals.  No advertising needed - we are that good at what we do. It's also the largest retina practice in the 5 state region.  The doctors and staff are professional and committed to saving the vision of thousands of patients every year.  To be able to help people save their eyesight every day is beyond meaningful to me.    I have a real purpose in my work and in my life because I work here. 

The physicians are amazing. Upper management has no clue how a clinic is run and expectations are crazy. The COO and HR are clueless to what goes on in a clinic every day.  HR meets with employees and “ listens” but never does a thing.
If you want to work with amazing physicians this is a great job. They are the best! If you want to work where it doesn’t matter if you are are male or female or if you don’t care they play favorites this job could be for you.  

I enjoy coming to work everyday and work with a great team of smart, driven people. It’s a fast paced job with a lot of moving pieces, but that is something I enjoy. The company cares for each of their employees and sees every single person as an asset to the team. Great benefits, great work schedule, great management team. I love being a part of company that helps people save their vision! I find my role makes a contribution to the meaningful work the VRS does. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Ophthalmic assistant 25 salaries reported	$22.67 per hour
Patient services representative 10 salaries reported	$23.18 per hour
Clinical research assistant 2 salaries reported	$25.25 per hour
Patient advocate 1 salary reported	$24.75 per hour
Desktop support technician 7 salaries reported	$29.14 per hour

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