Hospital Considerations
Introduction
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Current Status of SLP Employment
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Retention vs. Recruitment
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SLPs' Prioritization of Job Satisfaction Factors
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Recruitment and Retention Strategies
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Home Care Recruitment and Retention
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Hospital Considerations
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Outpatient Facility Considerations
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Skilled Nursing Facility Considerations
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Appendix
Reward Yourself with a Career in Health Care Powerpoint
presentation
[PDF]
Working in a hospital environment presents unique challenges
to SLPs as well as the administrators trying to recruit them. The
nature of both the acute care and rehabilitation hospital
settings lends itself to technological advances within the realm
of speech, language, voice, and swallowing diagnostics and
therapy. Therefore, the hospital-based SLP must be trained and
knowledgeable in these areas (i.e., videofluoroscopy, fiberoptic
endoscopy examination of swallowing, trach/vent care, etc.).
Continuing education is very important for the hospital-based SLP
to remain up-to-date on the current diagnostic and treatment
trends. Hospitals are also usually fast-paced, active
environments that require clinicians to be flexible and
organized. In order to succeed, the hospital-based SLP must be
vigilant about maintaining timely and accurate clinical
documentation and billing records as well as working efficiently
to meet productivity targets.
The 2007 SLP Health Care Survey asked the following question:
"What are the greatest challenges you face in health
care?" Data were collected from SLPs working in both general
medical hospitals and rehab hospitals. In rank order, respondents
from general medical hospitals reported the following
challenges:
- Paperwork (clinical and reimbursement; 45.7%)
- High productivity requirements (45.3%)
- Insufficient reimbursement (for clinical services;
43.1%)
- Keeping current with advances in clinical information
(35.8%)
- Unsatisfactory salary/benefits (31.5%)
- Not being valued by other disciplines/administration
(30%)
- Managing caseloads at multiple sites (18%)
- Resources (e.g., locating, funding interpreters) to respond
to diversity within caseload (11%)
In 2009, respondents were asked about undesired changes they
had experienced in their work environment over the previous year.
This question was asked, in part, because of the challenging
economic times. In rank order, respondents from general medical
hospitals reported the following:
- None of the above (41%)
- Increase in caseload/workload/productivity (27%)
- Reduction in salary or benefits (without changes in hours)
(15%)
- Reduction in caseload/workload/productivity (12%)
- Reduction in work hours (10%)
- Increase in the number of sites served (9%)
- Increase in work hours (7%)
- Conversion from salaries to hourly or PRN pay (4%)
- Job loss/layoff (3%)
- Replacement by support personnel (1%)