Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Whit Mayo of Robert W. Baird & Co.
Whit Mayo - Robert W. Baird & Co
My first question is starting out with the specialty programs. Could you kind of give us a sense of what the biggest challenge is that you face rolling that out right now? It sounds like it’s frankly just the people, but is there anything more mechanical there? Also, do you have any sense of just how penetrated you think you can be with those programs this year?
Ron Malone
Well Whit, to answer the first part of your question about what’s the biggest challenge, it is the same one we’ve been talking about now for a couple of years. As the demand for our services continues to increase so does the ability to create the capacity to say yes, so a lot of our specialty programs are really focused around highly trained clinicians being physical therapists as well as highly educated RN’s. Our ability to attract and retain that talent is going to continue to be our challenge, to get those specialties rolled out faster. Outside of that, mechanically there is really nothing that would slow us down.
The second part of your question was related to kind of, I think I understood it to be what the denominator is. If we put every specialty in every location, we can have in excess of 1,500 programs out there today and our current number is just over 300, so we’ve got a lot of room before we start fluffing up against the ceiling.
Whit Mayo - Robert W. Baird & Co
Okay but any sense of what a target is just for 2009?
Ron Malone
Well if you looked at our current pace, we’re probably rolling out somewhere in the ballpark of about 120 or so a year. So, provided that we can attract the clinicians, we can pick that up a little bit, but in the event that there is a gating factor related to our recruiting efforts, again as the demand increases we’re going to have to stay focused on the ability to recruit those. But, we’re going to be able to keep the pace we’re at and if we can step up our recruiting efforts, we might even pick that up a little bit.
Whit Mayo - Robert W. Baird & Co
Okay, that’s great. Could you provide us with some details regarding the announcement yesterday that you sold some of your pediatric home care agencies? Just any sense for the revenue or the contribution margin, or just any comments you have about that sale would be great.
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