registered nurse

nursing assistant

registered nurse - icu

respiratory therapist

licensed vocational nurse

Kindred Hospitals

Every morning (Monday-Friday) we have a conference call with all disciplines in the hospital to review our pending admissions for the day.  On Monday mornings after the conference call, the liaison team meets (with our director and CEO) to go over the past weeks' meetings: who we saw plus any business pertinent to LTAC (long term acute care) hospitals in our area including census of competitors along with what we have on our agenda for the upcoming week. We strategize about any new physicians, directors, changes in our STAC (short term acute care) hospital administration departments or any possible clients we might be able to market and start the process to bring them on board. While we answer directly to our Area Marketing Director, we also work very closely with our CEO, CCO, and the Director of Case Management who has an open door policy to the liaison team and are open to suggestions and problem solving. Other than our meetings, we are in our hospitals doing evaluations, meeting with physicians, case managers and nursing directors daily. We also market MD offices, clinics, skilled nursing facilities, assisted livings and promote appropriate Direct Admissions to our hospital. 

This job has an ongoing training operation and I have learned to use 'Sales Force' to track my daily patient evaluations, who I met with and where I went each day. This is a good way to assist in time management. I learned to go into all area hospitals to meet the attending physicians and learn the case management teams and how each hospital runs their referral department. 

For four and a half years we have had a team of four clinical nurse liaisons who worked at our  assigned hospitals, but went into each of the other team members hospitals to "cover" when one of us needed to be out. We worked continually together to get multiple evaluations done daily. (Kindred has 2200 locations across the US and the Houston, Tx market has been the front runner in admissions to our hospitals since we were acquired two and a half years ago). I have been very proud to be a part of this team and company. 

If I had to choose the hardest part of the job, it would be having to tell a patient or family that there is/was no criteria for LTAC admission to my hospital. (I always do explain the level of care they do meet and discuss with their case manager and physician what  I found). The best part of working at Kindred  is seeing something in print about the wonderful success of a hospital stay and the positive outcome. Another "biggie" for me has been my personal relationships with so many physicians who have believed in me and my hospital, entrusting us to attend their patients. The fact that I can pick up the phone and reach the Regional Director for CEO's if needed, proves that the ladder is not an issue for an employee to feel safe or find a resolution to an issue.  I also must say that we are known in the industry as a hospital with excellent integrity taking only patients with true criteria for admission. 

If I were not relocating, I would not consider a change in my career.

I really love my coworkers and the atmosphere at the Ontario location. There is team nursing, which means a team of 1 RN 1 LVN 1 CNA, but the fact that you get up to 10 patients per shift, to me, is dangerous. Though Kindred is a long term acute care, it is still acute. Patients still have major uncontrolled issues. This, of course, comes with the job, but my problem lies with the ratios. Yes, we have team nursing and yes there are many more eyes on the patients than there would be with just an RN or RN/CNA combo, BUT 8-10 patients is a TON of responsibility and work to handle, especially when there is a shift of patient census, more acute patients are being admitted, and there are a lot of confused patients on restraints and each team ends up with at least two or three restrained patients on tele, multiple tele patients where sometimes you end up with 6 or 7 tele and 9 patients total. The support of supervisors and managers is there, but to a certain extent. There are also a lot of older nurses and other staff who work there that are set in their ways and do not communicate effectively. The hospital does, however, hire a ton of new graduate RNs, and there seems to be a shift in age difference between the RNs. 

There is a Med/Surg unit, 2 Tele units, DOU, and ICU. Management is constantly moving patients around to accomodate for the census, but that throws a wrench in your day if you end up getting more patients thrown on top of your already full workload (which is how sometimes you end up with more Tele's than "allowed", at which point they tell you to just grin and bear it). 

Most everyone who works here, including RN, LVN, CNA, RT, PT, OT, Speech, are very nice and easy to work with. Most of the Doctors that work here are also great. If they lowered the RN to patient ratio, this would be a great place to work. Also, the pay does not reflect the responsibility and workload RNs carry compared to other acute care hospitals (due to the acuteness and heavy ratios RNs face daily).  As of now, I find it VERY stressful. 

