registered nurse

occupational therapist

physical therapist

cook

rehabilitation technician

Encompass Health

From day one, expectations were not made clear. Every time I finished a new task for orientation, I would hear “oh sorry, I forgot I need you to do this too.” I spent 1 1/2 months in orientation before ever seeing my first patient by myself. (Granted I was PRN, so if I were full time it wouldn’t have taken that long). This is from someone who has been in home health for 10 years and has worked in managerial roles, so I’m very familiar with documentation and rules and regulations, but none of that is taken into consideration... everybody gets the same orientation. 

All in all though, that wasn’t the bad part. If the company has certain expectations, fine. I get that. But when I asked about orientation I was given the hours of 9-2 on Tues, 9-5 Weds-Friday. So fine, I find a replacement for my patients with my other jobs for that week, expecting to be able to work as usual after that. NOPE. Come Thursday I find out well you actually have hours and hours of videos that you have to watch too. Then there’s a week of shadowing with a preceptor. My preceptor told me on 2 different occasions that we would be done on a certain day, but when that day came, now they want me to follow someone else “just for the experience.” Because I guess 10 years isn’t enough experience. 

When it came time for my 90 day review. I was hounded, AFTER it was late, not given opportunities before its due to get these tasks completed, to give them time to complete this “because we have to be in compliance.” Guess what, all you have to do, is say, “your 90 day review is coming up next week, when would be a good time to schedule that?” I give you a day or however many hours, or whatever you ask for, and life continues, but no, it’s one thing. Then “oh, now I need this.” Then “I really need this too, now.” I am PRN, I’m seeing no patients with you, and I work with other companies. You are NOT my priority. I’m more than willing to work with you, if you can get your ducks in a row and have everything ready. 

I scheduled a phone review and took time out of my day to do so. And surprise, the branch director blows it off. Then she calls in the middle of me driving between two patients the day after our scheduled review, and wants to finish it then. Fine, let’s get this done. So I hear amongst other things, “you meet expectations with HR, that you give them what they need when they ask for it,” so on and so forth. I met or exceeded expectations on everything. Then I think I’m done. Surprise, a few days later I get another call, “I need you to return my call, I have things I need to complete and have the branch director sign, but I can’t do that until I speak with you.” That was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. So surprise, Monday rolls around and I haven’t gotten back to them, and I get another call “to remind me.” I haven’t forgotten. There was a holiday there. Did you want me to contact you on Thanksgiving Day on your personal cell phone, I’m more than happy to, if that’s the expectation.  I was trying to be courteous though. Or the Friday after?? Guess what, I had things going on, and you aren’t the only one with deadlines! Then I finally connect with HR and they need me to login to my work email, print something, sign it, send it back. I get home that night, plug in my device, and let it charge overnight so I can get into my work email. Next morning, I see apparently the charger is broken, because it didn’t charge. So I find a new charger, plug it in, decide to deal with it after work. I get home and my email won’t let me login. So I have to call IT. I have a busy day the next day and can’t. So then Friday morning rolls around and I have it on my to do list. But instead at 9:20am, (the day has barely started!) I get a nasty call from the branch director. A good manager would encourage/ask if there’s a way they can help/not assume that you’re just being obstinate. But no, I get a nasty voicemail asking about my dedication to the (PRN) job, wondering if this is a good fit after all, etc., all because I need to call IT. Mind you, a week earlier I “met expectations” in my 90 day review.

Basically, that experience sums up my time with Encompass. It gave me unbelievable stress, to the point that I dreaded seeing their number pop up on caller ID. I would immediately think, what did I do wrong now? Encompass supposedly prides itself on being a caring, best place to work, and maybe other branches are, or maybe corporate is, but my experience is that the branch director in Cleburne is looking for any reason to flaunt her “head honcho” position and intimidate all the underlings, and those that work under her better bow down to her presence or face the wrath. I saw first hand one office employee that was terrified of doing anything wrong. And my first week in orientation, I was told that 2 field nurses just up and quit with no notice. That says a lot to me. To be honest, it was such a blessing to finally be rid of this job! No job should bring that much stress and hatred, where you constantly feel like you’re despised and you’ll never do right by them. That’s how I felt. 

