I'm Confused About Something
I work as a contract therapist. Using me is expensive. In Houston the rates for contract services keep going up. I think there have been two rate hikes in the last 6 months. Facilities use us to fill vacant positions until someone can be hired. Many facilities around here have openings but can't fill them. Everywhere I go I hear how difficult it is to fill the positions. At the same time I hear how many facilities are trying to cut back on contract therapists because we are too expensive.
What confuses me is why those facilities continue to pay for contract staff when they could easily hire staff if they raised the pay scale. I speak from experience when I say no one in Houston wants to hire someone with experience. Everyone is trying to hire new or recent grads. Why? Because they can pay them less. Meanwhile there may be two or three openings that haven't been filled. It seems to me it would make more sense to raise salaries. Higher salaries will attract and retain employees. My company charges over $60/hour for me. Part of that is my salary, but not all of it.
If an employer was willing to pay what I'm worth they would save money. My salary plus the added cost of benefits still comes out to less than the contract hourly rate. By my calculation that would save at least $10/hour. So why don't employers do that? They can't convince me they're saving money by keeping the salaries low. The cost of contract therapy to fill empty positions is nearly double what they want to pay. One of my PT friends said my problem was I expected administrations to do something that made sense.
Another thing I don't understand is why facilities eliminate all contract therapists when costs get out of control. That happened to me this week. The facility I was at decided to eliminate all contract therapists because we are too expensive. Fine, I will get a different assignment. The thing I don't understand is what they plan to do about treating the patients who were on my caseload? I was cancelled. Unless I'm replaced with someone else they will be short one therapist. I won't be replaced so I wonder who will see those patients. I don't understand why patient care is the first victim to rising costs.
I can tell you what will happen. Patients will begin complaining because they aren't receiving therapy. Doctors will start complaining because patients aren't receiving therapy. If it goes on very long they will lose staff, which they can't hold on to anyway, because working conditions will deteriorate. Then, guess what? Contract therapists will be back. Doesn't it make more sense to skip the whole thing, keep the contracts and look somewhere else for cost saving?
I don't know what administrations are thinking when they make these decisions. I do know that for the most part administrators are business people, not healthcare people. Maybe that makes a difference. In Texas it is pretty easy to see why healthcare costs keep skyrocketing. Instead of trying to address that problem, facilities eliminate positions, charge more and use cheaper products. That hasn't worked yet, but they keep doing it.
As I said I'm confused. I think facilities would have more success with saving money if they started listening to employees. The people actually providing the care are also the ones who know what is going on. I think healthcare is the only industry in this mess. I'd like to see what Exxon-Mobile would do about the problem. I bet they could solve the problems and still make a profit.