Thank You all for the great information! The more we share the stronger we
become as a profession!
Jeff
Original Question:
Happy Memorial Day All,
I am interested in asking the following question of other Residency Sites.
If you have a resident that will be at your site for both the Prosthetist
and Orthotist disciplines, once they complete one discipline do you
increase compensation for that accomplishment or do you treat the whole 2
years as a unit and evaluate compensation throughout that time frame?
Or maybe I am actually wondering how others are treating Resident
compensation overall?
Look forward to your feedback and I will compile responses and post in a
few days.
Sincerely,
Jeff A. Zeller, CP, BOCPO
Spectrum Prosthetics & Orthotics Inc.
Redding. CA
Responses:
We increase compensation after the first year.
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Residency salary is the same as a resident.
Assuming O first, P second
But if they transition to a CO during the beginning of the Prosthetic
Residency, their compensation is increased to indicate new credential.
Once they become a CPO, their compensation increases again.
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I had one resident who due to timing, was going to be 6 months before he
could sit for the CO CPM, so he transitions to a COA for 4 months, to
increase his salary.
We do not pay for their exam.
Hope that helps. We are a hospital based practice, so not much creativity
available for me…they must have a certification to indicate increase in
compensation.
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Yes, the pay should increase once they are certified in one practice. That
is how it worked at hanger, and how it worked for me.
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I think you will find industry standard to be a pay increase after they
receive the one discipline. Typically the resident will operate as a
practitioner in the other discipline up to 50%. If you are not having the
resident practice in that area then the pay increase is not expected,
however appreciated. I did not receive a pay raise at the VA when I did
mine, but I only saw patients in the discipline I was training for in each
residency.
Hope this helps.
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We increase pay after successfully passing the ABC exams for the first
discipline. Resident is then seeing patients for first discipline
independently and working as a resident for second discipline. We agree on
time split between 1st and 2nd discipline when hiring the resident.
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We have several residents, both O&P and dual. Of course they ‘focus” on
one discipline at a time but we have them working on both throughout their
time with us. Our model is employment vs. resident focused and we treat
each person the same as a clinical staff member in our company. They
receive company benefits, bonuses, yearly raises as each person does. We
don’t raise at time of board eligible, but we do increase upon receiving a
certified credential. And each residents rate is different based on
experience and ability. For example some residents had already completed
an Orthotic residency and came to us with more experience so they were hire
in the salary range.
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Great question. My personal opinion is that their pay should not change, as
they expect to be treated like a resident in the second discipline, not
like someone that is certified in the other.
But… I think it depends on the resident. If they are doing well and worth
keeping I wouldn’t have a problem bumping up pay. But I do find it
frustrating. They want a bump like they are certified, but most want to be
treated like a resident again.
They don’t get to have it both ways.
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Depends on if you’re practice does only prosthetics. If it does just a
small bump, 3k. If you do both 5-10k, especially if they will be expected
to see the more orthotics than prosthetics.
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I finished my residencies within the past two years. Here was my
compensation progression:
Start of Residency: Base Salary
End of 1st discipline: +3k to salary
Certification of 1st discipline: +3k to salary
End of 2nd discipline/end of residency: +3k to salary
Certification of 2nd discipline: +3k to salary
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Hope that helps some. Let me know if you have any further questions.
Salary Resident $3,000 up front as income for moving expenses (we have
found most are real tight coming out of school and this helps a lot.)
Then $32,000/ yr Salary (total gross year one $35,000)
We pay NCOPE residency fees.
4 weeks paid time off (sick and vacation)
Accrues starting day one.
We bonus them as they become productive for the business (historically
another 3-10,000 dollars in the first year) That one is especially fun
because it usually is a big surprise.
Mostly we do the 18 month dual program. Certification only comes after
completion of residency and we raise base pay for each credential earned
but not until then. Typical I retain residence as employees. All three CPOs
working for me now are former residents.
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If you are doing two, 1 year residencies you have the added complication of
someone getting one certification while they are still in their residency.
Are you using that credential and counting on that productivity? If so pay
them something for it.
Probably more then you want but I hope it helps.
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We did 3K raise after one discipline completed and another 3k after 2nd.
We also increase expense allowances by $250. Each time. Also depends on
what they come into the company with (salary)
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All depends on the resident and what your company goals are. Usually a
bump is advisable between displines, especially if the resident is worth
keeping around past his time or creating a potential partnership with
(opening another office potentially). I usually like to let the resident
know that we still expect 2-3 days a week of orthotic contributions while
they are a prosthetic resident. Lots of Prosthetics of course, but with
some means of paying their way with their newly taught skills. We always
make our residents start with O so they can learn in that atmosphere first.
Talent and potential loyalty can be cultivated in more ways than just
compensation. But these employees have a lot of debt to think about so
money is big. If they are super future manager material then we will
occasionally overpay slightly to retain and reward them as they grow. Most
talented residents want a mentor most of all though if they are mature
enough to understand the relationships burdens on both parties. Hope this
helps.
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In our area we have treated the disciplines individually. So when they
achieve one certification we awarded a pay bump and again once the dual
cert is achieved.
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I feel getting certified in one discipline is worthy of a raise. That’s
what I do with my residents. Become a CO, you get a raise. Become CPO you
get a raise.
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Our facility raised compensation after the residency, but before
certification. We very much wanted to retain this person. A few months
later, she achieved CO and we bumped her again. She immediately went on to
her P testing and we will give her another bump as a CPO with limited time
experience. From that point on she will get merit raises. All this was
explained to her so she could understand that we had a process in place and
she would know what to expect.
