Miami - Anonymous employee ChenMed Employee Review

Dear Employee in Miami, Thank you for taking the time to write and sharing your concerns. I’ve had a chance to digest your post and I am saddened by your experience. My perception is you don’t feel valued; and if we adequately lived our values of love, accountability and passion your experience with us might be much different. At ChenMed, we have demonstrated that we can reduce hospitalizations and ER visits for the old, the poor and the sick. Because we have proven our results repeatedly, we have a strong culture predicated on a desire to spread our success to others in need. In fact, we believe spreading our solution to this needy population is akin to a moral obligation for social justice. I can see, however, where our “passion” towards our patients could be viewed differently. We try and strike a balance between passion to help the neediest and kindness to our staff. We occasionally miss the mark and we can certainly do better. Imbalances occur because we are growing rapidly. At all levels, our amazing ChenMed team members embrace our approach because they believe in the results and feel an urgency to transform care for Seniors. Rapid growth has been the single biggest challenge for about 15-25 percent of our people. They struggle to keep up with the demands of our patients and the communities we serve. This is a continuous theme and we take it seriously. Here are the steps we are taking to help mitigate the issue. First, I have asked senior leadership to perform roles on the front lines to understand “the day in the life” of team members who touch patients daily. Although I continue to see patients as a physician, I have also experienced life as a “care promoter” for a fast-growing panel of patients. I learned a lot and so did everyone else. This leads to the next item. Second, we are refocusing our process improvement forces and extraordinary technology people to find ways to make jobs easier. If we can remove steps and make jobs easier without threatening our patients’ results we will be able to grow more effectively and fewer people will feel overwhelmed. Our goal is to reduce the 15-25 percent who are overwhelmed to 5 percent or less. Third, we have pushed accountability to deliver better health to the local teams. In doing so our central team is going through a cultural pivot. Today, the central teams are becoming enablers and supporters more than direct managers. This transition is difficult but we are committed to it. Lastly, we are vigorously updating our training and onboarding. This starts with leadership. Since the beginning of 2018, I’ve personally kicked off new employee orientation. We have also done an all-market tour for existing employees and have set up additional retraining to ensure that every person will have the best chance to succeed. At ChenMed, we must continue growing. In existing and potential markets there are neighborhoods in which the average life expectancy is 20-30 years less than wealthier and more affluent neighborhoods in the same cities. This outcry for social justice pushes us daily. Sincerely, Dr. Chris Chen