Supervisor to staff ratios- Home Care

[homecare1967]

Hi all, first post!

I work for a Hospital Based Home Care Agency and have the opportunity to become the Home Health Supervisor. The department is as follows:

1 intake coordinator (nurse)

4 clerks/support staff

2 aides

3 social workers

8 nurses

4 PTs

1 partime OT

1 partime SLP

4 misc call-ins

1 Quality Nurse

From what I can tell, it's been very hard for the current interim supervisor to keep up with all of their duties, but I'm not sure if it's because of the supervisor to front line staff ratio, or something specific to our department. 1 month ago, we hired a quality nurse who helps maintain compliance and quality outcomes but has no supervisory responsibilities. The supervisor reports to the Director of Cont Care, who has little involvement in the day to day operations.

Question: Is having one supervisor oversee the above staff reasonable? Or not? If not, what would I request? They really want me to take the position, so I do have some room to negotiate, if it's based on standard supervisor to staff ratios or whatever data I can get.

Thanks all! Wow, 1st post was a whopper!

[Katnip, RN]

When I was managing two units, I had 48 people. 28 would seem fairly easy for me now. It's a matter of organization. Get things set up right from the beginning on how you're going to structure managing them.