Pros
- The patient population is one that genuinely deserves quality, specialized care
- A remote model has real potential, if executed correctly
- I met some great friends
Cons
This organization has serious structural and ethical problems that place both providers and patients at significant risk. What follows is a pattern of institutional failures that clinical staff experience daily.
**Licensing & Compliance**
Providers have been pressured to practice in states where they are not licensed and asked to misrepresent information on licensing applications. Inaccurate information has been provided regarding licensing and credentialing requirements. These are not administrative oversights, they are legal and ethical violations that put providers' licenses on the line.
**Patient Safety**
There are little to no criteria for medical clearance prior to admission. Patients have been admitted without signed consent forms. Providers cannot discharge patients who require a higher level of care which in turn creates the illusion of care and delays getting patients to the appropriate level of care needed for recovery. The organization routinely expects clinicians to practice outside their scope, including in areas like palliative care, without appropriate training, credentials, or support.
**Clinical Autonomy**
Scheduling is micromanaged to a degree that is both exhausting and demeaning, with audits enforcing identical week-over-week hours and virtually no flexibility. Non-clinical office staff dictate clinical workflows. Access to patient records is arbitrarily restricted - labs older than two weeks and charts older than three months have been deemed off-limits without supervisor approval, creating clinically dangerous delays. Delegation of care is discouraged; providers are expected to manage it themselves under the guise of relationship-building/PR.
**Work Conditions**
Providers are expected to be available well beyond 40 hours per week. Patients have unrestricted direct messaging access around the clock, with little to no structural boundaries in place to protect provider well-being.
**Culture & Leadership**
When patients abuse staff, leadership's response has been to tell providers to develop thicker skin rather than intervene. Legitimate clinical concerns are met with toxic positivity and dismissal. Burnout is not addressed by reducing unreasonable demands, instead, providers are being told they cannot hold a second job. Nurses, MAs, NPs, PAs, and physicians go unrecognized during their respective appreciation weeks. There is no meaningful path for professional growth.
Most alarmingly, the organization is now hiring staff with no eating disorder experience to care for a medically complex and vulnerable population. This is not a minor gap, eating disorder care requires specialized training, and placing undertrained clinicians in these roles is a patient safety issue.