I want to take my patients with me to my new HH job.

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I've accepted a position with a different HH agency and I start at the end of the month. Some of the patients I've been caring for, I've had for weeks, some months even. They will be heart broken when I have to tell them that I am leaving the agency to go to another one.

I know that patients have the right to choose their own home care agency and I know that many of them would like to follow me over to the new agency. So how do I go about doing that without getting myself in trouble with the agency I'm currently with?

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There is no way not to get blamed for them transferring to your new agency, even if you have nothing to do with it. The patients will do what is in their best interests without much thought given to the consequences for you. If you are wise you will not encourage them to change agencies on your behalf. The repercussions could be long-standing and wide-spread in a nursing community that never forgets.

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Specializes in COS-C, Risk Management.

Poaching patients is very unprofessional behavior and would be very ill-advised.

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I agree with Kate, keep it professional.....don't burn bridges unless they're already flaming behind you.

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I think many nurses forget, they are not YOUR clients, they are the agency's clients.

My agency would not permit you to care for any clients who came from your old agency so it would be pointless.

Nurses departing my agency are not permitted to discuss where they are going with the clients.

It's not professional and it places a burden on the clients, it's really not fair to the clients to put them in that position.

Bottom line, it's poaching and it's bad for both you and your new agency's reputation and could end up costing both of you some money (due to non-compete clauses).

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Specializes in HH, Psych, MR/DD, geriatric, agency.

I work for two agencies currently. I made it a personal rule to not reveal this to my patients/families. I signed a "No Compete" contract with each agency and this is the best way I found to keep it under wraps.

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I have actually had clients approach me about changing agencies and me going along as part of the deal. They act like they are surprised when I tell them my position in between their dealings with the agencies involved. In their egocentric view of things they forget that I do this for a living and want to preserve my ability to make a living of it.

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