[Nurse4years]

The whole point of 12+billion $$ is to bring in as many plaintiffs as possible. One can only imagine the amount of calls the law firm is receiving.
Maybe this is the beginning of many changes.

[HappyNurse2005]

The next day, Spires died in the critical care unit, and his body wasn't discovered for an hour. A doctor passing by on an unrelated issue alerted the staff.

Ok, where was the monitor??


we have an hca facility in town. (i'm not at it) I dont know for sure about their ratios, but when i was in nursing school, on their pcu floor (post open hearts, any chest pain pt, cath pt, etc etc) on days, the nurses could and did sometimes have 6 patients! Im on a similar floor at my hospital, and we'd never have 6 pt's during the day


they also used the crappy meditech charting system.

[Jolie]

[quote=ArizonaICU]please let me reply to this. if you read the lawsuit, its about staffing being dictated by HCA's PLUS staffing system that ties the hands of individual hospitals in staffing decisions. the system forces perpetual understaffing of RN's all all of their facilities.
Its not about monitor techs. Its about (the lawsuit alledges) 70,000 people that die in HCA hospitals every year as a result of intentional understaffing in light of knowledge that understaffing causes patient deaths.

I'm not trying to defend HCA here, just want to clarify this point. Are they claiming that 70,000 people die each year in HCA hospitals directly related to understaffing? That sounds like an astronomical number, which makes me suspect either an exaggeration or a misprint.

[pickledpepperRN]

Post number 5 of this 2002 thread is about a JAMA study showing that for each patient more than four each RN was responsible for the chance of death post op increased by 7%.

SO if your nurse has seven patients instead of four you have a 21% increased likelyhood of dying.
Failure to rescue, DVT, and infection are common preventable causes of post operative mortality.

[wealthpro]

I work for an HCA hospital and I would never send my family there. It is unbelievable what is expected of the nurses anymore.

Nurses are nothing more than laborers to HCA, yet they are making the top guys rich.

I hope HCA loses the class action suit.

[Hellllllo Nurse]

Originally Posted by HARRN2b

Is HCA the company owned by republican Bill Frist and family? I am not sure.

Yes, that's HCA. I woked med surg at an HCA hospital. I was routinely assigned 10-13 pts without any CNA or unit clerk. It was not only unsafe- the entire hospital was a pit of bitter, miserable nurses. The worst experience of my life.

I feel physically ill at the thought of Frist ever becoming president.

[Hellllllo Nurse]

Originally Posted by HARRN2b

I now am wondering if there is a "real" nursing shortage. Could this be corporate america not wanting to hire (and pay) nurses. Everyone talks about nursing be a calling, but I can assure you healthcare is not a calling for ceo's.

There have been many threads here on the pseudo "shortage". the ANA declared a few years ago that the nursing shortage is false-


Almost 500,000 licensed registered nurses were not employed as nurses in 2000.*

Data from the Health Resources and Services Administration's (HRSA's) 2000 national sample survey of RNs shows that more than 500,000 licensed nurses (more than 18% of the national nurse workforce) have chosen not to work in nursing. This available labor pool could be drawn back into nursing if they found the employment opportunities attractive enough**


The ANA maintains that the deterioration in the working conditions for nurses is the primary cause for the staff vacancies being reported by hospitals and nursing facilities - not a systemic nursing shortage. Nurses are opting not to take these nursing jobs because they are not attracted to positions where they will be confronted by mandatory overtime and short staffing. **


76.6% (of) Licensed RNs (in The U.S. are) Employed in Nursing***





* Projected Supply, Demand and Shortages of Registered Nurses: 2000-2020 (released on 7/30/03 by the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). The Bureau of Labor Statistics, in an earlier report, predicted that that we will need one million new nurses by 2010 (Monthly Labor Review - November 2001) to cover new positions and replace the nurses who have retired.


**http://www.nursingworld.org/gova/fed...107/ovrtme.htm


***https://www.aacn.org/aacn/practice.n...6?OpenDocument

(The links are no longer working, but anyone who wants to read the full articles can go to the original web sites and do a search for the subject matter).


Warn: (0%)

[pickledpepperRN]

Originally Posted by spacenurse

Post number 5 of this 2002 thread is about a JAMA study showing that for each patient more than four each RN was responsible for the chance of death post op increased by 7%.

SO if your nurse has seven patients instead of four you have a 21% increased likelyhood of dying.
Failure to rescue, DVT, and infection are common preventable causes of post operative mortality.

Forgot the link:
http://allnurses.com/forums/f118/why...ant-26745.html

[janfrn]

HCA hasn't made any inroads in Canada as yet. However, if Alberta's Conservative government is successful in forcing its "Third Way for Health Care" onto its population, the door will be open for HCA, Tenet and anybody else whose corporate greed sees an opportunity to fatten their bottom lines. And all because of the NAFTA clause stating that once something is sold as a commodity, the government cannot stop its sale in the future.

[fergus51]

I hope it doesn't happen Jan. I really never understood this about Alberta. You have to be the richest province in the country, so I don't understand why the government says health care is too costly to be sustainable.