Also, the kitchen is ALWAYS short staffed, the food is inconsistent, sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes not a good selection where most everything is fried (you can tell someone forgot to order so they had to dig in the freezer). Plus side is they have a salad bar, down side is they only have cheapy ranch and italian dressing. They only open for breakfast and lunch between certain hours and are not open otherwise. If you are busy doing your  job and forgot to bring food, and you are 2 minutes late to the kitchen you MIGHT be able to convince them to give you whatever leftovers they have. That's if you catch the nice ones. There are vending machines that have burritos, sandwiches, chips, drinks, and candy. Places to eat outside of the hospital are either too far to go for a 30 minute lunch or take too long except for McDonalds is pretty close and fast (and to be honest, probably equal or better quality than the kitchen).

When i first started i was a little scared but super excited! My Director was amazing and every ounce of what types of bosses we need in this world. She was very helpful, and encouraging and quick to re-educate if needed instead of discipline right away. Needless to say my ADO could really careless about the employees, if you report neglect or abuse-AND YES THERE WAS-you get reprimanded and have a target on your back. My PD was told to step down and they later hired a new PD FROM Hades! She came in and shredded every binder and threw out any type of organization we had. Our office was pretty self functioning and for the most part we all worked very well and helped each other out. Organization was key and we worked our way from their, she demanded things her way, completely tore the office apart and put us all in a heap of a mess before going on a 2 week vacation leaving us scrambling to adjust. She messed up the schedules, didn't add patients to the planners, canceled appointments with out telling therapist and any time i talked to my team and tried to address concerns i was shut down and then she started gossiping. I took it to the ADO -whom she got to first- and wouldn't you know I GOT reprimanded. The job i thrived at and LOVED became Hades overnight. The ADO always took the PD side no matter what and then they started having "Gang up" sessions where it was only us 3 allowed to be involved in the meeting and my character, my work ethic, everything i worked so hard for over the last year was tore to pieces. I was left feeling insecure, worthless, and fighting a loosing battle. My job description was changed at will constantly and anytime i mentioned the company's description of my job the PD called the ADO and the "gang up" session commenced. It literally got to the point i was in tears and frustrated daily, i was told to do unrealistic task in a unrealistic time line and if i did not complete it i was threatened with "non compliance" i accomplished my task just to come back to work and see they were completely undone, redone or thrown out by the PD, she started gossip then played victim and completely put a miserable vibe in the office. Everyone was afraid to stand up and speak, rightfully so, you got "punished" or "labeled" and they were used against you and this behavior was okay-ed and apparently  encouraged by the ADO since when you brought it to the table she defended UNDEFENDABLE, RUDE, RACIST behavior and then would chastise you for complaining . I was working 60+ hours a week and still only "part time" i got no perks or benefits of a full time employee. I had to walk away, i am heart broken over it but it was tearing me down as a person and i was fighting a loosing battle with a group of discriminating mean girls. HR still has not reached out after multiple phone calls. Save yourself the heartache and headache, you wont be valued if your in the Midwest region, and you'll be left feeling insecure and like a shell of who you were,

We unfortunately often work short of people and of just basic necessary supplies such as clean linens and any worker that is found going to the main linen supply to obtain necessary additional clean linens will be immediately terminated. A few months ago, we were all given evaluation surveys by the state to be completed anonymously and then be placed in a box that the state would pick up. There was no box made available and we had to turn them into our supervisors instead obviously in complete disregard and noncompliance of the anonymity we were assured of. They did make their way to state however and despite the fact that not all had been completed or turned in yet, there were so many complaints about management and things such as listed above that the state immediately came for an impromptu visit and when approached by management they refused and stated they were there only to speak to staff. About a week after the state visit we all received a memo from corporate about how disappointed they were about all of the complaints stating that they had given us things such as free lunch pails and felt they treated us well. They also stated that it is difficult to find another job out there right now as well as making reference to Liberty Hospital recently laying off 152 employees. Frankly, all the employees took this memo, I feel rightly, to be a sort of "keep your mouth shut" sort of communication. There is not a team concept type of employment with your coworkers  which is a first for me at any place of employment in my nursing career. When I did ask if anyone needed help I seemed to be greeted with an attitude of suspicion which was incredibly strange to say the least. However, I have worked most of my career in an emergency department where team work was a necessity. Additionally, it was not at all uncommon to hear an aide when answering a call bell go into a room and state "what do you want NOW?" I was totally stunned by that honestly and said to the RN I was working with "did you hear that?" I was told by that RN to "mind my business." Many of the patients are chronic ventilator patients. One particular day while still on orientation, someone at some point prior to my shift had apparently become tired of hearing the vent alarm go off for high pressure for a particular patient and had put a "dummy" plug into the wall so the alarm would not be heard at the nursing desk. My preceptor and I found this patient in distress with a large plug in their trach. I was actually told by my preceptor verbatim, " we've lost many patients because of people putting that dummy plug in the wall." I've never seen anything in my entire 15 years of nursing like this facility. Approximately 6 months ago, my own boss was suspended for a week for her treatment of staff. I would absolutely NEVER recommend this hospital to anyone for employment or for treatment.  

