Penmac returns to health care arena

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Patti Penny is bringing patient care employees back into the mix of people served by her job-placement agency Penmac Personnel Services. Penmed, the newest division of Penmac, will find trained workers for clinics, hospitals, assisted-living groups and long-term residential care facilities.|ret||ret||tab|

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The first time around|ret||ret||tab|

When Penny opened Penmac Personnel in 1988, she had just left the health care industry and at that time had no desire to handle patient care workers at her new company. |ret||ret||tab|

About 10 years ago, Penmac tried for a brief time to work with home-care workers, but, she said, it didn't work out the way she expected.|ret||ret||tab|

"I thought, we can do homemaker aides,' ... where they could go in and help with the meal preparation, help with the personal care, they really wouldn't be into medical blood pressuring, meds and that sort of thing," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Penny said they worked on the home care division for about a year, and it was "a disaster."|ret||ret||tab|

"We were mainly trying to service people who had assistance from the state, and the state would pay a certain portion. But they were only willing to pay for X number of hours," Penny said.|ret||ret||tab|

Trying to assign workers and keep within clients' state-allotted limits for home care was "a nightmare," Penny said. |ret||ret||tab|

"Then, the state was very, very contrary about paying. ... the state rarely would pay before 90 days, and then they would deduct; if the time slip didn't get signed in the right spot, they just wouldn't pay it, and I made trips to Jeff City and sat down with them," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Penny decided it wasn't working out, so Penmac backed away from patient-care workers, and Penny didn't even think about working with them again until about a year ago, when she began to work on her latest venture.|ret||ret||tab|

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Market conditions |ret||ret||tab|

Penny said she decided to revive Penmac's medical division this time with an expanded focus and a new leader to protect the future of the company.|ret||ret||tab|

"The manufacturing base that we have always served extremely well has been declining, and this isn't just in Springfield and the surrounding area, this is a national decline," Penny said. |ret||ret||tab|

"Much of it relates to assembly work ... manufacturers as a whole have been moving rapidly across the border. In Mexico, they can get their assembly work done for something around $2 a day very, very low expense," she added. |ret||ret||tab|

In January, Penny traveled to the Mexican city of Juarez, and she said in that town alone, there were 160 American companies doing business. |ret||ret||tab|

"I'm looking to the future, and I'm thinking if we're going to stay a strong employment service, we are going to have to look at the jobs that are going to be here, number one, and then if you look at what's being predicted ... (the American economy) is turning to service workers," she said. |ret||ret||tab|

Penny added, "I don't mean to pound the death-bell of manufacturing, but I do think people need to be preparing themselves for the future, particularly our young people ... the medical field offers so many opportunities to them."|ret||ret||tab|

While Penmac already provides some workers, including file clerks, receptionists and dietary aides, to health care facilities, Penny felt it was necessary to bring back those workers who are directly involved with patient care. |ret||ret||tab|

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New face, new focus|ret||ret||tab|

Denise Stroud, BSN, recently joined Penmac as the director of the Penmed division. |ret||ret||tab|

Stroud has 22 years of nursing experience, 16 years of experience in health care management and worked as an independent consultant for the past two years she worked as an independent consultant. |ret||ret||tab|

Penny said she realized that someone with a strong medical background was essential to making the new Penmed division successful, and bringing Stroud on board was instrumental to moving forward. |ret||ret||tab|

Unlike its predecessor, the Penmed division Stroud heads won't focus on home care. |ret||ret||tab|

In fact, Stroud said, Penmed won't handle home care workers at all, but will handle supplemental staffing, and em-ployee recruitment and screening for area health care facilities. |ret||ret||tab|

Supplemental staffing, Stroud said, means finding an appropriately trained individual to fill in at a hospital, clinic or residential facility, when someone calls in sick or just doesn't show up for a scheduled shift. But Penmed also can help find long-term employees.|ret||ret||tab|

"I've been in health care management for many years ... and I know that getting quality workers can be a very, very tough job, and they're facing the very same things. So our goal is to take that fuss and hassle away from them and let us do all of it. Let us interview and find that person to put in there as a permanent worker for them," Stroud said. |ret||ret||tab|

Penny and Stroud said that while all of Penmac's applicants go through a fairly stringent screening process, there's more pressure when dealing with patient care workers.|ret||ret||tab|

"When you're taking care of a human being, it becomes far more important to have someone there to meet their needs, then, say, someone who maybe doesn't show up on the assembly line, or maybe doesn't show up to do some processing of food, Penny said. "It becomes a lot more stressful for the (company) ... you've got to keep a pool of people you can call."|ret||ret||tab|

Stroud said that nursing and other types of medical licenses or certifications also have to be verified, and applicants also will have to pass competency and skills tests, "so that I'm sending out someone who can actually perform the job, and not just be a warm body," Stroud said.|ret||ret||tab|

Patient care applicants will be subjected to background checks and drug testing, Stroud said. |ret||ret||tab|

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Meeting client needs|ret||ret||tab|

Stroud already has been busy making marketing visits to area health care facilities, and several have asked her to start looking for specific types of workers. She's also begun to advertise for workers, and she expects to start sending workers out just as soon as she finds the right people. |ret||ret||tab|

One entity that's counting on Penmed to help with staffing is the Association for Retarded Citizens. ARC President and Chief Executive Officer Gene Barnes said the organization, which operates several supported living facilities and group homes, is often in need of workers. |ret||ret||tab|

"We provide 24-hour, seven-days-a-week residential care for people with mental retardation, developmental disabilities ... if we get any disruption in staffing, we still have to staff them for that day," Barnes said. |ret||ret||tab|

"So if someone resigns, you can't just run another person in the next minute, because with this type of job you have to have certain CPR training, medical training." |ret||ret||tab|

Barnes said ARC has just come out of a staffing crunch, and is working on some internal recruiting, but he said he hadn't used a placement agency prior to Penmed. |ret||ret||tab|

Barnes added that he'd been ap-proached by other medical placement agencies, but he'd worked with Penmac in his previous job at Great Southern Bank, and that good relationship was a big factor in working with Penmed for both long- and short-term workers.|ret||ret||tab|

Stroud said she'll place all different types of patient-care workers, including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nurse aides, respiratory, physical and occupational therapists, paramedics, etc.|ret||ret||tab|

"If they ask me to find them, I'll recruit them. In the past, I have even recruited physicians, and so I feel confident that I am qualified for that," Stroud said.|ret||ret||tab|

Penny added that her company, which partners with Ozarks Technical Com-munity College for several types of classes, is now considering the possibility of offering basic patient-care training classes. [[In-content Ad]]