Odyssey HealthCare Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Odyssey HealthCare

Pros – Best reason is to provide care to terminally ill patients and their loved ones.

Cons – Difficult transition after purchased Vistacare, changing forms to very confusing documents and not providing any instruction or in-services as to what was needed. The forms used to make sense. No longer. Confusing. Very time consuming. Plans of care no longer work with other forms. Admission packet has gotten much worse.

Advice to Senior Management – Go back to what Odyssey usd to be about - values - taking care of customers and taking care of staff. You used to be a good company. It is sad to see the deterioration. Think through things before making changes. What will proposed changes mean to patients and staff? How will you help people with change? What good will come of major changes? Think about more than the stock holders!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Odyssey HealthCare

Pros – It is a job where you will receive experience in the hospice industry, mainly how you should not do things.

Cons – In a woman dominated industry they have a remarkably poor track record for promoting women into upper management positions. Bob Lefton has brought in his cronies from the LTAC world and made it a good old boys club. Unfortunately, they try to run the business like a hospital and they haven't figured out that hospice is not a hospital. In trying to save his job Bob purchased VistaCare and plunged the company into debt. The purchase was a disaster. Look for the stock to go down in 2009.

Advice to Senior Management – Hospice is not that hard to understand. Figure it out or get out!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Odyssey HealthCare

Pros – It used to be good, since the merger with Vista Care, it's an awful place!! So much micromanaging , major issues are being ignored.

Cons – Too many chiefs, no Indians! Incompetence is rewarded; innovation is discouraged. Lack of common sense, slick sales people pushing "business" of caregiving; its a joke!

Advice to Senior Management – Get a clue! They come in and make mandates that are not relevant to the area and the patients and leave. Local managers are completely peter-prinicipled into management positions if they just wait long enough.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Odyssey HealthCare

Pros – Odyssey used to be a top provider, but since new management started to become routine the clinical setting began to weaken. The merger with Vista Care only hastened the decline in care!

Cons – Promotion and career growth are soley based on "who you know". The only way to succeed here is to go with the flow, regardless of what's right or wrong! If you have a strong personality, you are resented and eventually driven out!!!

Advice to Senior Management – Senior management needs to come and see for theirselves! The site is circling the drain as they sit aside and wait.....

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Odyssey HealthCare

Pros – The work is virtuous and rewarding. Dealing with people of all walks of life, caring for others, following families for 13+ months, relationships among clients and families.

Cons – Scheduling, staffing; Transition with VistaCare purchase leaves staff feeling uncertain of the future of Odyssey HealthCare and local site. Weaker sites feel as if they are on the chopping block. Staff does not feel valued and lost in the shuffle of the corporate dealings to make the merger work for all parties. This is a very scary time to work at Odyssey. No one knows if we are going up, going down, or stuck somewhere in the middle.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen. Do what works for the individual site, not what works for everyone. Each market is unique.

Former Employee – worked at Odyssey HealthCare full-time for more than a year

Pros – Some great employees to work with.

Cons – Caseloads are too high to give even minimally standard care, much less good care. Patients are made all kinds of promises that are never kept. Admissions come first at night before emergency calls because the existing patients are not bringing in more money. If you tell your supervisor a patient is not appropriate for hospice, they will send other nurses out to evaluate until someone thinks they are. Employees are routinely thrown under the bus when things go wrong.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees with at least respect to their faces. Your employees will make you or break you. If you run off the good ones, who are you left with?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Odyssey HealthCare

Pros – benefits, PTO, local team support

Cons – Top Heavy, no consideration for the impact at the program level

Advice to Senior Management – listen to the employees at the local level

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Odyssey HealthCare

Pros – Nationwide network of hospice and home health companies
Philosophy of care is solid
Advocates for end-of-life care at a national level

Cons – Corporate out of touch with what is needed by field staff
Corporate management is difficult to trust
Pay is not competitive

Advice to Senior Management – Employee recognition: pay them competitively, say thank you, listen to what they say
Don't let money get in the way of quality of patient care

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Odyssey HealthCare

Pros – Supportive management; ample resources; good benefits and comparable salaries

Cons – Since Gentiva's buy out, corporate support and attentiveness to local HR, IT, and other needs has been absolutely awful!!

Advice to Senior Management – Development of a training program with mentorship for new nursing staff; increase recognition and rewards for outstanding employees; more allowances for PTO by utilizing agency, PRN, and other staff.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Odyssey HealthCare

Pros – The pay is competetive with other companies
Out in the field and not stuck in office
A fair amount of paid time off
Majority of coworkers are great

Cons – The oncall is awful, you work all day and are expected to work all night if necessary
No support from management
You are expected to take paperwork home and do it on your own time without pay
Very, Very unorganized with clinical staffing and patient care areas
Management does not address problems but ignores them
Very high patient caseloads with high acuity patients and no help when needed

Advice to Senior Management – Smaller caseloads, listen to and address problems instead of ignoring them, give employees time to complete paperwork on paid time.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend