Pros

Hanger Orthopedic Group is a premier orthotics and prosthetics company so the name is recognizable world-wide. Hanger has many contracts with insurance companies which have opened up additional opportunities for Hanger to access more patients than other O&P companies.

The expertise of the Orthotists and Prosthetists is extensive as many of them have come from other competitors, have previously worked as owners of their own O&P companies which were acquired by Hanger, and the educational training is top-notch as the company invests an extensive amount of money into the training for the .

The company also does a good job of communicating its financial goals and objectives they want to accomplish each year. Everyone has an excellent idea of the financial goals they must meet each year and there is continuous communication every week to reiterate the company's goals to the Clinicians and Office Administrators.

Cons

The internal competition between different Hanger PCC facilities can sometimes be a problem as some individuals who work in various Hanger PCC facilities have a history of working with each when each of them owned their own O& P facilities prior to being acquired by Hanger.

This coupled with the fact that the different Hanger PCC facilities have different incentive programs creates fierce competition for each location to get the business referral revenue sometimes creating tension between the different locations.

The environment is very unstructured, everyone does things differently, and some of the personalities of the some of the Clinicians are unprofessional, egotistical, and challenging to say the least. There are good and bad Clinicians that work within the company and many times as in any corporate environment sometimes people maintain their positions not because of the quality of their work, but because of the quantity of their work i.e. the amount of revenue they drive.

The company needs to do a better job of setting clear objectives when they promote individuals to management. Managers are purely chosen by the amount of revenue they generate which sometimes can make for a poor Manager and impact the performance of an entire team because sometimes someone who is chosen purely based on the revenue they generate, may not always look outside of themselves to see how they can get a team to generate revenue, because they are only focused on the revenue they themselves generate.

Additionally, there needs to be a mentoring program put in place for younger Clinicians. There is a huge gap or disconnect which exists between some of the experienced Clinicians training some of the lesser experienced Clinicians.

Finally, when you do well, you do not hear enough about how well you are doing. However, if you are doing something negative, you tend to hear lots of communication relating to that particular matter. It would be helpful if the company reinforced good outcomes with positive reinforcement to the extent of communicating and following up when individuals experience negative outcomes from a certain behavior, execution, or performance.

Advice to Senior Management

Feedback for both positive and negative behaviors needs to be reinforced.

A mentoring program needs to be instituted to bridge the learning curve for lesser experienced Clinicians.

There needs to be an Area Practice Manager in each market who only focuses on managing the practices with a focus on growing revenue, having an ear in the field, holding Clinicians, Office Administrators, Technicians accountable, and who could also act as a fill in for the Clinicians on an "as needed" basis.

Performance should be rewarded by a more comprehensive incentive program that rewards revenue and quality of work along with team management. If the focus remains on Practitioners driving toward their revenue goals only, the different facilities will grow, but not to the extent the facilities could grow if part of their incentive measurement was and is tied to the growth of the entire team.