(Thanks for reading, hope it helps someone!)

This facility has so much potential, and HAD so many great employees until the turnover rate became completely ridiculous especially for nursing. The crazy thing is leadership broadcasts the idea of wanting employees to speak up about things and act like they care so much about what we think on the engagement surveys, but when you speak up now you are a target. When I tell you that the HR Director has to be the most incompetent HR person I have ever seen. Good for her for lucking up into this position, seeing that her and the CNO both do not adhere to the basics of being a leader, such as the codes of conduct. There have been so many complaints about retaliation and unfairness and nothing seems to be done about it. There have been issues raised to the HRD about feeling targeted or even harassed by the CNO and it just gets swept under the rug. The CNO sends emails to the staff about things with such a nasty and condescending tone, when a simple face-to-face conversation could have addressed the issue. When this is relayed to the HRD, nothing is done, she just says that they will investigate further and look into the concerns and sometimes she never circles back and if she does it is to basically tell you there were no findings. I am seriously concerned that as long as I have been here so many people have left and no one from corporate is looking into this. No one under the CNO can be successful as she takes no accountability and does not advocate for her staff. I am eager to know what exactly is being taught in the "Leadership Training" they are now doing because I hope it focuses on seeing employees as humans with hearts and not treating people like work horses or robots. She is not a leader and does not care about people as she tries to play the blame game to keep her nose clean when the true issue is that she doesn't set her staff up for success. Everything is a crisis and nobody is thriving, only surviving which is a issue across all departments from what I hear and see. Well Leadership is thriving as the extra work and pressure just gets passed down to us. From rushing people on the floor when they aren't ready, to having pop-up orientations to compensate for the multiple resignations just to have a bulk of those new employees that the HR and CNO selected, barely make it out of the 2nd week of orientation and quit.

The new CEO seems pretty relatable and decent until we realize that he isn't doing anything about the things listed above. I am actually starting to think, does he really care? Is he who he is says he is? We understand that he can't run every department, but if he doesn't soon realize the true reason things are the way they are in nursing, he is in for a rude awakening. You can teach someone how to read spreadsheets or have clinical knowledge, but you can't teach people how to be personable and genuine. I have never met a person as miserable as our CNO and I feel bad for her. Her life at home must be terrible to come to work and tear down people the way she does, when being a caregiver is already a burden. She has so much knowledge or credentials behind her name, yet she doesn't even pour into us. She just keeps her office door closed and when she comes out of the office, she has this dreadful look on her face. I mean really? We are trying to show professionalism and positivity to our patients and visitors and our leader doesn't even set the example. Hopefully soon, someone will have to see that she is the cancer to the department rotting us from the inside out. You can't even trust her with things you share in confidence because the moment you can't do something or you aren't at her disposal, she is spilling the beans to unnecessary individuals. Also, you better not dare stand up for yourself for being wrongly accused of something or be ready to be pushed out by illegitimate write-ups or she will make the environment so hostile that you'll eventually just leave. Her negativity spreads through the hospital like a wild fire and it is sad. I am guessing since she's been there so long, she is untouchable, but if the CEO allows this to continue, he will be on the floor taking care of patients because eventually no one will be there to do it as long as she is there. Oh and let me add, when my colleagues leave, their names get slandered through the mud. No matter how good of an employee they were, the CNO will completely degrade them. As we know, there is always some kind of pressure in the work force, but it should't be every single day. There are so many of us that are physically being affected by working in this environment, from insomnia, nightmares about going to work, anxiety, gastrointestinal issues and in some cases overall depression. I would trade in the free snacks and food trucks for a work environment that isn't so stressful and soul crushing any day.

There is nothing enjoyable about the job at all!!

