Oregon Health & Science University Reviews in Portland, OR Area

Pros

The overall atmosphere of the research side of OHSU is casual and laid back, even amongst high profile scientists.

Cons

There are VERY limited growth opportunities if you join as a postdoc.

Advice to Senior Management

Make the compensation of senior research positions competitive and have more of these positions available since in this job market, postdocs have no place to go and are valuable contributors to the science.

Pros

Gaining experience in a variety of areas for developing your career in healthcare.
Overall, great "on-service" medical teams family medicine & general medicine physician teams

Cons

Depending on the unit you work, most shifts experience with extremely difficult patient demographics (ie: constant physical, verbal and emotional abuse)

Benefits USED to be reasonable...though every year they are diminishing and changing policies, increasing deductibles, and percentage of employee payout ( for the worse), and dropping features and services.

HORRIBLE "off service" unprofessionalism from specialty service physicians.

Worst of all? Unprofessional management who is completely out of touch with the realities of day to day operations.

Advice to Senior Management

KNOW your staff and their WORK, find redeaming qualities in your staff members, encourage and develop those qualities and invest in them, you will cultivate productivity instead of firing off "nasty gram" emails by the hundreds and expecting a high moral, and better team work. Negativity breeds Negativity; it just doesn't work.

Pros

great benefits, although the union is currently bargaining, so who knows what will happen. My department offers very flexible hours and I work in a more isolated environment where I am able to hide from the daily bull crap that goes on in the rest of the university.
Oh yeah, and they have a super expensive tram with no climate control.

Cons

Poor executive leadership.
Hypocritical upper level managers/division directors
People making decisions for others without considering the needs of people doing the work.
Joe Robertson's stupid emails talking about budget crisis when he owns three homes and got a $1million + bonus last year.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a freaking paycut and show some humanity. Oh, and learn how to run a business where everyone benefits, not just the people who are already high on the hog.

Pros

The benefit package is pretty nice. They contribute an amount equal to 12 percent of your salary to retirement, have excellent medical coverage, and a lot of vacation/sick time (if you aren't in the union).

Cons

There are very few parking spots and you have to wait between 5 and 8 years to even get one, then once you do you have to pay 100 dollars a month for it. Taking the bus can take way too long unless you live close and waiting at a bus stop in the rain sucks. The wages for research staff are pretty low, union wages are ok but you get a lot less vacation time.

Advice to Senior Management

Meh.

Pros

good work ethic and collegial. There are some exceptional individuals who are working on some cutting edge stuff. The University also works with local hi-tech companies and other universities such as Portland State and Oregon State. This gives an opportunity to explore areas that otherwise are hard to come by

Cons

Career growth is stunted as many folks work for long time and new openings aren't created that often. This creates a situation where years on job is given a disproportionate share of credit over creativity and dynamism. Since this is an academic medical center, the dice is loaded in favor of health care professionals and those in other careers have to live with it.

Advice to Senior Management

Help foster a learning environment

Pros

OHSU is on a hill west of Portland. It has beautiful views of the city, especially at night and the tram is a very nice way to get up and down the hill. Buses run late into the night which makes it easy to come up if you don't have a car. You also get an awesome discount on a trimet pass. The benefits are a major reason to consider OHSU. This being my first real job I was impressed by what they were offering me. OHSU is also a great learning environment and has a team atmosphere where you can ask all the questions you want and receive help. There are plenty of opportunities to advance in OHSU, either within your area or in another part of the hospital. They have every kind of program and research topic you can think of.

Cons

Be prepared to work hard, depending on your role at the University or hospital, you will be working more than 50 hours a week - regularly. Some days you will work 6 hours and others you will work 12. Science does not have a 9-5 schedule. It also takes a long time to commute. Buses run often but it takes me 10 minutes in a car and at least an hour on 2 different buses. Compensation is not the best but again this being my first job I did not expect much. If you are in the research field as I am job security could be a concern, especially in this economy.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more understanding about life-work balance

Pros

Colleagues are generally friendly. The pay is much better than the VA Hospital next door, and the benefits are great. They offer 11% contribution to your 401k, without you having to put anything towards it yourself.

Cons

The department I worked for lacked in its ability to identify problems. The physicians were very busy, very good at what they did, but seemed to not leave time to really handle organizational and non-physician staff problems.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to the organization and personnel issues within your team. Be a leader, deal directly with your team members and be decisive and clear about heirarchy and authority.

Pros

Researchers labs seem to have a very laid back attitude which makes for a very comfortable work environment but does not produce optimal productivity. Communication within departments is good but institution level interactions are rare. Commuting options are excellent, even providing monetary incentives ride your bike to work (how Portland!). Nice view.

Cons

Cumbersome institutional administration, little social interaction within my department. Good research fills a niche but is not cutting edge or exciting as that going on elsewhere. Focus is definitely more on the hospital side of the operation (ie the moneymaker) rather than research side. Came to feel more like a 9 to 5 commitment than an engaging pursuit.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the tram free

Pros

The university is doing cutting edge research in the field of neuroscience, molecular biology, and cancer therapies.

Cons

Depending on advisor, postdocs may not receive adequate "mentoring" and may be treated as workers, not trainees.

Advice to Senior Management

Not sure how one can change the current "postdoc" culture.

Pros

It is Portland's largest employer. It is on the cutting edge of medical research. It is doing exciting things that draw the attention of the community and the nation.

Cons

The bureacracy is many layered and sometimes slow moving.

Advice to Senior Management

None