Select Specialty Hospital

[RexRN]

I have the opportunity to work at an LTAC hospital called Select Specialty. Has anyone ever worked there? Or any LTAC for that matter? Would you recommend it? I also have the possibility of transferring to a new department at my current place of work. I have been there for four years. Trying to decide if I should stay loyal to my current employer or just go work for the highest payer? Any advise is appreciated.

[doro8144]

I have the opportunity to work at an LTAC hospital called Select Specialty. Has anyone ever worked there? Or any LTAC for that matter? Would you recommend it? I also have the possibility of transferring to a new department at my current place of work. I have been there for four years. Trying to decide if I should stay loyal to my current employer or just go work for the highest payer? Any advise is appreciated.

I have worked for Select since 2004. I will tell you what I do not like about it. The paper charting is ridiculous. It is 8 pages, alot of duplicate charting and if a lawsuit were to happen, a nurse could easily hang her/himself with the charting. It is NOT charting by exception. The patients are extremely complex, think of 5 stable ICU patients. Families are allowed to run the show. Somehow, and sometimes, they are allowed to room-in with patients which can make patient care extremely stressful and difficult. We get a lot of hillbilly families at my Select and their ignorance of basic anatomy and health is comical. We get patients with complex wounds, and even though we have a wound team, they cannot get to all of them every day. Therefore the floor nurse is ultimately responsible for all wound care. Nurses draw their own labs. Most of the patients have central lines, so if they are working, this isnt so bad. However, we do not have our own lab. Blood must be couriered out to another hospital to be resulted. This can be time consuming. Because the patients are complex, med passes are a nightmare (even with only 5 patients) . Some days are spent almost exclusively passing meds. These patienst will literally have 10-12 pages of meds. NO KIDDING. No wonder they are so sick. I also don't like that the doctors won't be honest and real with the families and tell them that their loved ones WILL NOT GET BETTER. The patients are kept as long as their insurance or medicare will pay, then they are shipped to another hospital (even though their status has not changed, the docs will make up a reason) then shipped back to Select to start the cycle again until all of their Medicare days are GONE. GONE. Most of the patients will be shipped from hospital to hospital, then finally to a nursing home, where they will die a few days or weeks later. I think the families are not told they have a choice.

What I do like about it. I like my coworkers and management a lot. We are like a family and truly care about each other. We have a great team and I never feel alone. They are terrific in a code or Rapid Response situation. The physicians were great (except for what I said above) and treat the nurses with respect. I made good money and rarely had to work weekends. We had a well staffed, and well-paid weekend option program.

I only work there part-time now. I got burned out. Reading stories from other nurses about their hospitals makes me think that all places have their problems. It is just a matter of what you find you can tolerate, and having good coworkers and leadership can make anything tolerable.

[danikyo]

RexRN, I am an LPN with over 2 years experience, who just got her RN. I would like to hear how it's been going with Select since your took a position with them back in 2011?

[EMS2ICU, ASN, RN, EMT-B]

I wound not recommend working at Select full time but it would be  great for a PRN extra money job.