10y
I’m sorry you didn’t feel respected or heard in your time with Corizon. You’ve opted to respond here anonymously, but if you’d like to email me directly, with your concerns as it pertains to your management team, we can certainly have the designated Employee Relations person take a closer look. As a whole, we have certain policies and procedures to abide by. These fall in line with NCCHC and ACA require guidelines, and are often part of our specific contracts with our client partners. That said, to imply that there’s a “one size fits all” solution to corrections, would be completely inaccurate. What works in one prison may not be feasible in a jail setting, and vice versa. We look to individual site management to provide site specific procedures to their staff, and to include staff on best practices for flow of the healthcare unit.
In terms of our rates and benefits, we have a team dedicated to making sure we are market competitive. We offer 15+ different health insurance options, employees accrue 5 weeks of PTO as a new hire, we have tuition assistance, short and long term disability, etc. Occasionally, something will happen in a local market- a new hospital opens up, or a SNF starts offering sign on bonuses, etc. In these cases, our compensation team is put in to play. They do a market assessment to ensure our rates are where they need to be, to make sure we can staff our facilities. We’ve just completed reviews in several of our statewide systems and made adjustments accordingly.
As it pertains to staffing levels, this too, is dictated by our contract. In places where we feel there has been a great shift in patient population, or acuity has changed significantly, we are then in a position to go back to the client and ask for a contract amendment. When we bid contracts, we do so based on 30+ years of experience and having staffed over 400 correctional facilities, nationwide. If there is a high turnover or vacancy rate at a site, it can lead to a feeling of being understaffed. Again, without knowing which particular site you were in, I can’t speak fully to that. As it pertains to being unsafe, or warranting some sort of hazard pay, that is not a practice Corizon has ever invoked. I’ve spoken to a number of providers that feel corrections is safer than most inner city hospitals that they’ve worked in. In a correctional facility, you know exactly who is coming to medical and there are guards present. Everything is monitored closely, there are cameras and safe guards in place for custody and medical staff. I don’t purport that correctional healthcare is right for everyone, but for those that can adapt to the environment, most find it extremely professionally rewarding.
Sincerely,
Courtney Penning
Director of Talent Acquisition