Kindred Ontario is a great place for new grad RNs to gain great hands-on experience. Though it is technically "long term" it is very much an acute care hospital. We get patients from surrounding hospitals that are "stable enough" to get to long term care, but sometimes they are as acute as they were at the other hospital, needing constant care and MD orders. There are two tele floors, one med/surg floor, a DOU and an ICU at this Ontario location, with Pharmacy, OR, Radiology, wound care, respiratory, but no ER. Patients are well cared-for here, and typically the staff is very cooperative with one another, making it an enjoyable work experience as far as coworker dynamics goes. 

It is, however, an extremely stressful place to work due to the nature of the patients AND the number of patients each RN is expected to care for. The patient to nurse ratio is unsafe in my opinion. A typical run for a telemetry RN would be 8 to 9 patients per shift. The reason behind this is that here at Ontario, we have team nursing, aka 1 RN, 1 LVN, 1 CNA. Always. So upper management deems it safe to have these ratios. On a normal day where I know 7 out of my 8 patients and they are all fairly stable, this is not a problem. The stress comes in when 4 or 5 of the patients are new (admitted within the last 5-7 days), the hospital is understaffed and we have to work with registry LVNs or there are registry RNs on the floor (which creates more work for the regulars because they can't access the narcs), and then on top of that 3 or 4 patients will have critical labs or something going on with them that they need more attention. All this on top of the regular things you are expected to do as a nurse. 

I will say, though, that this place has taught me very quickly how to prioritize and delegate. You have to get good at this or you will not survive here. Because of this, there is a high turnover rate for nurses. We are always understaffed because nurses do not like to stay in a place with high stress and the fact that the pay is on the lower end of the spectrum for nurses, it definitely doesn't feel worth all the stress you deal with on a daily basis. The only reason I stayed is because it is close to home and they worked with my schedule. 

That being said, I do highly value my experience here and would recommend it if you think you can handle it. 

ALSO GOOD TO KNOW: the cafeteria is touch and go. They are only open weekdays for breakfast and lunch, no dinner service. There is always soup and salad bar, which is ok. Prices are great but sometimes the food they serve is too salty, too bland, you can't identify it right away, or they don't always have good options. There is also not very many fast food options close by the hospital, so sometimes you just have to suck it up and eat their food if you forgot your own lunch.

