Working at Allscripts — Reviews by Employees

All the reviews about issues with work/life balance are true. You work with clients from coast to coast no matter what timezone you live in and are expected to be accessible pretty much anytime. They say you are not and should block time for personal use, but this is not reality.

With the push for EHR's based on government incentives and "the street" pushing for greater earnings good luck with additional staff being hired to a point where employees can enjoy time away from work.

Customers are a huge focus here and the crazy hours we work are to their benefit.

First, let me say that even though overall, I did not like the company, I did like the job. I had been pretty unhappy since the beginning, but I will tell you this. Don't just reject them because everyone on here says its bad. Take the job knowing what you are getting yourself into, and use this as a learning opportunity. They will love it if you learn more because you will be more valuable to them, but don't necessarily expect that to translate into a promotion. Thats where the stepping stone comes into play.

Pay is extremely pitiful. Your previous experience has little bearing to what you receive. They generally give you less or significantly less than what you ask for. I've read that there are two types of companies: One will pay you as much as they can possibly afford and expect you to give them your all. The other, will pay you as little as they think they can get away with, and will expect the world from you and will make you think that you are getting a good deal. Needless to say, they are not the former.


The Burlington area is absolutely wonderful. Depending on which team you get placed on, some allow you to work from home, while others require you to be on site (you can technically work from anywhere with an internet connection, especially once you learn product). Benefits are pretty good in that you have a pretty comprehensive benefits plan. I'm not entirely impressed by their 401(k) or PTO plans, but everything else is decent.

Job security is high because they can't afford to let people go (unless you do something really really bad). Job turnover is extremely high in that you can become a senior technician in less than a year (senior meaning top 30% in terms of employment duration for your team).

Work life balance: Lets say you will be married to your job. You will eat, breathe, sleep and sleep with your job. But again, you get to LEARN a lot along the way. Use that to bolster your career.

Generally, you get to work with a bunch of great people. But as with organizations that have a high turnover rate, something is wrong with management.

Work life, when you are in the office can be pretty fun at times (depending on the team that you work for). However, the work-life issues severely hinders my rating in this category.

Overall, I would take a job with them, use the knowledge and experience that you gain from there to prepare for bigger and better. If you work hard and put in the time, I think you will be rewarded later on, and will look back positively on your experience.

Seeing a lot of negative postings here but personally I've had a great experience at Allscripts. The leadership team that I interact with is, without exception, the most professional, competent, and committed group of individuals I've ever had the pleasure of working with in corporate America. Sure, they work harder than anyone else. But I disagree that the long hours are the results of chaos. These people are committed to their clients, and to improving health care. I don't have a window into everything going on in development and implementations, but I interact with people across every business unit and I have found that Allscripts employs people who are highly competent, high energy achievers and generally quite brilliant. The level of talent here is extraordinary. I'm not that happy with my benefits, but then neither is anyone else in corporate America today. If all I wanted was great benefits, I'd go back to the nonprofit world. But I honestly feel that I'm making a meaningful difference in the lives of thousands of physicians and patients every day. That's not something you can say about most jobs. Concerning the merger, everyone talked about massive layoffs when we acquired A4 in 2006 - it never happened. Instead we've added more than a hundred people. Overall, if you want a challenging, high energy job working with brilliant people accomplishing great things, this is the place for you. If you're prone to negativity, and defeatist attitudes, go ahead and and all you like...