UMass Memorial Medical Center Reviews

Pros – Enjoyed my time there in Lab

Cons – Sold to Quest - 400 lay offs to come

Advice to Senior Management – Streamline

Pros – Still trying to figure that out

Cons – Medical coverage isn't comparable to other hospitals
Colleagues and managers should be better qualified
Little room for advancement

Advice to Senior Management – invest in your employees and provide mandatory training on "how to supervise, lead, direct others"

Pros – Friendly people. The work environment is community spirited as well as being community oriented within Worcester. Laudable outreach programs which were fun to participate in.

Cons – Tactical, firefighting with either no time or ability to see beyond the present. Administration which is inefficient and change resistant with senior management thinking that balancing the books can be achieved by simply continuing to cut the workforce.

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize that you are out of your depth and that the halcyon days are long gone; the realities of health care reform are bearing down on you

Pros – Wonderful staff, excellent doctors and nurses! Team work is excellent in my department

Cons – Never know if you will continue to have employment because of numerous layoffs. Poor financial management has gotten the best of this facility

Advice to Senior Management – Immediate management excellent. This facility is more concerned with erecting new buildings than having enough staff to manage the care that truly sick patients require. Keep staffing levels adequate so that you can maintain a good reputation with the general public

Pros – The benefits at UMass are really good. Excellent health care, competitive PTO/sick leave, good low-cost day-care. The IT department is kept rather lean in its staffing levels, so there are enough avenues where a person can really take on new responsibility and carve their own path. It feels alot like a start-up company.

Cons – Politics abound. Not just at the C-level, but permeating through all levels of the organization. Reviews and raises are arbitrary, not based at all on your performance but on the discretion of the manager. People get hired because of who they know, not necessarily because they are qualified. Any form of promotion, raise, advancement, or betterment within the organization can only come after a good deal of politicking and selling oneself. As a result, there is a good deal of personal drama that is exposed throughout the work day, often to an unprofessional extent.

Advice to Senior Management – Any senior level person who was there when UMass and Memorial merged in 2000 needs to go. Umass would be far better off if its managers were outsiders who were not part of any of the politics of the last 10 years. The place just needs a good house cleaning - the workers that are there are great.

Pros – Senior Management and the team is fully engaged in patient satifaction

Cons – Too many layers to get things done

Advice to Senior Management – Need to have a sense of urgency and speed to market place

Pros – The benefits are good, especially the accrued time off policy. It really allows you flexibility with time off for vacations, sickness, etc.

Cons – Having to work every third weekend makes it tough to have a life. It's tough raising a family when you have to constantly switch days off with other employees.

Pros – Interesting challenges, good life-job balance

Cons – Financial instability, lack of good infrastructure, huge problems wilth information systems, lack of real communication from leadership, indundated with wasteful communications from leadership, too much "senior leadership", inefficient organizational structure at the top

Pros – A lot of wonderful people to work with and very flexible to schedule needs

Cons – Communication within the hospital needs work

Advice to Senior Management – Worry more about lower level issues than the high up stuff

Pros – Met some great people, decent vacation time.

Cons – Terrible pay. Work load doubled after a hiring freeze was put into place with no extra compensation. Different rules apply to different employees - double standard. Always have to watch your back. Plan on leaving for work at least 45 minutes earlier than expected due to the parking issues (and bring an extra coat for when you have to wait outside for a shuttle in the winter).

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees with respect - all employees.