10-14 patients every shift, which is ridiculous for any nurse!! It should be illegal!! A nurse should never have more than 7 patients. By the time you get off work, your back will hurt, your blood pressure will be high and you will be insane. The nurses have no support from management at all. RNTs are always understaffed and take it out on the nurses (by yelling at them or being insubordinate) instead of management. Management knows that they are frustrated but refuse to address it, they just blame it on the nurses and say "the nurses can do their job also." Several of the nurses have sent the administration and management complaints and they never respond to them.

If you are a nurse, you are at risk for losing your license every time you walk through the door with the high number of patients that you have. You cannot safely round on your patients with the high patient ratio, if a patient crashes or dies on you, you may possibly be sued by the family, Health South will not support you at all. The only way to be on time is to cut corners. If you don't cut corners, and you do things the right way (taking the time to properly identify your patient before giving medication, properly assessing them, getting vitals every 4-8 hours, doing thorough charting), you are seen as a weak link and criticized. The head nurses will not support or will not help you if you are swamped or running behind.

The poor patients soil themselves all the time because there is never enough staff to help them get out of bed to go to the bathroom or answer their call light in time. Either that or the patients continue to fall because no one is watching them or assisting them when they need it. The nurses are always understaffed and are told by management that they must do RNT work, along with their nursing responsibilities. Which is not fair!! In any given shift the nurses have to get vitals on all 10-14 patients, pass their meds on time, respond to stat labs, start IVs, perform bladder scans, In & Out Caths, Accucheks, and find time to respond to crashing patients which is unreasonable. Either there will either be one RNT on the floor or none at all. If the RNTs are fully staffed, the nurses are still expected to help them even though we are already overwhelmed with their own duties. Any time a nurse takes out the time to help an RNT, this takes time away from their nursing duty, which ultimately effects patient care. While the RNT clocks out on time, the nurse usually has to stay 1-2 hours after their shift just to finish their tasks because they spent most of their shift doing RNT work. This is not conducive to work-life balance. 

The RNTs yell at the nurses all of the time, management knows and lets them get away with it. As a nurse, you will never leave work on time, you will never have lunch, take a break, never have time to go to the bathroom, drink water, etc. Then head nurses have the audacity to get mad at you when you don't take your lunch or get off work on time, how can you??? 

Management will complain to the staff that call lights are not being answered on time and that quality scores are down yet they refuse to address nurse and RNT staffing concerns. They are too cheap to hire agency staff when regular staff call in. So you are left to suffer on your own.

If you value your life, sanity and well-being do not work for HealthSouth as nurse. They will offer you high pay but it is not worth it in the end if you lose your license, cause harm to a patient, have chronic back pain and develop hypertension. The long-term effects of working in this type of environment will eventually lead to a stroke or heart attack. If you value your life and health, do not work here, if you are here and going through this please leave now, because things are never going to change and it is not worth it!!

Unless you want to be a puppet, do not work here. You are not allowed to speak up & question anything or you will be "toxic" and "intimidating" to management. Even when it comes to patient needs, if you speak up, you will be a target for management. When this company used to be Cardinal Hill it was an AMAZING company. The focus was the patient. Now it is all about the mighty dollar. Now that HealthSouth bought it out, the patients are just a dollar sign to them. They don't care about quality of care, they only care about the quantity of patients served in a day. Serving those as inpatients rolled up ham as a meat for dinner because they have ran out of food or shifts of employees (nurses) walking out because of management not listening to their needs to insure patient care is above standards. Leaving 1 nursing aid to 12 patients while RN staff sit back because "it's beneath them" and the patient's dignity suffers; but let's not let the patient or family know we are understaffed. We need to have positive attitudes, attentive listening and timely responses to call lights but make sure you don't take a break because RN's need their break first. It's hard holding down a chair watching CNA staff bust their butt. The quality of care is disgusting. Management does not listen to you when you point out improvements needing to be made or barriers in your workflow process. Management writes employees up out of retaliation when the employee points out that the management is the barrier. Human Resource management is a joke to say the least. The stick up her butt is shoved so far up that is it is popping out of the top of her head in the hideous poof she calls a hair style. If people really knew the truth about what goes on behind the scenes of this place, they would go elsewhere. Thank God UK is starting up an outpatient neurological therapy department. So those with strokes, Parkinson's, spinal cord injuries, brain injuries or anything neurological will have an option to go someplace else. Therapists from Cardinal Hill are stressed out beyond belief because their hands are tied when it comes to patient care. They put in their hours each day, then go home and do hours of documentation because they aren't given the time to properly document. Therefore, their family suffers lost time with a parent but management doesn't care. Some of management doesn't have kids and doesn't understand the meaning of FAMILY TIME. They feel your time is more important to the company then to your family. Many therapists will leave once UK opens up the new department. Better opportunity to serve the population in the manner the patients deserve. I wouldn't take my dog to this place to be treated for a bee sting. There is a whole unit not being used in this hospital. Why not give back? Use it to treat wounded soldiers who have brain injuries, amputations, other medical needs. Oh that's right!!! They refuse to take military benefits for outpatient therapy because the reimbursement isn't enough. By all means, lay down your life for me but hey!!! if you come back with needs, I'm sorry, your insurance won't pay me enough for us to fool with you. Your brain injury or amputation wasn't enough. Suck it up buttercup! Wait for the VA to find you a spot in 4 years.

