In the complaint, Kim alleges that after she “reported harassment, discrimination, and patient safety concerns,” One Medical leaders “initiated a retaliatory and selectively structured investigation designed to discredit her rather than address the reported misconduct.” She is also accusing One Medical of discrimination and harassment.
The following month, she was abruptly fired from the Palo Alto clinic she helped manage and was “escorted from the workplace” the same day, according to a lawsuit she filed last month against her former employer.
Last summer, Dr. Sue Kim was worried about the quality of care at One Medical, the Amazon-owned primary care provider where she had worked for more than a decade. In July, she brought those concerns to her supervisors.
“One Medical is committed to maintaining the highest standards of patient care, and we fully investigate and take appropriate action to resolve concerns and do not retaliate against employees who raise them,” Schumer said.
Amazon declined to comment on “the specifics of this personnel matter.” But spokesperson Samantha Schumer said in an email that the company “dispute[s] the allegations in this complaint, and this employee was not terminated in response to raising safety concerns.”
Kim and her lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
The safety concerns Kim raises in her complaint include “inadequate training, unclear workflows, and insufficient support for clinicians navigating complex care issues.” One Medical employees had previously blown the whistle on safety issues caused by the mishandling of patient phone calls by staffers with insufficient medical training, The Washington Post (opens in new tab) reported in 2024.
Amazon acquired One Medical for $3.9 billion in early 2023, which means the tech giant is three years into transforming it from a chain of boutique healthcare clinics into Amazon Health, the country’s largest virtual doctor’s office. To do that, Amazon has consolidated medical office staff and expanded its telehealth services, hired remote employees, and promoted cheap medical plans to Amazon Prime subscribers. The company’s goal is to use technology to make primary care as convenient as home delivery. Kim’s lawsuit, which hasn’t been previously reported, pulls back the curtain on Amazon’s entrée into healthcare.
In One Medical’s early days, patients typically came to the service because it was a perk provided by their employers. One Medical was founded in San Francisco in 2007, and one of its biggest customers was Google. But Google dropped its One Medical contract (opens in new tab) in 2024, after Amazon bought the company.
Kim worked in a One Medical office on Google’s campus until it closed in 2024; she then relocated to an office in Palo Alto. According to her lawsuit, that’s where her trouble began.
Throughout her tenure at One Medical, Kim said, she received positive performance reviews and high ratings. But after becoming medical director of two Palo Alto clinics, she repeatedly clashed with an operations manager she accuses in the complaint of publicly undermining her and sowing division among staff.
According to her lawsuit, Kim in May 2025 formally complained about this employee’s conduct, which she describes as demeaning treatment constituting illegal harassment. In July, she filed a second complaint in which she raised “good-faith concerns regarding patient safety, training deficiencies, and inconsistent clinical policies related to gender-affirming care.” According to the lawsuit, her goal was “to safeguard patient care, protect clinicians, and ensure compliance with applicable medical and professional standards, as well as laws.”
One Medical responded by launching an investigation into Kim’s management, the complaint says. On Aug. 27, 2025, she was told she had created a toxic working environment and was fired — a decision she describes in the suit as “punitive reaction to her advocacy.”
Amazon has a famously exacting and sometimes harsh workplace culture and a track record of unsuccessful experiments in healthcare, including the Berkshire Hathaway- and J.P. Morgan-backed insurance play Haven (opens in new tab) and a home health project called Amazon Care (opens in new tab) .
Current and former One Medical employees who spoke on condition of anonymity said Amazon has pressured clinical staff to hit productivity metrics, maintain high patient rating scores, and incorporate AI into their daily work. These employees were not familiar with the specifics of Kim’s situation in Palo Alto but said communication issues between operational employees like call center staffers and medical staff sometimes lead to missed information and delays in patient care.
Amazon sent The Standard a statement regarding the allegations. “One Medical is committed to excellent patient care and a supportive workplace. We welcome feedback from our team members every day—it’s essential to how we improve. Using general observations from individuals unfamiliar with this matter to attempt to validate lawsuit allegations is misleading. Our investigation into the concerns found no safety issues and patients received quality care, and this is in fact a workplace conduct matter, despite attempts to frame it otherwise.”
The first hearing in Kim’s case is scheduled for Aug. 27.