Amazon's primary care clinic One Medical allegedly provided guidelines for their employees to use when discussing situations when their call center did not appropriately escalate urgent calls to medical staff, The Washington Post reported July 15.
According to internal messages reviewed by The Post, One Medical instructed staff to reassure patients that despite failures to escalate urgent calls, adequate care was provided. The report highlighted incidents flagged at a Tempe, Ariz., call center, where 16 cases labeled "failure to clinically escalate" included patients reporting chest tightness and severe headaches. Instead of immediate clinical evaluation, they were scheduled for office visits.
Responding to these findings, Amazon acknowledged to The Post that two cases required immediate escalation, though records for six cases could not be located. One Medical's internal messaging, shared on Slack, indicated that all incidents were reviewed by a safety team and concluded that patients received necessary care in every instance, without addressing specific errors or the missing records.
When questioned about the talking points provided to staff, One Medical spokesperson Dawn Brun admitted mishandling in the two highlighted cases. She emphasized that while these patients eventually received necessary care during office visits, initial phone handling could have been more effective.
Ms. Brun also addressed leaked documents referencing six incidents, including cases involving symptoms like "stomach pain and blood in stool" and "sudden rib pain," as reported by The Post. One Medical, unable to verify these cases, expressed uncertainty over their involvement with senior care patients.
In a response posted on Amazon's website July 16, One Medical CEO Trent Green disputed The Post's portrayal of events as "misleading and incomplete." Mr. Green argued that out of nearly 200,000 patient interactions in a month, the identified cases represented a small fraction, acknowledging room for improvement in managing calls.
Mr. Green highlighted One Medical's 2020 decision to centralize phone support for improved patient access, extending this approach in 2024 to support senior patients. Since implementing these changes, the company reported a 40% increase in answered calls, with 95% answered in under two minutes, and overwhelmingly positive feedback from patient surveys, according to Mr. Green.
Amazon acquired One Medical in February 2023.