Pros
Excellent relationship with co-workers. Doctors are approachable, trust our judgment and treat us as respected members of the team. Immediate supervisor is approachable and easy to talk to. (This reflects my individual department I can not speak for other departments) Long term relationship with patients. We see them regularly and frequently. We get to know many of them very well.
Cons
It's been a rough ride since being acquired by SSM. Dean was a physician owed company so you worked with the owners every day. They truly cared about the employees and treated them fairly. SSM is very corporate and it's about the bottom line. The people who are losing are the employees. Being the largest (and one of few) clinic systems they own it is pretty obvious their thing is hospitals and they are not grasping clinics operate differently. They are also clueless about HMO markets. SSM is not family friendly (although they like to tell you they are) Cost of benefits to employees with families has gone up A LOT since SSM took over. People with families have to pay a higher percentage of their health insurance costs. Family is 25%, employee +1 is 20%, single is 15%. If your spouses employer offers insurance then you get to pay and extra $150/ mo. This was an increase of $210/ mo for employees with families (before the usual yearly increase). Health care costs went down for singles. (The plan coverage is also not as good as it used to be) Non planned absences went down from 7 days in a rolling 12 month period to 3 days. But they give you $7000 to adopt a child (you then just won't be able to afford your insurance)