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President and founder Richard Pellerin started Century Rehabilitation in 1999 as a contract therapy management company to help provide healthcare groups with physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language pathology in long-term care facilities. He then quickly expanded services to include healthcare recruiting, and complete facility and clinical consulting services for skilled nursing and outpatient facilities.
Since 2020, one of the many disruptions that Pellerin and the team at Century Rehab have seen in the healthcare industry is the tremendous staff shortage in all levels of healthcare workers. Following the pandemic, a large number of healthcare workers retired, and with the post-Covid wage gap and international move toward more flexible work options, many healthcare workers made the decision to change careers.
“In addition to traditional roles that we all associate with healthcare like doctors and nurses, today’s labor shortage includes a huge population of other workers like Certified Nursing Assistants and dietary employees who can become accredited more easily,” said Pellerin. “The tremendous staff shortage we’re seeing nationwide means that almost every industry—including healthcare—is struggling to fill employee positions that they’ve never had to recruit for in the past. For the first time in my career, healthcare facilities are having to fill so many positions that they are requesting our help to recruit for all of them—
not just therapists.”
With 24 years of recruiting experience, Pellerin and his team have been able to put their skills and contacts to work for existing clients in addition to helping new ones. From nursing homes to urgent care centers, healthcare facilities are benefiting from the organization’s relationships around the nation, hiring qualified, eager candidates from Portland to Florida.
“A lot of companies that didn’t need recruiting departments before the labor shortage are now not only shorthanded, but they’re also trying to learn and implement the process of recruiting quality candidates,” said Pellerin. “This can be a challenge for a company of any size, especially while trying to keep up with ongoing healthcare issues like changes in insurance reimbursements.”
Pellerin finds that one of the biggest challenges companies are dealing with is the realization that they need outside assistance with recruiting. Even some larger companies that do have recruiting departments are finding that the positions they need to fill far outnumber the recruiters they have.
“Healthcare is always changing, so there’s a lot to keep up with,” says Pellerin. “Unfortunately, even when we see a huge disruptor like a labor shortage, those ‘normal’ changes like reimbursements, regulatory issues, new viruses, and clinical logistics don’t stop. These things have always been challenging, but it’s impossible
to navigate changes of any magnitude without labor.”
In addition to helping longtime clients in Baton Rouge, Pellerin has met with governors across the country to discuss the workforce development problems that the entire nation is seeing.
“This is not just an issue for our city or state, and it’s not just an issue for healthcare,” says Pellerin. “I think it would surprise all of us to know how many industries across every spectrum of the economy are having to completely revamp their recruiting efforts post-Covid. There’s just not enough labor.”
In spite of all this, Century Rehab is continuing to have success with their recruiting efforts.
“Fortunately, we have long worked outside of Louisiana to find therapists, so recruiting in other places like Texas, Oregon, Oklahoma, and Florida is not new to us,” says Pellerin. “Now we’re just able to use those relationships and mechanisms to recruit for different positions.”
Because having qualified staff and the right amount of staff are essential to healthcare running safely, effectively and efficiently, Pellerin is grateful that Century Rehab can do something to help during such an unprecedented labor shortage.
“Quality healthcare workers are essential to Baton Rouge thriving,” says Pellerin. “I hate that we’re dealing with such severe hiring issues, but I’m relieved that Century Rehab can do our part to step in and help.”
