Pros
This company had a lot of upside, especially right when it merged with a competitor late 2014. There was a great basis for an engaging culture, a dynamic set of principles to support innovation, and deep pockets from investors. The culture was full of energy, the excitement and intrigue from a honeymoon stage of the merger provided a great platform for takeoff, and there seemed to be no real competitors to the size and speed of the new organization. However:
Cons
The reality is that a lot of what was said to the organization when the merger occurred turned out to be more of a strategic retention tool rather than truth, so that there wasn't a mass exodus of talent from the Cogent side. They clearly showed they wanted to attempt to retain personnel with systems knowledge, client relationships, and individuals who influenced culture until it was no longer useful to Sound. Sound then, over the next year, systematically deconstructed most of the Cogent departments. The policies of why were never explained, but most of the actions taken were symptomatic of egotistical leadership and clear disregard for the humanity and livelihood of their newly acquired employees. Clearly poor decision making was occurring at a very high level; some brief examples: deciding to use the Sound Physician's legacy paper-based accounting system, rather than Cogent's electronic-based accounting systems; complete lack of communication from the C-suite on vision or intention with the corporate offices of Cogent, thereby leaving many people unsure if they would have a job; redundancy in many of their payroll systems, resulting in many illegal tax-related practices; illicit disregard for security risks associated with personal health information, social security numbers, etc; lack of compliance with SEC based on their accounting reporting capabilities. Aside from all of this, Sound was becoming a financial mess. They started hemorrhaging some of their largest clients. They implemented a hiring freeze (outside of clinical, acute care positions). A new initiative, which they had invested millions of dollars into, fell quite short of their expectations and was never mentioned again. Many hospitalist programs' p&l statements started showing quite a bit of red. Many critical-function departments started paring down personnel; those who left were not replaced, leaving a skeleton crew. Many of the understaffed departments then started losing some of their best employees, which resulted in a heavy turnover rate. There are other more subjective circumstances that I could illustrate as well, of favoritism and sloppy/ethically questionable practices, degrading culture, office politics, and newly implemented big-brother policies; however, I feel giving a clear financial picture of the direction of the company speaks just as strongly without being called libel. Amidst all of this disaster, there are plenty of wonderful people there who are trying to make a living. A lot of the smart ones got out though. I have heard rumors that the company that owns a majority stake of Sound, is unhappy with the current leadership combination and might shake things up. I believe this is where most of the problems started and can probably be fixed, but the potential and upside of the original Merger that I had originally seen is far removed from the now daunting task of climbing out of their mess. I only write such a critical piece on Sound, their leadership, and direction, because I would want to hear this while considering to either partner with this hospitalist provider or become employed by them. I would suggest you probe further, especially if you are reading this at a much later date than when this was posted, because things can still change here. There are still plenty of wonderful people here, and you can definitely make a career here.
