mamosainGA

I've been a nurse for 24 years, so I've seen many changes. This is just one of the changes that people seem to be misinformed about. Bottom line, regardless of my personal opinion (I hate texting, btw): texting is a non-secure way of communicating personal health information, and therefore ILLEGAL. Our company requires that we use an encrypted and secure system (for example, FORCURA). Cell phones are NOT secure. Don't do it. I had a doctor ask me one time to text him a photo of a patient's wound. Um...NO! I politely refused and cited the legality of doing that. He understood.

I, too, work for Amedisys in Georgia. I've been there nearly 7 years. Initially, I loved home health due to the flexibility it gave me with my schedule. When I first started, it took me a while to learn the ins and outs of the computerized charting. In 2016, Amedisys upgraded to Home Care Home Base. It's much better than the old system and utilizes an Android tablet with a quirky voice to text system. I'd love to say that this cuts down on time spent charting, but it hasn't. I still spend crazy amounts of time charting several hours a night after I get home from seeing patients all day. Since I am paid per visit, it really degrades my "hourly" pay rate average when I spend so much time charting after hours. The acuity of some of my patients with multiple wounds to measure, chart and monitor requires at least an hour (sometimes two!) in the home, then charting for another 30 minutes to an hour at home. Some days are just like that, and I feel like I'm not making much in trade for my time. From what I understand, Amedisys is NOT one of the higher paying home health agencies. I've stayed as long as I have because pay rate is just one of the considerations, and I love my co-workers. I am attached to my elderly patients that I've gotten to know. I love negative pressure wound therapy and some of the more challenging cases. I DON'T love the increased oversight by Medicare that has happened in the past several years. As an agency, our hands are tied, other than to just be sticklers about compliance. More documentation is required in lieu of better patient care, in my opinion. I also don't love that there are times where I have been in patients' homes where it is VERY unsanitary, with bugs, roaches, fleas, scabies, pet excrement, cigarette smoke (or worse), etc. My clinical managers have always been wonderful to me and always let me know that they appreciate my PRN status, flexibility and willingness to help out when and where needed. I used to be part time, weekends, with a full time case load and on call. I got burnt out within a couple of years and switched to PRN status. I have never had a raise in 6.5 years, despite excellent reviews. Since the beginning of 2017, our caseload is drastically decreased and I have only worked one day this month. I'm not used to that, and am getting ready to switch into panic mode and look for another way to make money, since I do need a paycheck. Overall, I believe my time at Amedisys to be limited and I'm getting the feeling I need to move on...I just don't want to go back to working in a facility.

Don't be disappointed...yet. At the beginning of summer, I applied for a job in home health that I really, really wanted. I interviewed, and was called back for a second interview with some of the other supervisory staff. Each time, they promised to call within a certain time frame with their decision. Each time came and went. My phone calls went unreturned, and I wanted to avoid being a nuisance by calling too much. After several weeks, I assumed that I didn't get the job and was actually feeling angry that nobody bothered to call me. They dragged the entire process out for over a month! And then...I got the phone call with their job offer. Everyone involved was very apologetic that they had taken so long, but my application just so happened to coincide with "vacation season". Nobody was at the office together in the same time frame long enough to concur on their choice of candidates! Of course, now that I have been at the job for nearly two months, I am starting to realize that there is more than a little bit of disorganization on behalf of the management. Communication is sometimes slower than expected, and not always efficient. I think that may have played a large part in the "job that took forever to nail"!