Certification and Pay Increases

[sjadams]

I was wondering if anyone could provide some up to date information how your hospitals are recognizing staff that have Certified in CS.

Are staff and management receiving an increase? If so, please share what the actual increase amount is.
Thanks.

[David Freeman]

My CS department has Tech 1, Tech 2, Lead, Coordinator and Supervisor levels. Uncertified techs are Tech 1. There is approx 5% difference in scale between 1, 2 and Lead. Certification is required for 2 and above. I'm thinking of adding Instrument certification as a requirement for Lead.

[sjadams]

David,
Thanks for the reply. The info is greaty appreciated. From what I have heard through the grapevine - 5% is the average norm as incentive for Certification. It will be interesting to see what everyone else replies with. Thanks again.

[djw]

Certification here increases base pay by 3%. Each certification will be worth an additional 3% increase.

[sjadams]

If individuals do not mind, would you indicate at least what city and state you are from? Facility is probably not that important, but if you want to offer that, I will leave that up to you. Thanks.

[djw]

We are located in northern Colorado, we are approx. 100 pt. beds.

[David Freeman]

Southern California. We're running about 200 beds right now.

[msterscary]

The surgicenter I work at recently started to implement a program where when an employee is certified there is a $0.50/hr certification pay that is added to their bi-weekly pay check. This of course is not added to the salary itself though.
We have 7 OR rooms & 2 minor procedure (Endoscopy) rooms at the facility.

[iowa gal]

Are you all private, is anybody from a state or teaching institution, or is anybody commenting from a staff that is unionized? If any of you do have a unionized staff how was that handled?

[Sno]

We have Tech I (uncertified), Tech II (certified) and Lead Tech (must be certified). We have certification Bonuses of 500.00 if it is not required for your job. (i.e. Instrument Specialist). There is also a about 10% pay difference in the steps. We have 125 bed, 6OR facility in N. California.

Hope this helps.

[RNSHAMBLS]

Our certified techs make 5% more than uncertified.

[kdaz]

In AZ - we have tech 1, tech 2, Lead, then Manager. We just changed our job description for tech 2, now it is required to be certified (it used to only be an in-house test to promote to tech 2, now they are required to do both in-house test and certification), leads have always been required to be certified. Pay from tech 1 to tech 2 is about 5%. Our facility pays for books, study guides and they are reimbursed for the test if they pass it.

[wperez]

We are a 1000 bed level 1 trauma center in Hollywood Florida with 22 FT associates in SPD. Our Certification is 5% of base pay with a bonus of $1000.00 upon recieving a copy of certification.

[carol1967]

I am Madison WI. Our staff is union. They receive a $300 per year bonus for maintaining certification. We also pay the test fee.

[barry govenor]

carol67

the short answer to your question regarding an 18 minute 274 degree F steam cycle is no.

[Brenda]

Our facility gives the certified techs a one time $300 bonus. They are also reclassified in HR as a CPD Tech II and they receive $1/hr raise.

[Donna McLaughlin]

We are East Tennessee hospital /400 bed and we have a 5% increase in pay for certification. We have 4 levels: Tech 1, Tech 2, Lead, and a Coordinator. Uncertified techs are Tech 1. Certification is also required for 2 and above

[SPDGAL]

Our Hospital here in Seattle, WA. provides the Certification class free, we pay for exam if passed and a $1.25 per hr. raise. And now, all new employee's hired have 2 yrs. to become certified.

[barry govenor]

at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Mercy-South Side we are neither required to be certified nor are we compensated for it in any way. Certification course, textbook, time, etc. is all on us and if we pass there is no compensation. There are some hospitals in this system who have started to require certification or give new employees 2 yrs to become certified. These units seem also willing to compensate certified techs to some degree but all the incentive to do this is coming from the managers of the departments, not the heads of the hospitals or the of the system.

[Kristopher]

My facility in Mid-Missouri pays for the book and study guide, but each employee must pay for their own exam fee. After certification, each employee receieves a $0.75/hour raise. Certification is not mandatory but we do require employees to work through the course in a study group setting. We have found it is much easier to keep people moving through the course in a group rather than individually.