What kind of Dialysis provider has 1383 job openings?

[bioya]

I just did a search on the DaVita website and they have 1383 openings nationwide. What kind of company has that many positions that it can't fill? Think about it folks. If your dialysis provider is DaVita, do you want to trust your life to a company that can't keep staff, cut staff, cut hours, and cut salary? Do you feel safe with DaVita?  What kind of people stay with a company like this? hmmmm

[jbeany]

Okay, I'm not pro-Davita, or any other company, since I've no experience personally with any of them, but you make 1383 sound like some horrible number.  But the website also lists that they have 1255 centers in 41 states, and the positions include up to 10 different types of jobs, from nurses to paper pushers in upper management. That's an average of 1.1 job openings per clinic.   That's hardly a massive number of job openings for any business.

[bioya]

Yes, I think its a large number. One person per center in areas where there is 4 to 7 percent unemployment is unreal. Why can't you keep people in a center where there is a huge unemployment rate? Can it be mismanagement? Can it be overworked facilities? Can it be underpaid staff? ummm.. I say yea.
I do think 1.1 openings per clinic is a HUGE number.

[BigSky]

I agree the 1.1 worker per unit is a far cry from being huge. 


Also just because an area has unemployment rates of 4-7% that doesn't mean that everyone is qualified to do the job in the first place nor that those that are qualified actually want that type of job to do.

[kitkatz]

What worries me is when there is large turnover in the clinic.  Then we always get staff being "trained". These people know nothing and worse yet cannot do anything for a patient without someone on top of them all the time for safety sake.  If I wanted a newbie working on me I would have asked for one.  I understand they have to learn somehow, but I am not a practice dummy for them to use at will while they learn how not to f-up on someone.  So I hate see openings at my clinic.  Never know what you are going to get.

[Black]

This is from 2002, but it does indicate that staffing is an ongoing problem.  

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ESRDQualityImproveInit/downloads/Annual%20Report%202002.pdf

Go to page 56 of the report. (The rest of it is also interesting reading.)

The number of dialysis patients has gown rapidly and has grossly outpaced the number of transplants.  The clinics who have tried to increase the number of patients they serve w/o the expense of enlarging their facilities have added night shifts, and that has made the staffing shortage worse on surrounding clinics.

Frankly, I am glad to see some minor staffing problems.  There has been a push for years for more natural A/V fistulas, more use of the buttonhole technique, and more home dialysis -- HD and PD.  Despite the fact that patients having all of those are generally healthier, live longer, have fewer hospitalizations and save millions of health care $$$$, many, if not most, of the clinics have resisted it all.

Now, if they want to make room in their clinic for new, more desireable patients (especially more/better insurance), they have little choice but to declare patients to be non-compliant, or challenging/disruptive and send them out to the local ER for treatment, or train patients for home dialysis and send them home.

(Note the suggestion in the report for specialized centers with higher staffing ratios, more support staff, and higher pay scales AND higher Medicare reimbursement!)

Once they figure out that home dialysis is more profitable, it will probably be pushed on every patient who may be suitable and capable, which would solve a lot of problems for them and the patients.  When those that worship the bottom line figure this all out, they may even be pushing home dialysis on patients who may not be suitable and capable.  The pendulum will continue to swing, always influenced by those in it for the $$$.

Just read that over -- geez, am I cynical or what?

[pigsty1953]

I go to PDA in New Port Richey, FL.  I thought, when I first started it was good, but the longer I go the uglier it gets.   They have lost quite a bit of skilled staff, techs, nurses, in the last month.  They are so shorthanded it is really affecting patient care.  They get temps from other units, but they don't know the patients anywhere near like the people they lost.

They are supposed to be hiring new staff this coming week, but my question is, how long are they goimng to last?  They have some
problems at the very top of the unit, and they know it, but it is going to take something serious for it to change.

 

Take care, Randy in Palm Harbor, FL

[kitkatz]

Honey., I think every dialysis unit has high turnovers in staff.  Working 12 to 14 hour shifts kills the moral of people working there.  Besides is can be a lot of grunt work and no pats on the head from the head honchos.  It is just work, work, work for the techs.  No wonder they leave and they have to hire new people. 

[aharris2]

Quote from Black

"Now, if they want to make room in their clinic for new, more desireable patients (especially more/better insurance), they have little choice but to declare patients to be non-compliant, or challenging/disruptive and send them out to the local ER for treatment, or train patients for home dialysis and send them home."

Can they really do this? I thought about complaining to Davita because they have a high turnover of employees in my clinic but if they are going to declare me non-compliant that could ruin my insurance......i think.

Rolando





EDITED: Fixed Quote Tag Error - Sluff, Moderator

[glitter]

Once they figure out that home dialysis is more profitable, it will probably be pushed on every patient who may be suitable and capable, which would solve a lot of problems for them and the patients.  When those that worship the bottom line figure this all out, they may even be pushing home dialysis on patients who may not be suitable and capable.  The pendulum will continue to swing, always influenced by those in it for the $$$.

I sure wish they would figure that out for us-they only offer PD here-you have to travel to find home hemo-and our clinics have refused to do buttonhole....they say home hemo is not profitable enough.

[bluedove57]

Davita has alot of job openings because they don't pay their workers. The workers are great but can't survive on the small pay. That was the most complaints I've heard from Davita staff and reason for them leaving to get better pay to survive. I wasn't the pay but the salary. If you dialize in a Davita clinic, ask the staff how the pay is.