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As I am busy trying to dig myself out of 4-5 feet of snow in the Buffalo, NY Southtowns, I thought I would run a guest post from Dr. Steven Salinas of the newly formed Restart Performance.
3 Reasons to consider
Home Health
There seems to be a stigma
against home health among physical therapists and other healthcare
professionals working in home care. I am quite certain if you spent some time having lunch with students at
any PT program, you will hear them discussing their future in orthopedics,
neuro, peds settings, etc… But nobody will ever consider home health. When I tell people that I have spent a
significant amount of time in home care, I get looks as if I am crazy; people
ask me why I would subject myself to such an environment. While every setting and job will always come
with its pros and cons- the pros of home health are often neglected. So let us dive into 3 reasons why you SHOULD
consider home health. To keep this
interesting, we are ignoring the obvious reason, which is to help people live a
higher quality of life and enjoy increased functional mobility in the comfort
of their own home.
Autonomy
You have the ability to work on a wide range of issues in a
manner however you would like. Home
health is essentially outpatient except you are now in their home. While yes you have a supervisor or clinical
director that will be responsible for helping you schedule your patients and
set up initiations of care, you have complete freedom to form your treatment
plans and interventions as your see fit.
Scheduling:
You have a lot of control over your schedule, especially if
you are working as a PRN or contract employee.
If you are a salaried employee you will have less control over the
number of patients on your caseload but you will still be able to determine on
what days of the week you see certain patients.
If you are a PRN/contractor you will have absolute control over your
caseload and can decline a case if you are not available. Either way, you will have the ability to
move/slide people around if necessary.
In order for majority of patients to receive home care services, they
must meet home bound criteria. Typically
people who are home bound are very flexible as to what time they are available
for you to come by and help them.
Financial Compensation:
Money matters and home health is a nice way to make a great
income. Aside from Travel contracts,
home health is most likely the highest paying area of PT.
edit: that's no joke - prior to owning my own practice, my wife made just as much as I did working part time, as I did working 60 hours/week managing a clinic for an outpatient ortho group. - Dr E
So there you have 3 reasons why clinicians should consider working in
home health aside from the reason any of us became PTs in the first place. Stay
tuned for part 2, where we will utilize these traits to maximize their ability
to help us reach our life and career goals.
edit: I'd also like to add my wife had A LOT more time to do better assessments and manual therapy treatments as a home health PT, then she did in her "typical" outpatient ortho jobs where she saw anywhere from 4-6 patients an hour. You have guaranteed 1:1 time in home health.
Keeping it Eclectic...
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