Amazon’s One Medical faces scrutiny over call center practices
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES—Amazon’s primary care clinic, One Medical, is being criticized for providing misleading information about errors at its call center.
According to a report by The Washington Post, Amazon acknowledged incidents where patients with potentially urgent symptoms were not escalated to medical staff as required. Despite this, internal talking points instructed One Medical staff to assure patients that they “received the care they needed.”
Internal communications contradict public statements
Screenshots of internal messages obtained by The Washington Post revealed that One Medical circulated talking points to its workers, downplaying the severity of the reported errors.
Workers were instructed to tell patients that an internal safety team had reviewed the incidents and concluded that “in all instances, our patients received the care they needed.” This statement did not acknowledge the errors or the fact that One Medical could not find records for six of the flagged calls.
Specific cases highlight potential risks
The Post’s recent investigation highlighted specific cases where the call center failed to escalate urgent calls.
For example, a patient reporting chest tightness was scheduled for an office visit instead of being immediately transferred to clinical staff. Another case involved a patient with a severe headache who did not receive a timely medical evaluation. Amazon admitted that these cases should have been escalated immediately.
In response, One Medical spokesperson Dawn Brun acknowledged the mishandling of the two highlighted cases. “While the patients ended up receiving the care they needed (during in-person visits with their providers), the initial call could have been managed more effectively,” she stated.
Brun also mentioned that the company could not verify six incidents referenced in the leaked documents, suggesting uncertainty about whether those patients were indeed One Medical Seniors patients.
Training and staffing concerns emerge
The Washington Post’s report also brought attention to the qualifications and training of call center staff.
Current and former employees, as well as patients, expressed concerns that minimal qualifications and limited training for call center staff led to potentially dangerous mishandling of patient calls. Some staff were contractors hired by a staffing agency, which further complicated the situation.
Previous directives raise transparency issues
This is not the first time One Medical has directed staff to provide selective answers to patient inquiries.
Training documents previously reported by The Post instructed call center staff not to draw attention to whether a patient’s inquiry was being handled by a doctor’s office, a call center, or via telehealth. Instead, the documents aimed to reassure patients of the competence of the One Medical Support Specialist.
The revelations about One Medical’s internal handling of call center errors raise significant concerns about patient safety and transparency.
While Amazon and One Medical assert that their safety protocols are robust and that patients receive necessary care, the discrepancies between internal communications and public statements suggest a need for greater accountability and improved training for call center staff.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, which reported these findings.
