Aegis Therapy Reviews

Pros

Very competitive pay scale and rates

Cons

Poor upper level management and treats employees like dogs

Advice to Senior Management

Respect Respect respect

Pros

Decent place to start out.

Cons

Unrealistic productivity standards. Difficulties getting time off.

Pros

Overall facilities are nice, staff friendly

Cons

Unattainable productivity requirements if you are doing your job right (unless you do all your paperwork off the clock), sent home or asked to travel all over the state if you aren't "productive", even when you have loads of documentation to do, no commitment to furthering staff education, being told who you have to pick up and when you have to d/c pts even if you do not agree, etc, etc, etc. Overall, this company "expects that you do the right thing, even when nobody is watching," but in reality what they expect is the complete opposite, because it is literally impossible to treat pts and get all the pt-care related work done while being "productive" . Goals for performance reviews are based on being financially responsible/ie--making our company lots of money, but don't worry, you won't be getting that raise anytime soon.

Advice to Senior Management

Lower level managers are doing the best they can with all the demands the company has in place, but when you have a company with so many upper level managers, who have the big salaries and dont actually treat the pts, can you really expect the company to survive in the current state of healthcare in the US without unrealistic expectations placed upon the therapists (who actually make all the company's money)? My solution is to get rid of the managers-managers and their managers/coordinators and look at a complete restructuring of the company with more focus on pt-centered approaches and also to strongly consider developing staff satisfaction so they can keep all the really great therapists they have, instead of loosing them left and right.

Pros

Close proximity to home and pay is decent. Have been able to get the time off requested with little hassle.

Cons

Think twice about working for this company. I have repeatly been bullied into leaving work early without pay so that I can meet 100% productivity level just to make others look good namely the RCP and DM. There is very little regard for what the therapists do on the job so long as they meet the most ridiculous and impossible productivity numbers each day. The therapist have limited computers and you are often left fighting to get time on them. When starting to work with this company it was never said that if you don't get 90 to 100% productivity your hours can be cut with little to no notice. Bad company policy if one even exhists.

Advice to Senior Management

Be supportive of your employees and I am so tired of hearing I am lucky to have a job. Quite the contrary you are lucky to have such fantastic therapists.

Pros

Pay is on par with other therapy companies in my area. Fellow therapists and RPC in my building are good co-workers who's primary focus is to provide the best care we can to patients.

Cons

I agree with a lot of the criticisms on this site in regards to unreasonable productivity requirements and upper management who seem to be either out of touch with the realities of clinical practice or they simply have no qualms about how those expectations are reached just as long as the bottom line looks good. Working off the clock (while "not allowed" by management), has become commonplace in our building because we simply cannot do 9 hours worth of work in an 8 hour day and overtime is strictly prohibited. As I mentioned, I thoroughly enjoy the individuals with whom I work on a daily basis and honestly for the last few months that has been the main factor in my not seeking a new company.

Advice to Senior Management

LISTEN to the feedback which I know has been expressed through employee satisfaction surveys and through direct communication with regional management. Many other therapy companies do not have productivity requirements at the same level as ours AND many times it doesn't make financial sense. For example, as a speech therapist, the codes I bill everyday are service based and the group reimbursement is significantly lower than individual. By requiring me to have 90%+ productivity you force me to group part Bs frequently and with such a poor reimbursement rate, I could make you more money at say 75% productivity with no group than at 110% with 3 or 4 patients seen in group.settings. ALSO, when you calculate a building's productivity you should not include a rehab aide's hours (all at 0% billable pct) the same as a therapists. Our rehab aide makes roughly one third the hourly rate that I do but her productivity counts against us exactly the same as mine would.

Pros

There are many nationwide facilities, so you have the opportunity to transfer. Good nurses to work with on Golden Living side.

Cons

If you want a day off, try working a weekend to cover yourself vs using aquired time off. Low ball pay. Lots of miscommunication. Management does not give praise, but is quick to tell you (and everyone else in the district) you've done something wrong. Way to much favoritism and conflict of interest.

