A sad ending and very mixed feelings. - Partner Physician Kaiser Permanente Employee Review

3.0
Nov 3, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The best reasons to work for Kaiser Permanente-West Los Angeles would be the following: you like following rules, you enjoy structure and stability (after your first three years of uncertainty of course when you can be fired for any reason), and you crave certainly. Once you make partner anything short of a felony conviction cannot get rid of you. As long as you show up for work and do the bare minimum (and you don't mind the scorn of your peers and the occasional talking to) you can stay until retirement and finish with a cushy pension and retirement account. The number of sick days allowed are enormous, as are the number of vacation days. Bad behavior is not punished but rather rewarded as long as it does not cross over the line legally. If you have no conscience and want to practice medicine of least resistance, by all means, join this company..... Compensation is generous however if you add up the insurance and the sick/vacation leave. Work life balance is touted but is quite the joke. The pay structure for primary care is such that you are paid for 8 hours of clinic a day no matter how long you work. I generally worked 10-11 hours and was uncompensated so my real pay was much lower. The specialists are paid differently ( I know this because I was married to one and he would be paid for every moment he stepped into the building, and at higher and higher rates depending on the lateness of the hour).

Cons

Please see above. Somehow my pros devolved into cons. Upper management was so top heavy that it could barely balance. After 5-7 years there few people wanted to do the actual work of doctoring and tried to make the jump into administration with varying results. The overarching result however was that there were too few people seeing patients and too many people giving presentations.

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5.0
Jun 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Learned a lot, coworkers nice

Cons

N/a no cons in my experience

4.0
Sep 9, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Kaiser is a great place to work and build a career over time. In my experience salaries are above market for most positions, and the benefits are so good that many people become "lifers". The health coverage is extremely generous, and time off starts off adequate and gets better over time (18 days when you start, moving up to 33 after 15+ years - this does not include sick time). Employees truly believe in the mission of KP (at least, I do) and it's clear that this is a place where employees' contributions are valued. Although my role is not part of any of the unions, the fact that our workforce is predominantly unionized also places a positive role in KP's reputation as a good place for workers (although having unionized staff also presents many challenges). Overall, I enjoy working at KP and would recommend it to others, but understand that you are entering a big bureaucracy. A friendly, mission-driven bureaucracy, but still.

Cons

Cons: having lots of "lifers" means that innovative ideas and workflows are not always adopted without a fight. People have their roles deeply embedded here, and any threat to the status quo is seen as negative, even though we need to make some pretty radical changes given the new health care environment post-ACA. There's a lot of "not my job" attitudes here. It's hard to navigate the layers of bureaucracy, both in terms of personnel/HR/benefits, and in getting work done (there are often 4-5 departments at the regional and national KP levels working on similar areas, and no guidance on who does what.) Be aware that KP is not immune to reorganizations and layoffs -- they do make a good attempt to ensure workers are hired elsewhere in the organization, but there are no guarantees, and there can be a lot of turnover in certain departments. Benefits are currently generous but are always subject to downgrades in the future, so just be aware of that. Some changes to the pension and retiree medical benefits are about to hit, and with them a wave of Baby Boomers will be taking retirement, which should hopefully open up many new management opportunities for Millennials. Oh, and the biggest con of all: we still - STILL - use Lotus Notes for email. Shocking, I know, but true.

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