Typical contract rehab company, good to get experience if you need it, then find a better company to work for - Physical Therapist Assistant HealthPRO Heritage Employee Review

-Little to no initial training when I first started, aside from a few online modules completed at home before starting. As a new grad, I felt absolutely thrown into the deep end with little to no support and often reprimanded for doing something wrong despite never really having been trained or taught. On my first day and HealthPro’s first day taking over as the contract company at the facility, patients were not even in the NetHealth system yet and the regional manager had us immediately “get out and treat!” I had no idea who/what/when/where anything was in the facility and looking back feel this was a very stressful, as well as dangerous to patients/therapists going in to treat patient’s without being able to see their evaluation or prior notes, or knowing their status, contraindications, etc. Aside from annual company required annual modules and the occasional written document to read over and sign off as an “inservice”, I feel like I had limited if any, further education to advance/grow knowledge and skills as a therapist. -unreasonable and largely unattainable productivity expectations for setting (90-92% for assistants) led to burnout and moral injury from daily struggle between company productivity requirements and providing quality patient care. This contrasted with my desire for good patient interactions due to emphasis on point of service documentation, constantly distracted doing multiple things at a time to keep up with it all. This productivity didn’t factor out meetings that were necessary for managing patient caseload, trainings, or allow time for mentorship or professional development, and other non-billable tasks that were required to keep a well run therapy program, nor did it allow time for therapists take their paid breaks allowed under state law, get water/food, or go to the bathroom. When I brought up concerns to the Rehab Director about this, I was dismissed as “that’s just how it is in many industries, people don’t get their breaks.” Another time, I asked my Rehab Director at the time if the team could take time to clean and organize the therapy gym when patient census was low. I was told, “yeah…off the clock,” and thus the therapy gym remained as is. Years later, the regional manager scolded the team about the state of the therapy gym with concerns that it could result in a tag from state audit. -high focus on groups and concurrents to boost productivity felt like a cash grab to boost profits with limited consideration for patient benefit. -poor communication and disorganization between HealthPro Heritage and our client despite numerous concerns raised to remedy by therapy team getting email accounts back. -The daily work environment varied based on the Rehab Director but towards the end of my time there, the team was constantly reminded to “make your productivity goal”, “focus on “time management”, and such- almost daily. This created a very negative, stressful working environment because everyone was working so hard and being constantly reminded wasn’t helpful. I voiced concerns numerous times that I was burning out due to the number of patients I was scheduled to see and the fast pace expected to work and was dismissed with “we are short staffed and need to meet caseload.” -upper management was out of touch and unsupportive, dismissive of concerns and appeared concerned of only the bottom line/productivity. I would often describe barriers to productivity and received little, if any, help or suggestions, rather just told to “figure it out.” We asked numerous times for the addition of a Rehab Aide to help with the non billable tasks and were brushed off stating there was no budget or that the productivity requirement would need to increase to make up for it. -HR was hard to reach and difficult to work with I had issues or questions. I had to involve my Rehab Director to get a response from them after not hearing back on a question for nearly two weeks, which was very frustrating. -no guarantee in hours even with “full time" employment status, with hours per day/week fluctuating based on patient count at facility and caseload. One time, I had my schedule cut to 7 hours in one week and was told I wasn’t needed for the rest of the week, while an on-call assistant was given the rest of the hours for that week. -no holiday pay for holidays worked (other companies offer 1.5 or double incentive) -no raises over the course of multiple years worked (I had to threaten to quit to finally get a pay increase) -no separate sick leave when an employee contracted COVID or another disease from a patient and is unable to work due to quarantine -poor benefits, healthcare premiums were extremely expensive with employee paying over 75% of premium cost, discretionary retirement match meant never receiving anything, no paid maternity leave Massive employee turnover was a direct result of all things I mentioned above, I was approximately the 25th person to come and leave the company at that particular site over the course of 3.5 years!