Currently work at an Encompass. Despite what people have said it's actually a pretty good gig. That being said, I think like anything else it's dependent on what that specific hospital's setup is. I am at a smaller Encompass with full time IM coverage so my call is not much and I get to focus on rehabilitation and not so much medical management which is awesome. I can also do pretty much whatever I want on the side outside of working at another acute rehabilitation within a certain mileage. For the most part Kindred, Vibra, and Encompass are the same in the way of your responsibilities to the hospital. Some may offer stipends for assisting the medical director (if you aren't the medical director that is) while others may not. Not sure of any other major differences. Regardless of where you work, the liaisons will both be integral to getting volume but will also likely be a nuisance. People have said that Encompass is more "profit driven" which may be somewhat true but at the end of the day the goal for all of the hospital systems are to get patients in beds. I have friends who work for other hospital systems (not one of the listed above) who complain about the liaisons so it's basically the same pretty much everywhere. Medicine is a business like anything else so if you can accept that while also trying to do what's best/right, it makes things easier. I think they all offer flexibility which is great and you eat what you kill so you can work as hard or as little as you would like for the most part. I don't know much about HCA as far as rehabilitation but my wife is a physician and worked at an HCA hospital employed and it was a nightmare. That being said it was in a very dysfunctional hospital to begin with and an extremely dysfunctional unit/service. However I haven't really heard great things about HCA in general. Not sure if that helps. Can PM if you feel the need for more information.
