Lincare Holdings – “A job at Lincare is what YOU make of it.”

Pros

The existence of 'Pros" at Lincare vary GREATLY depending on what center you are at and what kind of management tree you are in. That said.... generally as an RT... you get to meet very nice patients and help them at difficult times in there lives. If you are in their home,.... it's because his/her respiratory condition is such that they need our services.... and it is personally rewarding to be able to help them. And you better be "ok" with only receiving praise from patients.... because that's all your going to get. And I'm fine with that; so I still work for Lincare. I am paid well for my position at my location. I do have a Center Manager that treats me well and gives me a fair amount of autonomy.

Cons

Lincare has a certain business model that was created many years ago and it's worked for them financially; so they have never changed it. There are FIVE core positions at a center: (Service Rep, Customer Service Rep, Sales Rep, Healthcare Specialist, and Center Manager) There is NO deviation from this formula. the numbers of each type of employees at a center vary from center to center.... based on your OXYGEN patient base and profitability.
And they treat each "Center" as it's own company while maintaining a uniform corporate oversight. So you get to make your center GREAT or HORRIBLE.... sort of; The problem is.... not all centers are the same as far as demographics, competetivness (with customers OR Employees). A center manager with the odds against them can bring in bad numbers even though they are working very hard for the company..... and Lincare is very unforgiving when it comes to turning in bad numbers. Upper management's answer to every explanation for turning in a bad month is "well such and such center in some other state is able to do it..... why can't you????... you have no excuse... get better by next month or we will put you on an "action plan"" They stare at management summaries and make assumptions and that's how decisions are made.... No one in upper management actually looks at what's physically going on at a center. If they spent a whole month there, they could actually help make it better.

Advice to Senior Management

Upper Management needs to come and spend and ENTIRE MONTH at EACH 1,056 centers.... HELP the CM get the center going in the right direction based on it's INDIVIDUAL needs to do so. (you might find you need to make certain changes at centers.... so be it) It only helps you weed out the bad employees and make the good ones shine. And the ones that will shine will sometimes be the same ones you THOUGHT were the problem. The current "whisper down the lane" of RM to AM to CM isn't as effective as you think.