registered nurse

medical assistant

patient access specialist

licensed practical nurse

sterile processing technician

Saratoga Hospital

What is the best part of working at the company?
I worked for Saratoga Hospital for 26 years as an RN. Middle management was effective mediating between the front line worker and upper management demands.  They were a MAGNET STATUS Hospital and attracted talented staff. Pay kept up with the market. I enjoyed working there and would still be working there if not for aging out.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Working 12hr night shifts was difficult. Though financially compensated the difficulty surrounded maintaining a "normal" family life schedule. Another difficulty was the lack of certification required among nursing assistants. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment was supportive. Staff worked as a team with few exceptions. Peer to Peer relationships were supportive.   Middle management was open to suggestions for streamlining care and adjusting schedules to accommodate staff obligations outside of work.  Transition between shifts, while infrequent, were difficult at times largely fueled by stressors related to the industry in general. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Arrive 10 minutes early, receive assignment, receive report from multiple staff, engage in face to face introductions with Patients. Resolve crisis issues and pain first. Prioritize  pt care based on  a triage scale. Engage patient care assistants for routine tasks according to ability and capacity.

I work twelve hour days. My day goes in this order: fingersticks, nutrition, bathing, ambulating, vital signs, fingersticks, nutrition, ambulating, vital signs etc., and everything else in between that a patient might need. This job can be very challenging. It is fast paced and there is always something to do, which I love, but when we are short staffed it is so hard to get everything done. My coworkers are great, they are all very supportive of me advancing my career because they all say how wonderful I am with the patients, how thorough I am at my job. and how much I care. Which is something that just can't be faked. The hardest part of the job is postmortem care. The most enjoyable part of my job is when a patient says they feel better due to my care, and knowing that I am providing the best care that I possibly can to make them feel as well as possible in their time of sickness. Management was a little difficult. I was always given the feeling that no matter how hard I worked I was replaceable and not really appreciated.

This job had a lot more work load in my opinion. Their cases were also much larger as well where Glens Falls would have a lot of vascular cases as their priority and Saratoga had bigger cases as their priority such as a spine case and running around was about equal to both places for add-on cases. This job is what molded me and I learned everything from the beginning. I thoroughly enjoyed the work environment and the people and the bosses. Everybody worked together and especially when I first started I never felt lost because there was always someone willing to teach me or answer whatever questions I had. The hardest part of this job was I was just starting out so it was a learning process for me. I again really enjoy cleaning the scopes and processing them and running them in the medivator's which were alcohol base to clean the scopes to the best of its ability. The difference was mainly the scopes I processed were colonoscopy scopes and once in awhile the OR would drop off a scope for me to process.

I am currently working as a patient care assistant at Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga New York, as well as a medical office assistant at Malta Medical Emergent Care in Ballston Spa, New York.  I am currently seeking a position in Saint Petersburg, Florida and can be available to start as of September 1, 2014.  In the meantime, I can arrange to be available for an interview at your convenience.

	I have graduated as a C.M.A., A.A.M.A.  I feel the skills that I have could prove to be a valuable asset to you.  Since being in the healthcare field prior to my employment at Saratoga Hospital, I have performed a variety of tasks, including but not limited to; collecting blood or other specimens, operating electrocardiograms, blood draws, direct patient care and medical office management.  I am dedicated, hard working and able to face challenges.  In addition, I am a lively team player who works well with co-workers and colleagues.

It took months to get my raise, pay sucks for dealing with COVID patients at minimum wage while nurses get extra raises.  Support managers will write you up if they think you're going to leave.  Some day time staff in support services is absolutely atrocious, bullying new staff (most which end up quitting). No career growth, no opportunities, pretty much no communication between manager and department unless you're getting in trouble. Staffing is bare, and  staff generally has to call coworkers for help because managers won't do it.  Schedules are changed without warning nor reason.  Not essential for incentive pay, but essential enough where everyone else yells and screams if they think you aren't doing your job correctly or in a timely fashion for them.  Medical staff is great, support services is awful.  Hardest part of the job is keeping my sanity.

This was my first formal phlebotomy position, and I really loved it! At first I was at the main hospital, but eventually I moved over to the urgent care setting. The hospital itself was a lot more fast paced, and a lot more stressful. Unless you're confident in a medical setting, prepare yourself emotionally. There was also a lot of push and shove with some drama between employees who were dating. (Essentially you never knew when you'd get your lunch, since there were people in charge of scheduling who wanted to make sure they got lunch with their crushes, etc.) 

The urgent care was run a lot better, with a lot less drama. I would have continued there had I not gotten ill and relocated to another state. Things were much more organized, and I didn't have to worry about taking a lunch at the same time as the guy someone liked and causing a stir.

Saratoga Hospital  is a great place to work. Everyone is friendly and for the most part easy to work with. All staff are approachable and  eager to help you. I work a 71/2 hours  a day  in STR, acute and ortho . I see a variety of diagnosis. My treatment times range from 33 minutes for Medicaid to 15+ minutes for acute and ortho.
I'm requires to use a computer for daily documentation - record of  rehab, interim  and discharge notes.
My co-workers are wonderful. I often co-treat with  PT or PTAs. The hardest part of my job  are the long hours. The most enjoyable part of my job is working with patients who understand the process of recovery and see how far they have come with occupational therapy  and thank me for helping them.

My review working at Saratoga Hospital is poor. The job was not at all what was described to me, the training was limited, and the manager was not qualified. The supervisor was kind but not knowledgeable enough to lead the EMR team to be productive and efficient. The hardest part of the job was the lack of communication and information to do the job tasks correctly and efficiently.  The atmosphere is boring and depressing. It is extremely secluded without windows and several gray cubicles with a lack of equipment ie: scanners, chairs (I had to purchase my own chair with no reimbursement.) ect... The work is not evenly distributed between the team members and there was a lot of drama that was allowed in the workplace with favoritism. I would NOT recommend working here. 

A Typical day at work depends on what station I am working at. Decontamination is one of the stations, there is where I would follow IFU's per instrument and company of the instruments. Depending on the company we soak, rinse, ultrasonically clean and riding of all bio burden to where it then would be sent through the washer to be sent to prep and pack to be examined and then sterilized. 
On the prep and pack side or the clean side we inspect and follow count sheets to put the trays together to then be sterilized. 
When working on the sterilizers or autoclaves is where we send all of the instruments that are ready to be sterilized. After they are done and cooled from the sterilizer the instruments are then distributed through the hospital to there proper location.

I would say to get it in writing but that doesn't seem to matter since they don't honor their contracts.  Four physicians have given notice in the last 5 months and there will be more to follow given the current working conditions.  Many of the staff of those physicians have left or are in the process of leaving now.  There is a major push to get the numbers up to probably pay for the expansion.  Over promising and under delivering is no way to go about getting and keeping a happy work force in the long term.  A new policy of getting all new out patients in to see a doctor within 72 hours (no matter the specialty) isn't feasible.  Many specialists have a backlog of over 3 months so cramming more patients into an already packed schedule will just depreciate patient care.  Don't take my word for it though.  Ask around and you will see.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 4 salaries reported	$42.25 per hour
Medical assistant 21 salaries reported	$19.57 per hour
Patient access specialist 17 salaries reported	$19.59 per hour
Licensed practical nurse 16 salaries reported	$27.54 per hour
Sterile processing technician 1 salary reported	$17.61 per hour

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