During my time at the company, I appreciated the opportunity to work with a diverse patient population and collaborate with hardworking therapists and staff. However, I ultimately decided to leave due to concerns regarding organization, communication, and overall clinical support within the department. As a new employee, the orientation process lacked structure and consistency, with minimal dedicated time for mentorship, discussing caseload management, treatment approaches, or addressing concerns during the transition period. There was no training on scheduling often resulting in learning through trial and error rather than through a clear onboarding process.

Communication within the department was another challenge. Last-minute schedule changes, particularly involving PRN staff, frequently impacted patient care and treatment planning. At times, this created situations where therapists were expected to manage concurrent treatments for highly dependent or impulsive patients, which raised concerns regarding patient safety and quality of care. Additionally, during both my interview process with leadership and my in-person tour with the department director, I was not informed that I would be expected to oversee and coordinate treatment for up to 12 patients. Learning this responsibility after starting the position, particularly as a newer clinician still within the orientation period, made the transition significantly more challenging.

From a clinical perspective, I felt there was limited emphasis on evidence-based practice and ongoing professional development. As a stroke-certified rehabilitation facility, I expected greater support for interventions such as high-intensity gait training, which has strong research support for improving patient outcomes. Instead, productivity pressures and concurrent treatments often limited the ability to provide individualized, high-quality care. There also appeared to be a strong focus on meeting CMS-related functional goals and documentation metrics, sometimes at the expense of accurately reflecting patient presentation and allowing therapists the flexibility to implement more creative or patient-centered interventions.

Additionally, workflow expectations and department processes often felt inconsistent and overly micromanaged. Team conferences and family training sessions were at times scheduled in ways that interfered with direct patient care or without adequate communication with treating therapists. Overall, while I value the experience and lessons learned during my time there, I believe there are opportunities for improvement in communication, staff support, onboarding, and fostering a stronger culture of evidence-based, patient-centered care.


I was employed at this company for 4 years and loved the company. At first the office environment was very friendly and was an enjoyment to be a part of. After the change in management shortly after a year, the branch took a different turn and became focused not on the patients or employees but on company profit. Another major change  in management brought on a more demanding atmosphere with little to no regard for how expectations was accomplished both by field staff or office staff. Concerns and complaints fell on deaf  ears or you  had to endure the story of how much the Assistant Administrator  was over worked and sacrifices she had made and why your complaint was not justified up next to hers. It was frequently said if you do not like it find another job. Advancement  in job position was   allowed with little to no support or education to perform the job. When overwhelmed  you was left on your on to work it out or was give the feeling you were less than adequate to do the job.  If felt by this manager you could not do the job  you immediately became very unimportant on her scale of employees she wanted to keep. Allegations against you was never handled in a way to make you feel  you had  a right to defend yourself. Most employees that left on a bad note was turned into the Board for one reason or another, If trying to transfer and you was not liked a call was made to the office  and negative information shared to prevent your transfer,  I  went from one management position to another  but was then told I would be doing another job for less pay and I could like it  or would not have a job. When I expressed my concern I was told I could like it or would not have a job there. This is frequently being said to employees.. The  years of 60 to 70 hour weeks, working holidays, weekends and during PDO meant nothing. I have seen many good employees pushed out of their job or treated badly by this manager/assistant administrator. You are allowed 6 weeks PDO a year but very seldom are allowed to take it.  When I left I had  in excess of 100 hours on the books that they took from me . PDO is accrued so it was time that I had rightfully earned and should have received reimbursement for. I was always impressed by April and her company dream , it makes me wonder if  she really knows how the employees are treated by her dream team management staff.  Even though  it was placed in my work folder I would not be  acknowledged for rehire, I still believe it is a good company, it just needs to purge the management staff and  follow their mission of providing a better way to care  not only for patients but for staff as well.

