Merge Healthcare Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Merge Healthcare full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Some teams are very close
Some managers listen
Some senior managers show concern
Some people get training
Some great exposure to varying products
Some people get staffing offshore and exposure to diversity

Cons – Teams are close out of necessity for surviving the bombs that are constantly getting lobbed at them when product moves from stage to stage.
Managers listen when they think it could affect their image or job
Senior managers show concern depending on visibility...otherwise its management by magazine article or webinar and promoted based on some muppet scale (insert snide puppet comment here).
From personal observation - people get no training provided by the company unless it has to do with maintaining regulatory statutes...otherwise - the employee has to get their credit card out and grovel for reimbursement only to be denied for a plethora of reasons or just have to pay for it themselves...but a whole building can be repainted orange...
You get exposure by fire when the senior management for that department get their tails in a bind and they pass the vice on down to their line of reports with unrealistic expectations, over generalization and just flat out inability to manage (wait - wouldn't job training be a great idea here?!?!)...
You get staff that you have train while keeping the ball moving forward on any of the several simultaneous products/releases you are assigned to while performing multiple duties on those products or releases and then getting berated at the end saying you aren't doing enough work...

Advice to Senior Management – Overall - figure out what direction you want to go. Stop the firefighting because you didn't have the common sense to look at dates and prior commitments to balance the workload amongst near anorexic staffing. Outsourcing is not the answer. Stop jumping over a dollar for a penny. You have ultra talented staff - train them formally, unify your vision and actually stick to it and you can achieve everything that sounds like hooey when its regurgitated in every quarterly meeting. Oh, and finally, ensure your management stop making veiled threats with comments like "...and be careful what you say next...". That is inflammatory, demeaning and threatening wording that could get you into trouble if it were to create a hostile work environment.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Merge Healthcare full-time for more than a year

Pros – This is a great place to work if you like working in a sweatshop. Low wages, long hours including 12 hour mandatory weekend shifts. The good thing is you are swamped with 100s of dissatisfied customers calling you.

Cons – Their management staff is ridiculous, they stink, they ride their employees, with no pay, no bonus and the workload is EXTREMELY HIGH, beyond what a normal work routine. Similar to a sweatshop. They treat their employees horribly

Advice to Senior Management – I wouldn't work here if you paid me, listen to your employees, because the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers. Im surprised your still in business. The lowest ranked company everywhere

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Merge Healthcare full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good benifits, nothing else really to speak of. If you were part of the team that they wanted to keep after the merger they knew who you were if not you were dead to them!

Cons – Upper Management has really no idea of what is really going on, they are always just looking to stay alive and keep there own job. All hail the Corporate Office everyone else is just window dressing for show. They do not do their due dilligence prior to their mergers and sometimes get caught with their pants down!

Advice to Senior Management – Respect the ones that really earn the money for the Company, and that is not in Chicago!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Merge Healthcare full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – - Ok comp and benefits (must negotiate comp and benefits - they will offer low to begin with).

Cons – - Senior management/executive management cannot be trusted. Each seem to have their agenda and may not necessarily align with others.
- Senior management is reactive - not until something is broke and the company is beginning to lose customers that they will do something about it. Like hiring the resources needed to do the work.
- Many in management are not cut out to be managers - no experience or the training needed to be effective in their positions.
- No career path. From what I've seen, this company's MO is to get as much out of the employee as possible, until they quit or their manager quits, then a career path may open.
- I gave this company a chance and stayed for at least 2 years. 2 years of being overworked, frustrated at not having resources to do my job, and doing what I can to keep things afloat in my area of responsibility and getting good reviews...what do I get in return? A joke of a bonus and a joke of a raise (<2% in 2 years). My significant other nearly left because of the amount of time I spent at work to do a decent job. No incentive to do well, no incentive among other employees to do well either.

Advice to Senior Management – - Clean house, senior management should be people with a unified vision with other executives that can stabilize then grow a business.
- Spend some money and hire the resources you need. Don't wait for a threat before acting, be proactive.
- Train your managers.
- Trust your mid-level managers, train them to do their jobs, and don't micromanage them.
- Identify your top talent and groom them. Have a career path for them that grooms them to be effective future managers.
- Take care of your top talent and go-getters. They are going to work until things get done, and if they are overworked, get them help or they will leave.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Merge Healthcare full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The staff is nice. The commute in Wisconsin is not bad.

Cons – Executive and senior management are beyond bad

Advice to Senior Management – At this point...not much to say. Only people left are those who can't find work elsewhere.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Merge Healthcare full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – -There are some great people who work there
-Some good experience to be had within HIT.
-No lack of work to be done
-Some decent products

Cons – -They have little to no respect for employees lives outside of work.
-They need to spend MUCH more time and money engineering and validating solid products and consistent documentation.
-Way too focused on rushing unfinished releases and products out the door to make numbers. (could say that about pretty much any software company's, but not all)
-Very unstable work enviroment.
-Most if not all deptartments are overloaded and stressed. This is where the life/work balance gets it's low scores.
-There is no in depth product line traing for new employees. - this one is very bad because they have sales, support and project managment teams telling customers things that aren't always consistent. A lot of times streaming down from the higher-ups that don't truely know the technical aspect.

Advice to Senior Management – They need to spend more timing focusing on the customers and better product releases, aside from forecasting numbers. They need to have a much more full proof plan for new employee product training and up to date documentation to go with.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Merge Healthcare full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Decent medical and dental benefits

Cons – Below average vacation plan, little to no room for upward growth, difficult to move to new position within the company, no real rewards or bonuses unless you are in sales, upper management is more concerned in making stockholders happy then keeping employees happy or rewarding good work.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Merge Healthcare

Pros – None? I guess maybe Money?

Cons – Poor communication, no inclusion of anyone. They feel slimy, everything is about adding more charges every time you can. Even if the charge is not necessary.

Advice to Senior Management – A mission statement that was actually followed and disseminated throughtout the organization would help immensely. Need more team building activities.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Merge Healthcare

Pros – Enjoyed working with the people on my project team, flexible work schedule, Merge has interesting ideas for integrating health IT systems.

Cons – Lack of respect for employees from upper management, who are more concerned about putting on a "show" for customers and the bottom line. Constantly putting strain on development teams due to lack of resources, time, and support. Very unorganized because of all the acquisitions, they need to concentrate on the products they already have.

Advice to Senior Management – Throw the employees a bone every now and then. Give them the resources to do their jobs effectively instead of handing out iPads like candy to customers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Merge Healthcare

Pros – I'm trying to think of just one positive thing to say about Merge Healthcare, but for the life of me, can't think of anything, other than working with some very talented health IT developers.

Cons – No resources. No resources. No resources. Loud mouths. Yelling. Scary derrieres. Lots of swear words. Lots of threats and the F-word used frequently.

Advice to Senior Management – Please hurry and sell this company to Allscripts, or other player who really knows what they are doing in the healthcare IT space. Puh-leeeeeease!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend