Published Sep 2, 2006
HealinghandsRN
65 Posts
Hello all,
I am new to home health nursing and find it very rewarding....Since this is my first agency, I am not sure how other agencies work. Do all Home health Nurses have to do their own case managing? and what is your client load? I've seemed to rack up a nice cell phone bill and we get 50.00 reinbursement monthly for the cell phones.....Please tell me about other agencies out there. :monkeydance: Thank you.
PamSICURN
12 Posts
Hi healinghands, Welcome to the world of HH! In my agency we just went to CM. I have worked for another agency where we did CM so it wasn't difficult for me to make the transition. Some of the other RNs are having a hard time with it though. I like because I know everything there is to know about my patients this way (and don't get any nasty surprises). I work out of Central FL and my cell bill is always alot more than my allotment of 40.00. I also am salaried so I can't really compare with visit rate or whatever. I find the rewards of what I am doing compared to hospital (ICU) so great and I hope that you do too. Good Luck and keep on going! Pam
jenrninmi, MSN, RN
1,976 Posts
I there. I've been working for my first agency just short of 6 months and for the most part like it. I CM my patients but sometimes see other CM's patients if they need help. My cell phone bill got quite large too so I try to make a lot of my calls from my home phone instead (physicians offices, not patients). Also, we now have a nursing facilitator(I think that's what she's called) and we are supposed to use her to make calls on anything that may keep us on the phone for longer that 5 minutes. I'm salaried too so visit rate doesn't apply to us either. We are paid the federal rate for mileage.
luvdaisy
43 Posts
I have worked for home health for 1 1/2 years. I case manage 40-50 patients in a certain territory that our office covers. Another RN takes care of the other territory. I like it because I know what is going on with my patients...recent labs, new orders, etc. We also have case conference every week where we discuss new patients, problems, upcoming discharges. I see between 35-45 patients per week and get paid per visit. Of course I get paid more for admissions and on weekends and after hours. Every full time employee has a company paid cell phone. We are allowed 350 minutes a month. If we go over, it comes out of our pay check at 40 cents a mminute. This isnt a lot of minutes so I do a lot of calling from home and the office. I havent ever gone over though because, of course, it is unlimited mobile to mobile and my friends and family all have the same carrier. We get paid 37 cents a mile. I love my job. The flexibility definitely cannot be beat.