Maxim Healthcare Company

I worked for them in the office before I was a nurse....now that I am a nurse let me tell you, I would NEVER go back. I actually lost my job there because of a medicare fraud type thing and they closed down thier intermittent side. They (as a corporate company) in my opinion do NOT care about the nurse. The office staff are great - but the company ... eh...not so much. Hopefully your experience will be different. I love the company I'm with now...and they are nothing alike!

I used to recommend this employer but now warn people to avoid them unless they are desperate for work. Find another employer as soon as possible or don't go here to begin with. There are too many stories about questionable behavior and mistreatment of nurses to ignore that there is a problem with them.

I have mixed feelings about Maxim. There are actually some things I like better about them compared to my past agency. Things seem on the up and up regarding proper medicaid paperwork, pay practices, etc. The supervisory nurses seem very competent. But the "office guys" (who coordinate schedules)....well, I can't really say anything positive about them at all. The INCOMPETENCE is absolutely overwhelming. They can't seem to keep anything straight! You must tell them the same thing over and over and over again. They seem to forget or ignore what you tell them as soon as they hang up the phone. Schedule screw ups galore. I could go on and on and on...They are always friendly and nice, but friendly and nice does not cut it when they screw so much up.

On a post once awhile back I saw someone refer to the Maxim "office guys" as "young GQ types". Same at mine! WHO are these "office guys" they hire?? Anyone know? At my office, they are always very young (only look in their early 20's)! And it is always young men! Different ones seem to rotate through. I have never seen a female, and I have never seen anyone who looks over 25! It seems to me that older people with more "life experience" might be able to better handle scheduling and communication!!!!! Does Maxim target young men fresh out of college with a certain type of degree or something? Seems to me that whatever degree they have did NOT properly prepare them for the job.

The young, fresh out of college, male "healthcare recruiters" are being trained in all aspects of the business side of the house in order to groom them for possible promotion to accounts manager and on up. Our office occasionally would get a young female, but invariably the females do not last long, as Maxim is a male culture organization. You can read plenty about the young, male culture of Maxim and the sexual harassment lawsuits, etc. in the forums area of indeed.com. Primarily former internal employees paint a very poor picture of the company.

Out here in Cleveland, they are always hiring. Messed up my checks and lost my paper work. Yes, it's only young guys in the office here as well lol. They stare at you like you're a steak being waved in front of a hungry dog. I have yet to meet someone who has had a good experience with them.

On occasion, you would go into the office and find the healthcare recruiters ogling attractive women in magazines. They made no attempt to put the magazines away. Bad enough to do that in front of the nurses, I always wondered what prospective clients thought of the office atmosphere.

I applied to Maxim and was supposed to go in for the vent orientation and meet with the clinical director in 2/09. I never made it that far. I just had this gut feeling that it just seemed too easy. My fear was that if I had nursing questions would anyone be available. So, I decided to accept a job at local nursing home. But, that was way too much for me, physically. So, I quit after only 6 weeks and vow to stay out of nursing homes.

Now, looking for a job again, I notice that Maxim is still having ads everyday. The last ad stated that they will take any LPN with license.(new grads) Of course, it stated they prefer you to have at least one year experience in health care. They are always advertising and there are many postings for this one Maxim agency. I remember the recruiter even told me before that they were crying for nurses. There has got to be a reason, they are crying. I don't know if it is the pay or not treating their nurses right.

Another reason they are always looking for nurses is the amount of business they obtain in their market. I never had to worry about having enough work and as much overtime as I wanted when I was with Maxim. However, many nurses leave because they find employers who pay better and/or because of the way they were treated. I could relate what happened to me and you would agree that employers who treat their employees like that won't keep their good employees around for long. To dispel the one instance, at one location, at one point in time observation, corporate headquarters became involved. That means that any nurse who works for Maxim anywhere can expect the same. In one word, unforgivable. If the wolf is at your door, then go to work for Maxim. But continue to look for more reputable employers, and take the first opportunity to go to a more ethical workplace.

caliotter3,

Thanks for your input. Perhaps, I will revisit the idea of applying again. I have a phone interview for a seasonal immunization clinic. I will see what that has to offer.

I believe that I would like to do home health, but I am probably more suited for PD. My experience is mainly in behavioral health. And, only 6 weeks in nursing home which was too physically demanding for me. I am currently on SSDI and will be losing disability insurance from previous employment. So, my income has dropped from $1600 monthly to $600. I would like to only work two days a week to start, until I feel more comfortable, then increasing to 3 days. I don't know if I will ever be able to handle FT. I won't have to worry about health benefits for 8 years. I can still purchase medicare that I get now.

Is there a lot of paper work to do? I don't want to finish up a day only to go home and do hours of papaerwork. I can remember my stint in the NH. After finishing my hs med pass and giving report, I just wanted to go home, but it was not unsual for me to be there until 12:30-1:00 am to complete my charting. I had no time during my shift to do it. However, I am sure that this would be much easier.

The trick to keeping home health manageable is to work shift work rather than intermittent visits. You do one shift and one nurse's note for that shift. No driving all over creation and spending uncompensated time at home doing paperwork for all the visits you did in one day. You can tailor your work schedule any way you like so that you don't have to overdo it. My daughter knows one nurse who works one home health shift each month in addition to her full time admin job. Depending upon the caseload, you can choose from 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 hour shifts, for as many days each week as you want. Most of the time your nurses note is complete by the end of your shift. Done for the day. I would look around for home health agencies other than Maxim and you should be ok. For that matter, working for them is possible with no incident, but you always have to watch your own back and be prepared to be on your own when there is a problem. Just easier to find an employer that takes care of its employees so you don't have to worry about being thrown out into the cold. Good luck.