Patient loads could be anywhere from six to nine patients for the nurses and seven to ten patients for the CNAs.  Administration had numerous turnovers in the time that I was there.  If you go to work to take care of your patients and not to socialize and gossip, you are cast out and the cliques will spend numerous hours complaining to the nurse manager, CCO and CEO about you.  You are expected to read the CNAs minds and drop everything when they want help.  The CNAs can scream and yell at the nurses, but when the nurses try to teach the CNAs something the nurse is reported to the above administrative staff by the CNAs and reprimanded.  Administration plays favorites to the point where people were coming into work high and nothing was done.  The good workers either left or were fired.  Cameras were placed on our building for "security", but in reality it was to identify smokers.  The backstabbing and constant fight to try to get the best care for the patients caused so much stress that there were times when various nurses would break down in tears.  The work load was unreal.  In the special care unit one nurse was expected to take care of four to five acutely ill patients on various vasopressor drips by herself and if she was lucky, she had a CNA to assist/hinder her.  Orientation was a joke.  My preceptor was so vague I had to basically teach myself the computer charting and find my way around.  Sexually conversations were a norm, from the CCO on down to the CNAs.  CNAs were lazy and expected the nurses to answer all the call lights, even when the nurses had nine patients and were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.  Everybody has to be very careful of what they say due to the fact that it will be twisted around and reported to the administration and the person who said it is written up without investigation and without any warning whatsoever.  The equipment is archaic and only recently did we receive new feeding pumps and IV pumps which break down or don't function right most of the time.  The pharmacy is continuously complaining that nurses make med errors and overlook their own medication errors, which the management also overlooks.   Low census was another problem.  For the last six to eight months our census for a 69 bed hospital has been in the low to mid thirties at best and down to the low twenties or high teens at the worst, and call offs were frequently once or twice a week which resulted in very short paychecks.

I have to say the case management team here is one of the most knowledgeable, most masterful, and most strongly-knit teams I've ever seen. Every individual person is super important and amazing at what they do. They all have great characters and are true experts in what they do. They as a whole have a great sense of unity and family and everyone has treated me with the utmost respect and kindness. The director is a completely nurturing wealth of knowledge and she truly is passionate about what she does. I already know by observing how she works that a good chunk of why the hospital operates well is because of her. Everyone (and everything I say includes the Social Workers as well) is a real credit to the hospital in every form of the word. How they each exhibit their sense of integrity in their characters as well as display their expertise effortlessly only inspires me to learn quicker and get better at my own job. Sometimes I can't help but be in awe of this great unit of medical field mastery.

As far as outside the department, everything is amazing. The floor nurses are wonderful to work with. I honestly have NOT met a single person with an attitude yet and I've had the privilege of dealing with a good amount of them in the short time I've been there so far. All the doctors I've had the chance to deal with were very nice and helpful as well. The rehab department has super nice people who are team players as well. There's an in-facility human resources director who really goes to bat for all the employees, new or seasoned, and really does what needs to be done to make sure each is taken care of well and securely. And, the admin team is FANTASTIC. They each have treated me as more than just a random employee. When they see me, they talk to me like a human being who actually matters as a member of their entire team. AND they have done and said so many things that shows they truly care about the welfare of the hospital, the company which they represent, and the patients and their respective families. That says a lot anywhere in the medical field. 

LTAC case management is a totally different ballgame than IPA or Short Term Acute hospital so it presents a great challenge for me every day, but being employed by this facility, I tell you, I couldn't feel professionally and morally safer. I thank whatever power it was that guided me here because this place is an amazing place to work. Being here as helped me to become a more well-rounded nurse as well as professional in general. Bless this place. Bless everyone in it. Thank you so much for taking a chance on me, everyone.

My experience at Kindred Healthcare consists of numerous levels of challenges. I expect the challenges involved in providing cost effective and positive outcome wound care, but the hurdles that I have found during my employment are taking me away from my objectives that I have established when I provide, recommend wound care for my patients. I have developed a strong work ethic over the years and a commitment to my patients. I maintain my wound management skills and knowledge base without the assistance of my employer because I feel it my responsiblity in order to provide superior wound care. Currently I feel I can no longer meet my commitment to my patients despite numerous attempts to make effective changes. So I am looking for a change. I need to feel effective in what I do for my patients'; but I also feel a need to teach staff, patients and familes in various areas of wound managment, (i.e., prevention  strategies,wound  products, cultural and skin tone idiosyncrasies that can effect wound healing).Wound management is my passion. However, I cn not do all I'm responsible for as a team of one. I am currently responsible for the wound management program for my facility that consists of weekly skin assessment of all patients, including weekly measurements for all patients with wounds, as well as the photography of all wounds monthly on admission and at discharge.
Currently I provide direct wound care at least weekly for all patients with wounds; All negative pressure wound dressing application and fistula management dressings. 
Documentation of all wounds in the wound pathway in our EMR;and auditing to ensure accuracy of documentation in the EMR from physicians, nutrition, and nursing staff. I also identify inconsistencies in the documentation and submitt queries for the necessary changes. There is also data to be completed for monthly reports that assess quality and compliance with current standards of care in various aspects of the wound management program, i.e. nosocomial wounds. Mandatory participation in weekly IDT meetings; committee participation; weekly wound care rounds with our surgeon at his time discretion; and data entry for  data going to CMS. 
I do a little of each item above every day.    I am a one person team that despite my team size I have positive outcome. (i.e. 13 nosocomial thus far this year and all on patient who were dying.)

