Unreasonable Home Health Agency?

You are always responsible for turning the "hard" copy of the shift notes in to the office. The field chart copy is left in the home chart. Some of my agencies have had our time sheet data on the nursing note itself. No note to the office, no pay, or no pay on time. The regs state that the charting must be in the official chart by a certain time. Billing is another matter. We were given stamped, self addressed envelopes to mail our stuff to the office. Other agencies have never provided envelopes or postage. From my experience, it is the norm for the nurse to be responsible to get the notes in, even if it means paying for the envelopes and postage herself. My current employers don't give me envelopes. The ten minute rule has always been in effect. You can't chart it, because the offgoing nurse is getting paid for that full hour and two nurses can't be paid for the same time period. The agency is not reimbursed for two nurses in the home at the same time and they refuse to eat the 10 minutes. Yeah, I suppose it is a matter for the Labor Board, but who is going to make a big deal of it when it is necessary to give and receive report? They just don't have the money to pay for overlapping time like the facilities do.

written report, two minutes, done.......

I was required by at least two long term care facilities to be there 15 minutes early for report and walking rounds off the clock. Both nurses had to watch the clock and clock in and out at the right time, then finish hand off. We discussed this but the general consensus seemed to be, "I need my job".

that would be unreasonable where i work. i havent had any other jobs, as i started here as a new grad about a month and a half ago. all of the rn's are assigned laptops and we just transfer all of our visit notes and oasis info each day. we dont have to go to the office unless we need more supplies (or to sign something)and we dont have to mail anything either. the only exception is our weekly meeting. if we need to physically sign something (re-certs and such) we just print it and then its left on our desk for when we swing by the office. the laptops print to certain printers and the office secretary sorts all of our correspondence and puts them on our desks or in our mailboxes. we give report thru the computer as well via a non-clinical note to the nurse seeing the patient next. our system is very user friendly because it has sections for each part of the assessment and patient care that has to be done and any one looking at the electronic chart can see exactly what was done and the doctor's orders are scanned in. I love technology !!! the home health agency i work for is actually the hospitals homehealth and most of our patients come from our own hospital

Congrats to you Del. It sounds like u have a very good technologically advanced job. I am really trying to get into home health. I hope something come through real soon. Keep up the good work!!

thank you...