If you value your personal life and your finances then Davita Healthcare is not the company for you. I went to work for DaVita after 6 years and a Biomedical Tech for a small Renal Dialysis company. I was lured in by the thoughts of working for a Fortune 500 company. Well let me tel you, was I sure wrong.
First off we will talk about the pay and reimbursements, the reason that we work. Starting pay for an experienced Biomed at DaVita is on level with the national average. But, when it comes to giving raises the maximum company wide is 2.5%. When in comes to mileage reimbursements they stick it to you good. If you drive under 1000 miles a month then you can expect to be paid back 52 cents for all business miles. But if you drive more than than 1000 miles a month(which is very likely, unless you have all your clinics in one city), then your compensation is based on an average cost for your location. I received 21.5 cents per mile for all business miles and 210 dollars a month for wear and tear. By the end of the month you will end up paying out of your own pocket for work travel.
Next, the hours. DaVita will lure you in talking about how flexible your schedule will be. What they fail to mention is that you won't be the one who gets any flexibility out of this. DaVita Biomeds are on call 24 hours a day and rotating weekend shifts. If one of the medical employees forget how to turn a machine on a 2 in the morning then, woops you are going to be giving them step-by-step instructions over the phone at 2:01. All of this adds up to a company wide mandate of NO OVERTIME. So on Thursday when you are out of hours your Area Biomed Supervisor will be on the phone asking why didn't you save your hours. They will try to get you to work off the clock because the company needs it done and they want their monthly numbers under.
Your job responsibilities will be that you maintain all dialysis machine(average national dialysis load per Biomed is 55+), all water treatment equipment(ie reverse osmosis systems and filtration systems), maintain all clinical facalites(fix anything that doesn't require a mechanical contractor), maintain all anciliary medical equipment(centrifuges, IV equipment etc). Doesn't sound like much but remember that you will have 2 to 3 different facilities that you will have to cover. When something does break don't expect to have parts on hand to fix them because you won't. One of DaVitas biggest money savings schemes is not to allow Biomed to keep parts on hand. So when something does break you have to order in from a Vendor and have it sent. But don't expect it to work always because DaVita tries its hardest to order remaned parts(ok in the automotive world but a big no no in the medical industry).
The last one is the Davita "Culture" with a huge emphasis on the cult in culture. Expect in your first few months to be sent off to DaVita Academy. Here they will bombard you with all kinds of sayings, core values(which they expect you to uphold, while they don't) and the history and future of where DaVita has been and where they are headed. DaVita says that they are striving to become the best health care provider in the world but their only concern is money not patients. I know that a business only stays in business if they do turn a profit but they are just greedy. Don't sell out like I did to all the fancy letter head. Find a company that values you for what you bring to the table knowledge and integrty wise, not how much money you can save them. I don't hate Davita I just wish that I had done more research before I jumped on board.
