Although the medical field has always been a "safe" industry to work in, healthcare companies are finally hitting the tipping point. With a suffering economy and high unemployment rate, it's difficult for most employees to be picky right now. This wasn't the case for physical, occupational, and speech therapists 2 or 3 months ago, but is becoming more frequent now for traveling therapists. It used to be that a licensed therapist could find almost exactly what they were looking for ie: location, setting, time frame, and hours; things are now getting a little more difficult with our struggling economy. Although the travel jobs are still out there, hospitals can't pay as much as they could in the past, some hospital systems are cutting their travel budget completely, and the economy is slowly starting to catch up to the healthcare industry. My advice to my traveling therapists out there reading this is to understand where our economy is right now, and understand that the "perfect position" has become much harder to find. Prioritize your needs whether it be location, money, setting, or hours. Understand that although this is the way it is right now, things will change! Be patient and maybe a little more flexible for this next assignment so that you continue to travel and gain that great experience for your next!

Ashley Iero
Account Manager
MDI Medical- Soon to be Cirrus Allied Staffing

Attention all traveling physical therapist, occupational therapist, and speech language pathologist, here are some tips that will help Cirrus Allied Staffing find the right travel assignment for you.

 

One of the best ways that you can help CAS find the right travel assignment for you is to be flexible in the locations that you choose.  You want to give your recruiter several different locations to search, there fore your chances of finding an assignment will greatly increase.  You don’t want to limit yourself to one specific area, but you will limit your options.  As a traveler, you also want to be upfront and honest about the type of assignment that you are looking for. If you absolutely refuse to do a SNF, then let your recruiter know, so we can conduct a more specific search. Lastly, you need to know where your resume has been.  If you are working with more than one company, keep track of where each company has submitted your resume.  This also, will help CAS conduct a more focused organized job search.   

 

So if you need help finding the right travel assignment, contact me Quincey Adger at 866-518-1750x2309. 

 

Extra $$$ for the holidays???  Think Rehab Therapy Jobs!!!

I know everybody has the holidays in mind...but what about after the holidays???  Dinner, lights, caroling..."Oh what fun it is to ride," sorry, I got a little carried away there.  Unfortunately, with the arrival of the New Year will come the arrival of new bills!  Don't panic, I've got the solution to make opening up your credit card statements a little less painful.  

The medical field is booming, and Rehabilitation Therapy is leading the pack!  There is a huge demand for Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, and Speech Language Pathologists!  I have job opportunities all over the country in every state.  If you are interested, or know someone who is, then you can contact me at 1-866-518-1750 x 2311. 

FYI, MDI MEDICAL offers a $500 referral bonus for anyone who gives us the contact information for therapists who then signs on with us for a travel contract!

I hope everyone has a safe, and happy holiday! :)

Allison Asher
Recruiting Specialist, MDI Medical
1-866-518-1750 x 2311

Sending out warm greetings to all of our employees in Travel Therapy Jobs this holiday. We appreciate all of our Physical Therapist and Occupational Therapist. And want to send a special Thanks to those who might be spending the holiday away from family.

Season Greetings and a Happy New Year!

Natalie
Housing Coordinator
MDI Medical

Look for our name change! Cirrus Allied Staffing

Are you a PT OT SLP that is ready for a change?  We are.  MDI MEDICAL is excited for the New Year.  Look for our new company name, Cirrus Allied Staffing.  Christmas is here  and most Therapists will be off for 2 days.  Don’t let the Holidays stress you out - make sure you relax while you have the time to.  MDI Medical knows as Rehab therapists you are committed to patient care, and it can be stressful for a therapist to take time off from work.  Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists can benefit from the luxury of contract work.  As a traveler you have the opportunity to design your own schedule.  Time off in-between assignments will give you the chance to recharge in this fast paced environment.  MDI Medical has professional recruiters that will help design the ideal schedule for you.  Have a great Holiday! We are looking forward to hearing from you in the New Year.

Joseph Carlino
Senior Account Manager
MDI MEDICAL, a Cirrus Company
678 - 518 - 1750

Sometimes life takes us through unexpected twists and turns. Because of this, you may find yourself in a situation that takes you to another city or state...making situations like these an ideal opportunity to get started in the traveling therapy business!

If you are looking to move and start a new position in a hurry, here are some tips to get things moving quickly:

• Make sure we have an up to date resume&skills checklist
• Complete your Pre-app as soon as possible
• Let us assist you in your licensing process! Never hesitate to contact us if you have questions or concerns along the way!
• Make sure you have definite dates that you need off during the length of your assignment before you interview. This allows us to negotiate this time off up front, which is a big time saver for the client and the therapist.

For an up to date list of current openings, give me a call at 866-600-4001 extension 2319. Remember that we do contract and contract to perm staffing for Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapist, and Speech.