I'm writing this review to warn all licensed professionals who are looking for a healthy working environment and a strong organizational work culture. I've been with kindred hospital Indianapolis for 2 years. My expectations weren't high going into the facility based on the reputation Kindred has in the healthcare community. But I needed a job, and they offered a very good compensation. However, once I began my journey as a staff RN, I noticed the lack of training and nursing education Kindred offered. As I progressed, I witnessed scheduling conflicts, management gossip, favoritism among employees by management, and a punitive management style. Lack of effective leadership was also very evident to me and it eventually led to decreased employee morale. Management seemed non-engaged and unconcerned about their employees and work-related issues (i.e. lack of functioning equipment such as b/p and IV pumps). Family complaints were the norm, and hazardous patient safety concerns were prevalent due to the decreased knowledge bases from many of the nurses working there. As a supervisor, I was held accountable for the actions of nursing personnel, and as a result, was used as a scapegoat for many reasons. Kindred afforded me the opportunity to advance my education, but shortly thereafter, I was terminated due to the actions of others without receiving due process. In addition to the termination, they threatened to mark my license with negligence performance. I've since consulted a lawyer who assured me there was no bases for that claim. In any case, if you consider yourself a diligent, hardworking, and knowledgeable nurse, please avoid employment at Kindred unless it's a means to an end for short-term occupational goals. You will receive little to no training, very little management support, and always feel paranoid about what management will blame you for, and sub-par benefits. Lastly, because of their reputation in the community, they've only been having 20-25 patients in the hospital (60 bed capacity) for the last 4-5 months, so you're almost certain to not get the 72 hours guaranteed to you (unless you're favored by management). So basically, that negates the elevated pay scale that Kindred offers.

I accepted a PTA job with this company following graduation and the passing of my boards.  I was promised mentorship and easing into a full caseload....I thought this was great and I would really have the opportunity to gain some level of comfort before being required to meet 90% productivity....however, this couldn't have been further from the truth!  I came in my first day---no orientation to the facility, only a quick introduction to the staff that happened to be in the department at the time---which coincidentally enough did not even include the manager, she was not in until later in the day.   I was then handed my schedule of 80% productivity expectations (and by day 3 was at 92% productivity----way to ease me in, huh?!?!) and left to fend for myself....I will say some of the staff were great and really helped to update me on some of my patients.  I actually had progress notes due on patients my first day and had no clue where to even find documents or specifications as to what was expected per departmental procedure.  Oh and my pre-employment drug test that was administered by the manager was done at the end of my first day AFTER I had treated my entire caseload---this showed me how much quality patient care mattered to them, their only interest seemed to be the bottom dollar and having bodies in there with licenses to maintain a certain level of cash-flow.  Needless to say, this was not how I anticipated my first day going and was stressed out beyond belief.  I went home almost to the point of tears--questioning whether or not I made the right career choice!  When I gave my resignation I was called unprofessional, not once by the manager but several times over the course of the week, and was told, "we waited an extra week for you, you aren't making a good name for yourself.  This is very unprofessional of you".  Now mind you, the 1 week hold up was because the state had taken longer than they expected to issue my license.  This company left a very sour taste in my mouth and has really deterred me from venturing back into the SNF setting.  Anybody considering working for this company BEWARE, especially as a new grad looking for a little support and mentorship. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Registered nurse 922 salaries reported	$50.09 per hour
Nursing assistant 556 salaries reported	$24.21 per hour
Registered nurse - icu 213 salaries reported	$53.99 per hour
Respiratory therapist 386 salaries reported	$40.70 per hour
Licensed vocational nurse 144 salaries reported	$31.17 per hour

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