registered nurse

medical assistant

patient services representative

primary care physician

certified medical assistant

The Vancouver Clinic

I have been working as a Medical Lab Scientist in this lab for several years and overall this has been a great job.  Our lab team works together very well and my coworkers are friendly, easy going and professional.  We have had some rough patches in the time I've been here, primarily related to the clinic's rapid growth, Covid, moving into a brand new lab space earlier this year and implementing several new instrument platforms at the same time.  Although it's been a lot to deal with, leadership has been willing to hear us and adapt to our needs.
Currently, the lab is staffed M-F 7:30am-10:30pm and Sat/Sun 7:30am-7:30pm.  (No night shift!) There is good bench crossover between shifts.  We all rotate through the weekends and end up working about once every 4th to 5th weekend on average. We have a supervisor for each department- chemistry, hematology/UA, micro/molecular and a lead tech on the evening shift.  While we have a fairly large volume of testing, it is a clinic lab, and our testing menu is relatively basic.  Because of this, I find it busy but less stressful than hospital work, there is no blood banking, body fluids, weird cultures, blood gases. 
The environment here is positive.  One thing I appreciate is there is no blaming or fingerpointing going on.  When a mistake is made, it is viewed through a lens of questioning our process versus calling someone out.  I've had instances where I have forgotten to do a task, remembered later, and when I went back to do it, another tech had taken care of it without making a fuss about it. Just a couple weeks ago, another tech, seeing that I was going to have a heavy workload on my bench, had some free time and got some things started for me.  We help each other out here.
There is a great focus on recognizing employees.  Leadership tries very hard to acknowledge a job well done or times we persevere through a difficult day.  We have ice cream truck days and occasionally receive gifts or gift cards.
While I have had some bad days working here, that's all it's been, a day or two here and there.  Usually related to heavy workload or dealing with instrument issues, but this team always makes things better.  All in all, this is a great place to work and leadership tries very hard to make it enjoyable.  If you are competent, flexible and even tempered, you will enjoy working in this lab.


A typical day at the Vancouver Clinic is assisting in the treatment of patients and creating a relationship with them making it easier for them to trust you, the clinic, and the process of tx, and creating that bond allows the patient to want to come back to see you. While working at the Vancouver Clinic I learned just how sensitive to be to each patients needs, although we come across certain diagnosis' all the time, they do not that they have fears just like everyone else. No two people are the same, they look to us to medical advise and if you don't know the answer, I can assure you The Vancouver Clinic has the best staff support that there is always someone to reach out to to find the answer you are looking for.
Management at the Vancouver seemed to be changing a lot during my years there, but they never showed any weakness and were always collected and prepared for the next step.
My co workers for the most part reliable and willing to help when asked, otherwise they kept to themselves and took care of "their" doctor/patients and daily responsibilities.
The hardest part of my job was losing patients to cancer whom you have been treating from day one and built a relationship with. It wasn't too often that this would happen but when it did it was tough because you would see them on a weekly basis through out their treatment.
The most enjoyable part of my job was assisting in curing the patient.
They couldn't be happier being healthy and knowing that I was apart of the process was more than enough satisfaction for me... of course it helped when the patients would acknowledge the fact you were apart of it and be so grateful too! :)
The Vancouver Clinic also offers pretty great benefits to their employees, who doesn't want that!?

The job itself isn't hard, answering phones and clicking buttons is pretty mindless. The issue comes with everything else. You go through four weeks of training, and when you arrive at your location they tell you that you can forget over half of what they said because you'll never use it. Then you get two weeks of training for your actual position, but this is only one part. They tell you that three months later you will be placed in a second training to become a "fully trained" PSS.  What they don't tell you is that they will completely forget about you. You will not be put in the second training within 6 months, even if you beg them. Your supervisor might as well not exist, they don't answer emails and never have any idea what is happening in the department, unless they get mad at you. Then you will be picked on until you quit. No managers, leads or supervisors are available for help, even though they claim to be. You will be yelled at, called names, spoken down to, by patients, MA's,  nurses, insurance companies, pharmacies and if you dare say anything, your supervisor will tell you to "be more understanding". They have a Skype for the department that the leads and supervisors do not participate in, they expect the other employees to help you while also being expected to keep phone calls under 4 minutes. The turn over is so high because they truly do not care about you. They lure you in with promises of good pay and good culture, but fail to mention the poor management, false promises, mediocre pay and awful environment. Dont bother applying here, your just a warm body to them.

A typical day at work includes being often short staffed due to high turnover in this company.  I did learn a great deal from the clinicians and few of staff there.  Unfortunately, the good management that actually cares leaves due to the toxic, unprofessionalism here.   Workplace culture includes favoritism, and only work life balance empathy for the favorites. There is a lot of drama that is created from this which leads to increased animosity between staff.    It is not standard across the board throughout the company.  The hardest part of the job was dealing with toxic management making up their own rules to suit them and the unprofessionalism.  They do not have a standardized training system in place and they do allow enough time for thorough training.   There is high turnover at this company as it seems they only want people who are robots and HR is not responsive to the complaints all the while upper management is trying to understand why the high turnover?  So, they blanket this by doing minimal effort for staff satisfaction. 
The staff that hardly works are the ones that are favored and the ones that are invested and work hard are the ones that are micromanaged.  The most enjoyable part of the job was the knowledge gained from the clinicians and some of the nurses who were exceptional .  I think if they cleaned house with management this would be a good place to work. 