Encompass says all the right things, but does NOT practice what they preach. They pride themselves on education and training, but at least in Colorado, training is minimal. The Assistant Regional Administrator is angry, defensive, unprofessional and demeaning. She gossips about both the office and field staff, rarely saying anything positive. I heard things about staff in her other branches that I had no business knowing. It made me wonder what she was saying about me to them. The minute you disagree with her she turns on you and your days are numbered. I was encouraged to let her know if I needed more training or was becoming overwhelmed. When I did, her response was about how overworked she was, having 5 branches to cover, the long days she had to work and how overwhelmed and exhausted she was. It was very demeaning. 

My orientation was sporadic and incomplete. When I asked for more training it never happened. When I expressed concern for my nursing license, I was gone within a week. The clinical staff is expected to work 12 days in a row when on call. The logic is that Encompass is generous with PDO, so you can request time off to make up for working 12 days in a row. My experience was having to work 12 days in a row (doing the jobs of 3 people) before I was eligible to use PDO. I was terminated on the 12th day of this stretch, having worked 75 hours the previous week. I had not completed my 90 day orientation, nor was there any disciplinary action or counseling. When I submitted time off requests more than 60 days in advance, the Assistant Regional Administrator laughed and said, "Denied". My requested was never acknowledged again. When you leave the company, they keep all your earned PDO. I lost 52 hours that I worked very to accumulate.

My first day on the job one of the four field nurses resigned. Four more nurses either resigned or were terminated in less than 3 months.Those that resigned stated they did so due to poor working conditions. At the time I left, there was only one field nurse left and she had only been there 2 weeks.This was only in my branch. There were at least 6 more nurses in the other branches this woman managed that were fired or resigned in the time I was employed at Encompass.

I think the President/CEO has good values, cares about people and is obviously passionate about home health care. However, the mission statement, "A Better Way to Care", does not apply to staff. Unfortunately the management team in Colorado is not on board with agency beliefs and practices. 

I would not recommend Encompass to anyone in the state of Colorado.

I used to work at Encompass as an RN. Firstly, I will say that this is a solid company and a lot of the basic things I hope to find in a company I work for are there (adequate staffing, adequete supplies, adequate cleanliness). I will not pretend that I feel that I was able to accomplish my best work while at the company, although I know that I grew a lot as a nurse as far as learning how to respond to problem behaviors and general nursing skills. The support staff are overall friendly, although there were some abberant remarks that unfortunately did mentally distract me from my responsiblities. That is somewhat of a given in any work environment, but still not conducive to an appropriate work environment. The nurses, also, were pleasant overall. That being said, there were enough occasions of innapropriate outbursts that made mature communication more of a challenge than an expectation. This is the main reason I decided to leave the company. I empathise with management, however I found standard of communications to be belabored and mostly ineffective. I also would like to mention that the human resources manager specifically suggested I make decisions to risk my good health status (e.g., consider taking a smoke break). There were the same general technology snafus you can expect anywhere, however the patient schedule was consistently incorrect/inconsistent across systems. The hospital has recently expanded so this might be a great growth/potential opportunity for them. I personally know a patient who stayed at this hospital and most of her feedback was concerning being able to hear staff complaining day in and day out. If I were to start work over again from day one, one thing that I would add to my routine is to ask patients how their stay is going, and then take any concerns directly to the charge nurse instead of trying to address work productivity problems on my own. I would also like to have known better experience in finding a new work space if a manager or other staff person is not respecting my need to have appropriate distance while performing work tasks. It is a sad task to report these problems in culture, especially because a lot of the staff are younger and may be blinded of the reality of working in a hospital. I applaud the nurses who work their currently for being tenacious and I know they are smart enough to reflect on and gain knowledge to the meaning of positivity, empathy, and strength.