Thanks!
Melissa

I wanted to share some feedback I received this a.m. from one of our Physical Therapy travelers, Cynthia H. and share the recognition Monica deserves with everyone:

Candace,

I want to let you know that I am very impressed with your employee, Monica Schnitzer.  She is always there to answer my questions in a timely and professional manner. She has excellent people skills and patience with crazy therapist like myself.  She never loses her temper, or if she does, she doesn't express it to staff/clients or therapists.  There have been times when I've been in an insecure situation during my traveling experience and she helps ease my worries.
Three cheers for Monica.


Sincerely,
Cynthia H, P.T.

We have OT jobs in great locations. Please check out our website for additional OT positions, here are some locations that are available now:

OT   Voorhees, NJ
OT   Milford, DE
OT   Angleton, TX
OT   Cedar Falls, IA
OT   Rockville, MD
OT   Clarksville, IN
OT   Branson, MO
OT   Munising, MI
OT   Muscoda, WI
OT   Berlin, NH


These are just a few of our 2,000+ open travel jobs.

Call MDI Medical at 866-518-1750 about these and other Occupational Therapy Assignments today!

A Physical Therapist emailed me this morning about payroll. This therapist has worked with MDI Medical for a while, usually taking physical therapy jobs in the southwest. Unfortunately, we made a mistake on her payroll a few weeks ago.

My advice: every time you start a new assignment, compare your first paystub against your confirmation. If you notice a discrepancy, call us immediately so we can correct the problem before it becomes inflated.

  

Most travelers' paychecks have several line items. Depending on the situation (and tax rules), they can include hourly rate, overtime rate, travel pay to the assignment, per diem for meals, housing stipend, insurance deductions, taxes, 401k, etc. Assuming an average of 8 line items per paycheck, our payroll department processes more than 125,000 payroll items on an annual basis. While we strive for perfection, it's difficult to process so many variables with zero errors. Even a 99.5% accuracy rate will still yield a few mistakes.
 
So be kind to our payroll staff. We hate mistakes just as much as you do. And we're trying our best to fulfill even the highest expectations.

 Good news to all of our traveling therapists  who are looking for long term contracts in government facilities. MDI Medical (soon to be Cirrus Allied Staffing) will now be offering assignments at government facilities across the country. This is very exciting as most of these contracts are longer term and the demand for traveling PTs, OTs and SLPs is on the rise.

  Happy travels.

Candace

Whether you provide physical, occupational or speech therapy or provide therapists to clients, I am grateful to be in the rehab travel therapy market.

While this recession has wrecked havoc on many industries, the therapy market remains strong. The jobs are plentiful across the country unless of course, you are trying to get to San Diego California or Florida right now.  We're still seeing a lot of demand in therapy positions, including home health and schools. Ask an MDI recruiter about these settings if you are interested.

With that said, keep in mind every company, including MDI isn't posting every position.  So if you are looking still this season, shoot us an email or apply on our website. We'll follow up with you promptly. We'll also give you the candid picture on what's going on in the therapy market in the area you are looking.

-- Candace Berk
Watch for our new name coming soon: Cirrus Allied Staffing, LLC.

As a traveler in the allied health industry, you might think that submitting yourself to many different agencies is a good thing.  You know, the more your name is out there the better, right?  Wrong.  While it is great to have a couple of companies marketing you, it may be worse for you to “flood” the market.  As a traveling physical, occupational, or speech language therapist the best thing you can do for yourself is to be honest with those companies marketing you.  As I have experienced this week, our hospital clients get aggravated when they see a name that has already interviewed as a “new” candidate.  Our most successful travelers are very open and honest and flexible with their work.  I hope this sets the record straight, as the only thing I am trying to do is get the word out!

Ashley Iero
Account Manager
MDI Medical- Soon to be "Cirrus Allied Staffing"

Each month we send out a newsletter that incorporates an article for MDI's job seekers.  These articles discuss many different aspects of our traveling therapists' lives.  Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing excerpts from our articles.  I will begin with an article titled "How to Get Recruiters to Work Hard for You." To read the full article click here, or simply enjoy the following blog posts.


As every seasoned physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech language pathology traveler knows, having a great recruiter can make all the difference in the world when it comes to advancing your career. A great recruiter knows the business like the back of their hand, has a keen sense of where the best opportunities lie, and combines that with a deep understanding of what’s important to you to build a new assignment that is even better than the last.

But there’s more to a great recruiter. Once you’ve worked with a few, the differences between good and great become much clearer. The best recruiters love what they do. They have great people skills. They’re patient, yet they know when to apply pressure to help get what you want. They also know when a little finesse is better than making hard demands. More importantly, the best recruiters in the business do something that few others are truly willing to do – they work their tails off for their travelers.

