In Response
There is a recent comment posted to my August 7th entry ("Well, it's about time...") from a nurse who worked at Northside. I wanted to respond.
First of all, thank you for your condolences.
Now, for the nitty-gritty here: FOR-PROFIT HOSPITALS!!! Nurse, you hit the nail square on the head. I want to thank you for telling it from a nursing stand-point. My sister was a nurse for a number of years in one of the local HCA hospitals (no, not Northside, but that's as much as I'm saying, unless I have her permission to state which one). I knew that there were other HCA hospitals in the area.
From what I have read/studied/discovered, when a hospital is a for-profit facility, the profit-margin (or bottom-line) becomes the Most Important Part of any decision. Why? Profits. (No brainer here.)
For example: Let's say you have a ward with 30 rooms, 2 beds each, for a possible 60 patients. Well, if the hospital can get by with 2-3 nurses for that ward (rather than 6-8), then have them work 12-hour shifts (rather than 8), look at the savings. Now, say we're paying the RNs an average of $25/hour. Three nurses per twelve hour shift times two shifts per day comes to $1,800 (3 X 12 X 2), while having eight nurses for each of three-eight hour shifts comes to $4,800 a day. There's a salary savings of $3,000/day/ward--and that isn't even figuring in the benefits, such as health and life insurance, worker's comp, etc. (Therefore, better for profits if you have two-12 hour shifts, rather than three-8 hour shifts per day.)
What does this mean for the nursings staff? Rapid burn-out. Why? It's simple: if a person is over-worked in a facility that is understaffed, expected by doctors, management, etc. to do the majority of the hands-on patient care, while trying to keep up with the demands of the patients, you're going to find yourself chronically exhausted and, in the end, burned-out.
True, we need hospitals, but to put profits above patient care is inexcusable.
Then, there's the toll that it takes on the patients. If the theoretical 30-room-2-bed-per-room ward is full and there are only three nurses working the floor for a 12-hour shift, what kind of care can a patient expect at the end of that shift?
That said, there were definite screw-ups on my husband's care. How much was from exhaustion, how much from burn-out, how much from a simple "I don't care" attitude, I don't know.
According to a paper I did this past spring for an expository writing class, if you have two hospitals across the street from each other, identical in every way--same services, same types of wards, same out-patient services, etc--except that one hospital is a For-Profit facility, the other is a Not-For-Profit facility, your chances of dying in the For-Profit is between 5-25% higher than the Not-For-Profit (depending on whose statistics you look at). We're not looking at critical-care-patients vs. patients in for a simple X-ray; we're comparing similar patients. And while 5% may not seem like a big deal, that's still 5 people out of 100; 50 out of 1,000.
Nurse, while your hot-button issues are taken from the front-lines of the hospital and mine (at least here) are from the patient/patient's family's point-of-view, it sounds like we have the same complaint here: FOR-PROFITS are a death waiting to happen.
First of all, thank you for your condolences.
Now, for the nitty-gritty here: FOR-PROFIT HOSPITALS!!! Nurse, you hit the nail square on the head. I want to thank you for telling it from a nursing stand-point. My sister was a nurse for a number of years in one of the local HCA hospitals (no, not Northside, but that's as much as I'm saying, unless I have her permission to state which one). I knew that there were other HCA hospitals in the area.
From what I have read/studied/discovered, when a hospital is a for-profit facility, the profit-margin (or bottom-line) becomes the Most Important Part of any decision. Why? Profits. (No brainer here.)
For example: Let's say you have a ward with 30 rooms, 2 beds each, for a possible 60 patients. Well, if the hospital can get by with 2-3 nurses for that ward (rather than 6-8), then have them work 12-hour shifts (rather than 8), look at the savings. Now, say we're paying the RNs an average of $25/hour. Three nurses per twelve hour shift times two shifts per day comes to $1,800 (3 X 12 X 2), while having eight nurses for each of three-eight hour shifts comes to $4,800 a day. There's a salary savings of $3,000/day/ward--and that isn't even figuring in the benefits, such as health and life insurance, worker's comp, etc. (Therefore, better for profits if you have two-12 hour shifts, rather than three-8 hour shifts per day.)
What does this mean for the nursings staff? Rapid burn-out. Why? It's simple: if a person is over-worked in a facility that is understaffed, expected by doctors, management, etc. to do the majority of the hands-on patient care, while trying to keep up with the demands of the patients, you're going to find yourself chronically exhausted and, in the end, burned-out.
True, we need hospitals, but to put profits above patient care is inexcusable.
Then, there's the toll that it takes on the patients. If the theoretical 30-room-2-bed-per-room ward is full and there are only three nurses working the floor for a 12-hour shift, what kind of care can a patient expect at the end of that shift?
That said, there were definite screw-ups on my husband's care. How much was from exhaustion, how much from burn-out, how much from a simple "I don't care" attitude, I don't know.
According to a paper I did this past spring for an expository writing class, if you have two hospitals across the street from each other, identical in every way--same services, same types of wards, same out-patient services, etc--except that one hospital is a For-Profit facility, the other is a Not-For-Profit facility, your chances of dying in the For-Profit is between 5-25% higher than the Not-For-Profit (depending on whose statistics you look at). We're not looking at critical-care-patients vs. patients in for a simple X-ray; we're comparing similar patients. And while 5% may not seem like a big deal, that's still 5 people out of 100; 50 out of 1,000.
Nurse, while your hot-button issues are taken from the front-lines of the hospital and mine (at least here) are from the patient/patient's family's point-of-view, it sounds like we have the same complaint here: FOR-PROFITS are a death waiting to happen.
Labels: HCA Northside, HCA Northside Hospital, Northside Hospital - Florida, Northside Hospital - St. Petersburg, Northside Hospital (Tampa Bay)
posted by feminist writer - Robin Shwedo | 10:39 AM
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