I really enjoy my co workers and my job taking care of patients in need. Healthsouth offers great compensation and benefits for all positons. However the administration and management at this particular location are extremely unprofessional and lack compassion for their employees and patients. They offer "self-scheduling" but once you make your schedule in the available slots they change your schedule without asking or telling you if it's ok. I had a day shift position and they pulled me to nights without even asking me if it was ok. I have family, school, and a second day shift job that will not allow me to work nights at this time. After being a employee in excellent standing with the company for well over two years they refused to work with me or let me go part time or PRN. If you are a student or have a second job, do not apply. They will not work around other employees schedules either. They have also failed to give pay raises to deserving employees. I am a nurses assistant, not a nurse. The nurse assistants are always understaffed and have back breaking work loads. The patient to nurse ratio is too high. Nurses are required to take up to 11 patients that require very demanding needs. The types of patients that are being admitted to this rehab are generally "too sick" to be in this type of hospital. They should be at a more critical facility. The work load for the nurse to patient ratio is extremely dangerous. Administration is allowing patients that are too sick or too critical to be in this type of hospital setting which is extremely dangerous and they are doing it solely for the money. I care about patient satisfaction and their well being. This company doesn't, they only care about money.  14 employees this money alone have either quit or put in their two weeks notice. If you want a great place to pursue your career I strongly urge you to seek employment elsewhere! 
Be prepared to work required mandatory 7 holidays out of the year, they pick which holidays for you. All new hires are required to work every other weekend, no exceptions or the will fire you.

This hospital has so much potential to be a great place to work. Unfortunately, management can be described as the definition of insanity: expecting different results doing the same thing over and over again. It does not matter who comes to manage the hospital, we have the same issues: lack of personnel, patients who are not appropriate for an inpatient rehab; lack of accountability from management when they make a mistake; micromanagement of census, intensity, people are fired and you don't even know what happened to them until you don't see them anymore; lack of communication,  honesty, and transparency.

Work-life balance is hard and you feel punished or targeted if you bring up that you are working too much; that you have to take care of your family; that you don't have the resources and time to complete your job. You verbalize this constantly, and the answer is always the same: "we are working on it, this will pass." Until something fall through the cracks because you couldn't do your tasks due to a lack of personnel, resources and time and you are blamed for it. 

The hospital has never been staff appropriately. If the census is low that day, people are sent home; but beware, that same day 10 new admissions can come that nobody told anyone. Then, surprise, surprise, you end up assessing more patients than the 8hrs you are supposed to work. Then, you end up working later or from home. But because you are an exempt employee, you are not paid extra for all the time you have worked over your 40hrs. And don't even ask for leaving early the next day to compensate for the number of extra hours you put the day before. If you do, you will have to take PTO.

 If a patient expresses a concern or complains about anything, the situation escalates to leadership to the point that it seems the world is coming to an end. Even if it's just that someone got their coffee cold, it becomes a major issue. This becomes exhausting because the staff is in constant paranoia if anyone complains about them. Sometimes, staff ends up being mistreated and disrespected by some patients and families, but you can't say anything to them. All in the name of patient satisfaction.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 53 salaries reported	$44.02 per hour
Occupational therapist 1 salary reported	$65.00 per hour
Physical therapist 12 salaries reported	$56.29 per hour
Cook 1 salary reported	$21.00 per hour
Rehabilitation technician 2 salaries reported	$20.50 per hour

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