Finding the Best of the Best
For most rehab travelers, finding the recruiter that works best for you is going to take some trial and error, but it doesn’t have to be painful. Rehab therapy is a relatively small world, and word – good and bad – gets around fast. Talk with your fellow travelers and staff therapists as well. Odds are that some of them have had great experiences working with recruiters, and they can help you avoid taking an assignment that sounds too good to be true.

The staffing business is all about relationships, and your recruiter should work to build a strong bond with you from the start. You can learn a lot by listening to the questions that recruiters ask you. Are they interested in what’s important to you or are they hurrying through the call to try to get to whether or not you’d take an assignment? Are they looking beyond your resume to uncover your goals and dreams? Every recruiter wants to place you on an assignment, but the best recruiters know that a strong relationship is the foundation for a long term relationship with a hardworking recruiter that is willing to invest the time to find what’s best for you. In fact, the very best recruiters become much more than your recruiter – they’re your career agent, your coach, sometimes your counselor, and they almost always become a very close friend. Building this trust takes time, but there are several things a traveler can do to work toward such a relationship.

This article will be continued in my next blog post or to read the full article now, click here.

With the end of the College Football season, we come to the BOWLS!  Many Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Speech Language Pathologists will be rooting hard for their teams and against others!

We do have a few match-ups between schools that offer PT, OT and SLP programs.  This is not a competition of who produces the BEST Therapists, but who has the better football team.  But with that said, lets compare who is playing and who has therapy programs.

After doing some research and spending way too much time on my blog, I decided to only concentrate on the top 85 PT schools in the country. Among them, we only have four head to head matchups.

On Saturday December 27th West Virginia matches up against North Carolina.  Both teams have 8-4 records. But West Virgina is favored slightly to win the game...and they better.  Because when it comes to PT schools, North Carolina has them beat cold.  PT School rankings...NC 11th, WV 69th.

On Friday, January 2nd, we have three match-ups between Physical Therapy Programs...er, I mean, Football teams.  In the Cotton Bowl, Mississippi and Texas Tech knock heads.  The clear winner will be Texas Tech who's PT program is ranked all the way down at 85th...but the Mississippi program did not even make the top 85.

Next Kentucky and East Carolina meet. Look for the Kentucky Therapists, I mean Wildcats (ranked 38th) to whoop-up on the East Carolina Allied Career Travelers, er, Pirates (ranked 69th).

And our final PT program head to head match-up of the bowl season is Utah vs. Alabama in the Sugar bowl.  As football teams go, Alabama should take this game, but I am calling for the upset.  Utah with their 19th ranked PT program will crush Alabama, who do not have a program in Tuscaloosa...but at the UofA in Birmingham, ranked 29th.

There you have it.  The Physical Therapist Program College Bowl season match-ups.  A few teams to mention that do not have head to head match-ups, but are worth mentioning...the University of Wisconsin (33rd), in the Champs Sports Bowl, the University of Minnesota (19th), in the Insight bowl, Ohio State University (19th) in the Fiesta Bowl, the University of Florida (15th) in the BCS Championship Game, THE University of Miami (7th) in the Emerald Bowl, the University of Iowa (5th) in the Outback Bowl, the University of Pittsburgh (2nd) in the Sun Bowl and the University of Southern California (1st) in the Rose Bowl.

If I missed your school, it is not because they do not have a stellar PT program, it's because their football team stinks.;)

Enjoy the GAMES!

Happy Travels,

Scott Ferguson
MDI Recruiter

Call MDI MEDICAL today and we will make sure to assist with all your therapy needs.  We have been in business for over 7 years.  Our primary focus is staffing Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, and their respective assistants.  Do you have the coverage you need? We can help with supplement 13-week contracts throughout the United States.  MDI Medical is owned by Cirrus Inc.  Lookout for a name change in 2009, Cirrus Allied Staffing.  At MDI, our team has been successful at finding that "perfect person" our customer needs. Having the right person in the right position is often the difference between success and failure. Advertising, contacting, interviewing, checking eligibility and references are time-consuming efforts. MDI's large pool of candidates has been prescreened by our staffing professionals, enabling us to quickly respond to your needs. The percentage of professionals who stay with MDI is among the highest in the industry. Because most come to us through peer referrals, we know people work with us because they want to! In a field where competition for competence is high, the stability provided by the MDI team is reassuring.  Call us today and let us know where you need the help.  866 518 1750

Joseph Carlino
Senior account Manager 
 888 518 2318

Happy Friday everyone!

I currently have a Speech Language Pathology opening for a school district in Houston, TX. The right candidate will have at least some PEDS experience, and a strong desire to work with school age children. Interviews for this position will take place early next week and after Christmas. The start date will be mid February.

If you're wondering what's happening in Houston during late winter and early spring, check out the following list of events I have taken from www.visithoustontexas.com. For even more information- check out their website and click on the visitors link.


