Amedisys

[esrun00]

Any pros or cons about this company.

Thanks

[DutchgirlRN, ASN, RN]

Any pros or cons about this company.

Thanks

I have a friend who use to work for Amedysis. She liked her job and the pay was good but she said they were pretty much forced to list patients as being incontinent, etc...to get the most reimbursement from Medicare and they got in trouble if there was a loopa, etc...Ethically she wasn't happy there.

[tennesseeRN]

I have worked with Amedisys now for several years, and have been in homecare for over 15 years. For me the PRO'S are: the company is very diligent with prevention of fraud, and has a zero tolerance for anything like false billing, coding or falsifying oasis and data to increase reimbursment. (plus I don't wanna go to j-a-i-l!), I know of several nurses in our region who have been terminated for falsifying info.Good benefits,good educational benefits.Good opportunities for transfer as they are everywhere. The computer system/laptop.

The CONS are: The computer system/laptop.I feel the clinical structure/information is very fragmented.The nursing staff doesn't have access to most information-height,weight, previous nursing notes. If I want to send MD a list of blood sugars, I need to ask the manager and she has to manually look at each note within the computer and get the information.Each person within the office seems to have a part of the whole with no one person that knows all. When was the patient due his injection? Go ask the manager who has to manually read the notes to find out.

Overall, I think it's a good place to work. Thanks for letting me put my 2 cents in.

[cookie102]

are they looking into changing the computer "access"? i am considering amedisys in the myrtle beach area,,,anyone with info on the area office(s)

[tennesseeRN]

We have only had the computers for several months and they are frequently upgrading them. I am really hoping that the limited access we have will change. I'm not sure if the way the system is set up is because it is so new, or because Amedisys is very strict about privacy, hippa, fraud, ect. (one cant "mess" with what one cant have access to). This one area (besides the fact that I'm soooo busy), really bothers me.

I think Amedisys is a good place to work, however I think it one should have 2-3 years home health experience before going to work at this particular company. Not only would one have to learn the particulars of home health, but also oasis, possibly case management, the computer system and all the while in this fragmented structure. Not for the faint of heart.

[rohansnurse]

:confused:What's with the pay. It's per visit so if you don't have enough visits...r/t low census....then you don't ge the same income biweekly!

[tennesseeRN]

I am guessing most if not all of the amedisys offices are per visit. It goes to follow that if your census is low then your pay might be low. Everyone has an opinion on which pay is better--salary, per visit, hourly. I have been both salary and per visit--never hourly. My own opinion is per visit is better than salary, but with long hours that comes with home health I would make more money with hourly, which is why I'm betting that is why we are not hourly! But, my census isn't low and my paycheck is good.

[cookie102]

interested in the per visit----if by chance the census is low, are their other ways to make up the time like coming in the office to do something?

[tennesseeRN]

If your office has good management, then your census should match your staff/productivity. In other words, for a full time position at my office, I have to see a minimum number of patients a wk. Management should have looked at the census, pattern and projected growth, and know that they x number of nurses for x number of patients.

I remember back in 1997 ( I think) when the venipuncture rule went into effect. All the home healths had to start discharging patients and the census dropped waaaaaay down, some home health closed. Our agency lost several nurses. Tje point is that normally, the staffing patterns in an agency allow for rise and fall of patient numbers without dramatically affecting your paycheck. But occasionally things do happen. I know that I make more money pay per visit than salary but less than I would if I were hourly. And I'm not afraid of losing money due to census drop.

Pay for visit-Usually more money each patient and different pay scale according to if the visit is a regular, or start of care, or recert, ect.

Don't get paid if patient isn't home or refuses visit(do on salary)

All nurses usually eager to see the visits (its your paycheck)

Sometimes some nurses get a little greedy and try to get all the visits

You sometimes have the feeling your working for "free" when your sitting and doing paperwork becacuse alot of agencies (Amedisys included) feel that this is built into your per visit rate.

Ample opportunity to make $$ on OT.

Just my opinion....hope it helps.

[tennesseeRN]

In addition to my previous post...It depends on your management whether or not there is other ways to make $$ if census is low. My director is good--she will find something even if it is auditing charts

:trout:or checking on discharged patients.

[rockymnthoney]

Does anyone have any current info or input on this company ?

[cinnamongirl233]

I worked for them in Oklahoma City. I found that the case managers there marked out my OASIS answers, changed them, and put my initials on them. They also paid me 2 dollars per visit less than what they quoted me and refused to do anything about it. The laptops didn't make things better, the program automatically blocks any OASIS answers that are inconsistent with the other answers. Good as a reminder to reassess or rethink sometimes, but when you had one of those patients that defied all odds and nothing made sense, it was impossible to document that. My experience with Amedisys was awful, and I left home health for 2 years after that. I have just returned to home health and am still scared because of the experience I had there, but I need the flexible schedule so I'm going to try.