Getting worse as time goes on - Housecalls Nurse Practitioner Optum Employee Review

Where do I even begin? We fill out employee surveys and literally nothing changes for the better- however they keep adding more to our plate. Unrealistic visit expectations. The visits take SO long because there is so much stuff to do. Now we screen for Hepatitis C- try squeezing a tube full of blood from a lancet finger. And then you have to schedule a UPS pickup. Bonuses are hard to get unless you over work yourself trying to meet all the requirements. Most of the members don’t even want a Housecalls visit, they are forced into it even though they are NOT a requirement. Working environment is terrible. Think of wearing a hot mask and carrying a bag with a scale and a bunch of other crap around on a 90+ degree day. Or trudging through a blizzard with all of your stuff and then trying to put on shoe covers. Member homes are usually filthy, with multiple animals, kids, family members, etc that should not be present. Constantly exposed to cigarette smoke. Seeing too many people a day- if you work 10 hours you have 7 people. Now they overbook us to 8 even though we are already pressed for time. Don’t think that’s bad? Ok.. add in long drive times, sometimes in bad conditions, and they will have you driving back and forth and around in circles. The scheduler very rarely gets a description of the house. Most do not have house numbers visible. They will tell you it’s a mobile home.. within a mobile home park! The charting system is TERRIBLE. Need for IT help but when is there time for that? Youre supposed to support any diagnoses but half the time the patient doesn’t know why they are on a med or know most of their health history. Calling provider relations for help with your schedule, I.e if you are overbooked or cannot see a patient- they are usually rude. Meanwhile, you’re the one out in the field busting your rear struggling. Your manager really doesn’t have any control over your workload either, they have managers above them, and more managers above them and so on. Poor work life balance. Charting after your long day of constant rushing. Meetings after work hours. Extra trainings and random extra stuff you need to do after hours or fit it in your workday with patients- good luck! Really enjoyed doing telehealth during the pandemic and they basically took it away. This should still be an option for providers and patients who prefer this method. If you want to see extra people, pay should be more than $100 a visit with all of the work and frustration involved. Come on Multiple different systems and websites used for different things I have never found any other job opportunities for NP’s posted other than Housecalls Management is too focused on numbers Added incentives for all of your hard work would be nice. Especially because we are out in the trenches, DURING A PANDEMIC doing all of the hard work. Bothered with chart reviews asking you to add diagnoses after time has passed. You will see so many people you won’t remember that day. Often you don’t have enough information to support the diagnoses anyways. Doing a worthless PAD screening- which is not reliable. You could scan the same extremity more than once and get different readings each time. This is now added onto almost every patient visit. Time consuming, patients don’t understand what it’s for either. You spend so much time explaining all of the stuff you have to do. Patients are irritated with visit length. Visits should be more catered to specific problem and streamlined. Some only want a short visit but you cannot shorten it bc there is so much required! Your manager will follow you every couple of months for a whole day to watch you during your visits to make sure you’re doing everything correctly. Then you’re graded and have to meet with them afterwards. Talk about nerve racking. I literally feel like I’m treated like a child. Oh and call all of your patients for tomorrow at the end of the day to remind them of their appts.. bc you have time for that too…