Developing Houston: Photographic Treasures from the Cecil Thomson Collection
San Jacinto Monument and Museum of History May 24, 2008 to May 24, 2009 The exhibit, with photographs and artifacts from 1885 to 1945, captures the neighborhoods, businesses, notables, architectural gems and events that define Houston’s unique character during a period of change and growth.

Sharks In Depth Exhibit
Moody Gardens May 24, 2008 to May 24, 2009 Located in the Aquarium Pyramid, this new exhibit will tell you everything you wanted to know about sharks. Shark history, myths and legends are explored with a series of hands-on activities and several live species.

Always...Patsy Cline
Stages Repertory Theatre July 9, 2008 to January 11, 2009 Always...Patsy Cline, one of the most often-performed stage productions in the U.S., makes a triumphant return to Stages Repertory Theatre-where it had its world premiere-to kick off the theatre's 30th season. The single most requested play in Stages' history, this re-imagined version is directed by Stages' Producing Artistic Director Kenn McLaughlin.

Imaginary Spaces
Menil Collection, The August 15, 2008 to March 1, 2009 Imaginary Spaces: Selections from The Menil Collection; this exhibition will present a selection of Giovanni Piranesi’s 19th-century etching series, Carceri d'Invenzione (Imaginary Prisons), Giorgio De Chirico’s paintings of alienating cityscapes, and Michael Heizer’s drawings for sculptural space in the desert from 1969, among other examples.

The Quest for High Bear: A Boy’s Odyssey Through Indian Country 1925-1939
Houston Museum of Natural Science August 15, 2008 to August 15, 2009 Join "The Quest for High Bear" and discover beautiful American Indian artifacts from the collection of Gordon W. Smith.

Fly Me To The Moon
Houston Museum of Natural Science August 22, 2008 to December 31, 2008 New animated IMAX tells the vivid tale of stowaway flies on the Apollo 11 spaceflight.


BODY WORLDS 2&The BRAIN
Houston Museum of Natural Science September 12, 2008 to February 22, 2009 In 2006, more than half a million people visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS 3. Following this extraordinary success, Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS 2&The BRAIN – Our Three Pound Gem: The Original Exhibition of Real Human Bodies debuts in Houston Sept. 12, 2008 through Feb. 22, 2009. Exhibition tickets are available beginning Friday, July 30.

For an up to date list of current openings, give me a call at 866-600-4001 extension 2319. Remember that we do contract and contract to perm staffing fro Physical Therapists, Occupational Therapist, and Speech.

Thanks!
Melissa

There are great states to seek travel therapy jobs!  States like Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania are all a buzz with playoff hopes.  Each of these states has a professional team either in the playoffs, or on the cusp of a playoff berth.

 

While on assignment in Pittsburgh, feel free to catch a Steelers game and root for the playoff bound Steelers as they try and secure home field advantage.  On the other side of PA, join the fans of the Philadelphia Eagles anxiously watch their team navigate the final games of the season in hopes of obtaining a playoff spot.  In Massachusetts, the Patriots are entrenched in a heated battle with the New York Jets for the division title.  The 11-3 New York Giants are looking to bounce back from some tough losses and ride the momentum into the playoffs.  So, when you’re looking for your next travel therapy job, think about the excitement going on in these states.  For more information, contact me Juan Soto at Cirrus Allied Staffing, LLC; 678-993-2307.  Until next time…Safe Travels!

 

Juan Soto

Recruiter

Are you ready for some Football???

 

Attention all football fans and traveling physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech language pathologists.  This weekend marks the second to last week in the regular season of the NFL.  The 11-3 Carolina Panthers are making their playoff push as they head to New York to face Eli Manning and the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants.  The Panthers are leading the NFC South by two games and this weekend’s matchup is their toughest test thus far this season. The winner of this game will take sole possession of first place and secure home field advantage throughout the playoffs. If you are a traveling therapist looking for an assignment in a great city and some great playoff football, contact me Quincey Adger, at Cirrus Allied Staffing(866-518-1750). We have great travel therapy jobs all across the US, so you can come support your favorite team.

The good news: we did well on our Joint Commission evaluation. The bad news: we need to work on a plan for our credentialing files.

Here's an example from earlier today: a Physical Therapist in PA refuses to get her renewed drug screen and physical. Why? We don't know. She's avoiding our calls. We know that this would take time out of her weekend. But we wouldn't ask for it if it wasn't necessary.

Clients judge us on our Quality Assurance processes. Credentialing compliance means we can find more Physical Therapy jobs for everyone. 

When we call for an expired drug screen, physical, skills checklist, etc., please understand: we don't like it any more than you do. So please help us out. We're only doing it to stay in compliance. And in the end, that helps everyone.