Hospitals Ravaged by Recession Pile More Work on Staff

from AlterNet:



Labor Notes / By Mischa Gaus

Hospitals Ravaged by Recession Pile More Work on Staff
Hospitals are strapping on more work, skimping on training and trying to stuff contract concessions through. And the health-care reform bill could make things worse

February 10, 2010 |


Hospital work is thought to be recession-proof. No matter what the economy, people get sick and need care.

The work is there, but at a cost: hospital workers and researchers say some hospitals are churning through a round of reorganization, strapping on more work, skimping on training, and trying to stuff contract concessions through.

Increased hospital workloads are linked to bad economies: the last big push started in the early '90s downturn, says Judy Shindul-Rothschild, who researches nursing at Boston College.

That episode was about "de-skilling": management consultants substituted lower-cost, less-skilled workers for higher-cost nurses. Today's squeeze is especially strong at hospitals with many uninsured and underinsured patients. Worse, Shindul-Rothschild says, the national health care reform now stuck in Congress might intensify the problem. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/economy/145621/hospitals_ravaged_by_recession_pile_more_work_on_staff

Mr Pip chose a more local, but smaller, hospital for his total knee replacement surgery.

His middle daughter is a nurse on the surgical floor, for one thing, and the doctor who did the surgery has been doing them for years.

Anyway, my stepdaughter was VERY clear with her co-workers that her dad should be given excellent care. And, in fact, one thing happened that we didn't know about until he was home for a few weeks...apparently, my stepdaughter was in the vicinity when she saw another nurse come from the room of a patient who had H1N1 and go directly into her dad's room without washing her hands.

Well, this other nurse got an earful!

He had surgery on a Wednesday and came home the following Friday, two days later. My stepdaughter said she felt better about him coming home because she knew that he would get excellent care here and not be exposed to all the germs in the hospital or staff mistakes.

But anyway, the whole understaffing thing...she often finds herself mandated to work double shifts, often at little to no prior notice. And it's pretty much the same everywhere. Scary when our health and safety are being put in the hands of harried, overtired medical staff...

The model is built with a predicted set of "profits" to support the upper administrators same with your colleges and any other large non-profit organization that has adopted the corporate pay structure of the past 10 years.

Same with the banking and manufacturing sector.

I guarantee you, looking at the salaries at the top is not something that is going on.

by for profit corporations. I see them all over the place now.

quality healthcare is fine, paying for it is not. And so it goes.

made by overworked employees. Just wow. We are so screwn.