16 Feb 2016
Anonymous employee
Advanced Medical Reviews Response
10yThank you for taking the time to share your thoughts about the experience here at Advanced Medical Reviews (AMR) post-merger with ExamWorks. Certainly it is an exciting time for us, as well as, a time where we are experiencing an important stage in our evolution as a company. However, even with the ownership change, we continue to believe that every patient should receive quality healthcare and will absolutely continue to conduct ourselves in a manner consistent with our values of dedication, selflessness, and approaching challenges with a can-do attitude.
Regarding your comments referring to “company needs” and “remote work.” We have a working group made up of staff members that has been doing a large amount of data analysis around shifts and working remotely. This group of fellow review coordinators has been looking into how we can best meet our client and business needs, and is providing recommendations for how best to fairly deploy staff at different times, locally or remotely, to meet those needs. Needless to say that we will continue to embrace remote work at AMR and have this as a valued benefit for employees.
In regards to the comments about “zero incentives.” We believe we have a number of incentives, designed to acknowledge when we meet or exceed different goals (monthly “stars”; EE of the quarter and year; 2015 annual bonus opportunity; 2015 High Achievers Circle; etc.). Furthermore, we recognize that people are not motivated by the same things. Based on 2015 Total Rewards Survey results, where base compensation was by far the #1 valued reward, we are taking a look at how to reallocate incentive monies to base compensation whenever possible.
Regarding your perception that there is “lack of growth” opportunities. We believe that growth comes in many different forms, and rare is the occasion that any given individual’s career trajectory is straight up, no matter which organization we work in. We’ve had a number of roles open across the department over the last 6 months. Some of these opportunities are into managerial roles, while other opportunities provide individuals the chance to build competencies in other areas of interest. We believe that “growth” does not always have a title change associated with it; growth means that you are building transferrable skills over time so then you are ready to make a move in your career – whether that here at AMR, within ExamWorks, into a new field of study, or elsewhere, that you have the preparation and skills to be successful.
Your comment that the “only thing that matters is the bottom line” left the biggest impression on me. As mentioned above, with or without the merger, we continue to believe that patients should receive quality healthcare, and that we have an effect on the healthcare that others receive who are struggling with their health. Our contributions to “quality healthcare” have to include being timely in our work; keeping our costs down so that we are not contributing to higher overall healthcare costs; and continuing to innovate to find new ways to make an impact, which requires capital that we have to be responsible for generating. Profitability is the oxygen of any business. The stronger our bottom line is the more our purpose and values can make a positive impact in the healthcare industry and possibly influence others to emulate what we are doing. This will continue to be our unwavering mission.
Ah yes, those necessary “passwords” and the need to change them periodically. Protecting patients’ personal and health information is extremely important to us and to our clients. As a matter of fact we adhere to the highest security standard, which is why we choose to invest in obtaining our SOC 2® Report on Controls at a Service Organization Relevant to Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality or Privacy (SOC II, Type II), that among many other things requires the frequency of password changes.
AMR is an organization that continues to transform itself in pursuit of ever higher degrees of excellence and growth. We ask that you grow leadership capabilities by joining in and working alongside your colleagues to contribute to our shared success. Help lead the company by getting your voice in the room through avenues like: Operations Team Meetings; Open Forum; one-on-ones with supervisors and managers; etc.
Finally, let me say that you have contributed many valuable insights with this post and again want to thank you for that. I would encourage you to talk more to your leads and others here at AMR about some of your concerns. I for one have an open door policy and would love to hear directly from you.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond.
Vince Bianco
President
Advanced Medical Reviews