Pros
The company actually didn't try to rush me through the training modules as I've experienced at other jobs. I appreciated this because the modules had lots of interesting and helpful information. They also did a good job at wanting me to shadow multiple professions and really making sure home health was the right for me. They attempted to have me shadow OT. The only problem there was that they had me shadow OTs who worked at facilities, where they physically stayed at during their shift, where they had some residents living there who were considered home health. So these OT's were not true home health door to door OTs, and 90% of the time didn't know how to answer my questions while I was training. So, the company actually brought someone down to go with me for one day in me region which helped some. Then they also sent me to Knoxville, TN to shadow 2 actual home health OTs which was the most helpful. Everyone in the office was very kind and were quick to try to help out immediately. Unfortunately many times they just simply didn't know the answer to a lot of OT specific things that were needed related to the tablet system.
Cons
No schedule flexibility. Never had time to eat lunch. Worked 12-14 hours a day to complete all job tasks appropriately vs cutting corners as seen observed in all others that were shadowed including calls to all 4 offices, calls to doctors offices, calls to patients, documentation, scheduling, emails, drive time, etc. There were 4 home offices with me being the only OT to represent them all due to short staffing. Driving range of up to 2 hours between patients anywhere from Dayton, TN to Ducktown, TN to Athens, TN, to Chattanooga, TN. Minimum of at least 30 minutes between patients but typically at least 40 minute drive between patients. With all of that being said I was still being asked to increase my productivity. Underpaid per mileage compared to the IRS mileage rate for 2023 when employed there. No phone stipend. The documentation system was terrible. When I asked questions about the system (things specific to OT most of the time) nobody every knew how to answer anything or help, even when asking OTs. Frequently ran into patients who said they were supposed to have had social work or speech therapy follow up and nobody ever had 30+ days later. Each different kind of visit note type had a pre-determined number of minutes the company decided was required to complete it. Even rushing through when asking patients the required questions it took a significantly longer amount of time to complete. This didn't even include required therapy session treatments. The training modules were 95% of the time not necessarily specific to OT, even if OT definitely could have had a role. Also, most of the time none of the training module CEUs even included OT as a profession that would get credit so that was disappointing. PT typically was in to see the patients before the OTs. Many patients only had 4-6 approved therapy visits (mostly related to laws and not LHC Groups fault). PT would always make a plan of care with all 6 visits. So by the time OT gets in, there literally are zero visits left to have. If PT recommends OT, they need to help coordinate approved visits with the OT and the office. Multiple occasions I would enter a patients house, a few times literally crossing paths with other employees (mostly nursing), and as all employees were required to do, I'd review medications with the patient. 9/10 nobody else, including the coworkers I just crossed paths with, had NOT checked medications with the patients so I'd have to spend significant amount of precious therapy time fixing med errors.