Advice to Senior Management

Exit interviews!! If you promise equipment or services, provide them. Talk directly to therapists and assistants. Make sure rules, laws and guidelines are understood before trying to apply them in to the facilities.

Pros

Good benefits, salary about right for my experience and location. Satisfied to very satisfied of the people I work with from DM and down. DM actually understands reality of situation vs what the upper managment demands.

Cons

Let me put it this way, I'm currently looking for a new job. The pressure to hit the productivity wasn't really bad until they implemented this computer system. We were promised that each therapist would get their own device to do point of service documentation, which still hasnt arrived and we are almost in a year of this new system. Also, they started requiring assistants to do notes, so instead of 4 therapist sharing 2 computers, we have 8 sharing 2 computers. The network has a very short radius, so I can't take the computer to the patient's room/apartment. So if I can't bring the patient to the therapy department (or no computer is free) I have to do those notes as non-billable time. Their (only) solution is group, group, group - to the point that I feel it is not benefitting my patients and actually preventing me from providing the therapy they need. The software program is horribly inefficient and often crashes or some information I typed won't be in the document, so even if I can get my patient to the computer and it's actually free, it crashes and I can't use it anyway. I feel pressure to work off the clock to get my work done and to keep producivity as they are now threatening to write people up. This is a company-wide issue, not just my location, so either they are incompetent and can't put 2 and 2 together, or they don't care and want to save money (although the solution would save money in the long run) and harrass employees instead. They are two-faced as they tell you to use your clinical judgement, but in the next breath require that you do this, this and this. I feel that any concerns given by employees aren't addressed by anyone above my DM - the DM and my RPC seem to be the only competent people at the management level, as anyone above them has long forgotten why therapists do what we do - to help patients.

Advice to Senior Management

Supply each facility with the equipment needed to perform point of service documentation for each therapist. Being a large company, they should be able to get good deals on netbooks/laptops. This would more than make up for the lack in producitivity (as this is my biggest limitation). Don't pressure therapists to be unethical in order to make a couple bucks. Realize that all this pressure for productivity will only result in apathy at the situation and cause employees to quit.

Pros

Flexible schedule (should be for a PRN). Rehab director is very supportive and easy to work with. Great local staff.

Cons

Ridiculous offer for full time with benefits. Benefits may be good but if you take them, they decrease your rate of pay SIGNIFICANTLY. Too many people to deal with when attempting the new hire process. Very pushy HR and seems to "forget" what was discussed and offered.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your therapists what they are worth! Therapists are difficult to find and when one is willing to work for AEGIS, try to keep them.

Pros

They are owned by the same company that owns Golden Living Centers so you are staffing your own buildings and that makes it easier recruiting therapists, as it's a stable company. Aegis is consistently growing. Aegis is umbrelled under Golden Innovations and also owns Asera Care, 360 Staffing and Golden Living Centers.

Cons

Resources (mailers, job posting sites) consistently being eliminated for recruiters in an effort to save money, stress to reach goals extreme and can be unrealistic depending on assigned territory. Assigned territories were very often extremely unbalanced. Licensure lists were not updated yearly and poor telematch. Our commission plan changed every year (not to EM benefit) every year I was there. If you are considering joining this team, ask about your recruiting budget and territories. Do your homework.

Advice to Senior Management

Do exit interviews, find out why people are leaving and take note. Invest in some training to teach your managers how to motivate and grow, develop employees and to be fair, consistent leaders.

Pros

Very good nursing staff at many of the sites. Flexible schedule (to an extent).

Cons

Extreme pressure, high stress, questionable practices that are encouraged by management. Management at all levels devalue the therapists & track every move you make so they can "help" you make your time more productive. If YOU can't find coverage when you want to take some time off, don't plan on taking the time off. Most buildings are understaffed with therapists & patient care is definitely effected negatively. My time with Aegis taught me a number of valuable lessons - on exactly the type of employer I DON'T EVER want to work for again!

Advice to Senior Management

The best way to clean up Aegis' terrible reputation (in the opinion of the therapy community, the healthcare community, past and present patients, and a large number of facilities that have contracted Aegis in the past or present) is to start listening to the employees - from the bottom up, not from top down!