Work-life balance
Work-life balance at The Vancouver Clinic is okay. Same schedule and same location every day.

Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at The Vancouver Clinic are pays not bad, benefits are okay but not worth everything going on.

Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at The Vancouver Clinic, I think depends on the supervisor. They don’t care about their employees. There is room for advancement but is very involved.

Management
In general, managers at The Vancouver Clinic don’t care. They only care about the bottom line. Don’t care about you as a person or anything else going on with you. My supervisor shared personal information with my coworkers while I was on maternity leave with a preemie.

Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at The Vancouver Clinic is bad. No one helps each other; your basically on your own.

Overall
My experience working at The Vancouver Clinic was horrible. It’s literally high school and caddy. So back drama and mind games I couldn’t handle it anymore. Doctors are amazing, but couldn’t stand the other staff and their mess. My supervisor literally shared my tune off and personal information while I was on maternity leave. I was also called names by other staff such as cow and others.

Sad to say this clinic does not preform as a clinic but as a very cheap business! 1st :management is awful unorganized, dysfunctional and very biases! The lack of diversity at this company in management is shocking! 2nd: there is ZERO work/life balance do Not be fooled! You are required to use your PTO to cover if the clinic is closed, if you are sick, if you have appointments or really anything or you can not have time off. There is no unpaid time off request, it is not allowed! This means you get about 10 days a year for vacation but that is the same time that MUST be used to cover all the above stated time off. 3rd: Pay - very low now you might get fooled because starting pay is $17 or so but the increase to pay or cost of living increases due inflation is almost non existent! 2% that’s what was given this year as a raise! There is no room to negotiate either! They will and are letting employees go to not pay higher wages! Do not keep this company a float by applying! It is not worth the misery ,grief and frustration. It is a dead end job with no real room for professional growth.

When i first started i loved it, now it is too stressful and overwhelming. The anxiety is overwhelming and the new break system is a failure.  there can be 300 plus calls in the que and they have employees going to break as early as 1 hour into the shift . how does that help patients. The breaks are never set to the same times, how are people supposed to organize call backs from teachers if you have kids in schools schedule Dr  appts etc. Seems managers can take as much time off as they want while people in the call center are restricted.
you can put in a request for Vacation, and it is only reviewed weekly or sometimes it can take longer, sometimes it is not your supervisor denying the request.  
As I say there are too many hands in the pot.
The dept has a skype for all employees in the Dept to help one another, but most of the time no one responds, or they have select people they help. 
They have Quality calls they do and it is a joke , it sems that no matter how hard you try you fail.  you get docked points on things that you shouldn't, or if you ask in your on way and it is not what they want at that time you get docked points. Raises are not existent.  
 



I learned a lot from my previous job, but it became clear the department's culture wasn't conducive to my long-term goals and success as I arrived at the 3rd 100% turnover in just shy of 2 years of the department's location. I felt that slowly the person was being taken from my personality which led to my frustration, irritability, and mental health triggering my PTSD in what I felt became an unhealthy work environment. I felt set up for failure making me feel incompetent.  It didn't keep me from being what I felt as the only individual to be able to keep up with the busiest Clinician's. Due to a lack of clear direction, communication was one-sided and used as a tool to assert dominance when it was in use,  and micromanaging was a form of control that was only seen as delegation. 

The most enjoyable part of my role was the patients I encountered and my ability to connect with them in such a short time giving me the opportunity to change the dynamic of their visit. The clinicians were patient and great mentors helping staff learn the ropes efficiently. 

I’ve worked in healthcare for some time now and haven’t met a less invested manager yet. If you’re looking for experience and don’t care how you get it, this might be the place for you. Otherwise, I promise that you can do better. You’re essentially going to be a warm body, burning through appointments within 15 minutes (rooming in three), making that money for TVC and their clinicians/ exec while barely being considered yourself.

No opportunity for advancement, you’ll be micromanaged within an inch of your life and the turnover in this department is insane. Don’t let them sell you on the fact that a few of the clinical staff have been there for years; they all started before the current manager and I promise that they’re holding on out of sheer loyalty to their clinicians, the bonds that they’ve made to the other clinical staff and genuine care for the patients. 

A typical day at work there included getting the computers up and running for the day, performing daily controls and calibrations.  Rooming patients accurately and efficiently so the providers had a continuous work flow.  Refilling prescriptions for patients per department protocol (multiple changes in a few months times).  Notifying patient of lab results.  For the most part, the one's that have been there awhile are great,  a lot of the newer employees spend an enormous amount of time on their cell phones instead of patient care.

The hardest part has been the managers most of the time, if they aren't let go, they seem to back the leads in situations rather than collect all the information and make a decision with both sides of the story or situation.

The best part of the job was the patients and the relationships you gain with them.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 4 salaries reported	$41.40 per hour
Medical assistant 4 salaries reported	$26.38 per hour
Patient services representative 7 salaries reported	$17.29 per hour
Primary care physician 4 salaries reported	$140,681 per year
Certified medical assistant 4 salaries reported	$20.72 per hour

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