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I was just reading the discussion about why nurses 'allow' poor staffing ratios, and a post by Angie took my breath away with the possibilities.
Originally Posted by Angie O'Plasty, RN
There is only one real reason that nurses don't have appropriate staffing.
It's because we do not own the hospitals.
We are just employees, and nowhere in the business world do employees have any say over employment. Nowhere.
So the answer is, when nurses own the hospitals, then they will have the right to have a say in staffing.
Of course on that day, Hell will simultaneously freeze over and flying pigs will be seen cavorting in the clouds.
Now THERE'S an idea that fires the imagination! A nurse-owned hospital! I'm not so sure it wouldn't work because of the nursing expense. I hear about obscene hospital profits on this board all the time. I really wonder if such a thing could work!
I know there are probably many reasons it couldn't work, but that was true for a lot of impossible things (like the millions of transistors on a computer chip for instance, or even the electric light bulb for that matter).
Just for the sake of excitement though, let's just brainstorm this a little. Post your reasons why a say... non-profit or even for-profit hospital run by nurses couldn't succeed wildly! Remember, the administrators would be compensated in a non-profit hospital. I know that there would be no stock-holder cash pools in a non-profit hospital, but consider this: When I taught high school math, I didn't know a single teacher who would have taken a raise over a smaller teacher-to-student ratio. I would have given up a decent chunk of change for the opportunity to actually teach.
Also, when the real pros take over things, money and creativity can be found and saved in the most startlingly creative ways (does anyone remember the movie 9 to 5?)
It's probably just a dream, but I see the energy and power and intelligence in this forum and I dream that anything is possible. I mean, look, everyone who dedicates themselves to this demanding profession deserves great compensation, but what if you could have true job-satisfaction and a decent quality of life and you had to give up some (not all) of the bucks to do it? No contest? And I still don't really understand why anyone would have to give up bucks anyway. They're available in the profits we all hear about.
Finally, any real competition for patients would be no biggie since a nurse-run facility would have patients banging down the door to get in (even the well-off folks).
I don't see why not. The CEO's of our local hospitals (non-profit) have a salary of over 500,000/year. Nurses run them anyway and they pay less than $30/hr. Even the ones that have been there for years. I think that is a crock.
My first question is how do you get started? Do you get a huge group of nurses together and pool $$ for the building and start up costs? Do you have to form a corporation and get a loan or ???
I'm totally serious because this CAN become a reality. How does one get started on this road?
I think that it could be done, but when physcians own a hospital, they hire a CEO, of course, and they make big investments. They get big returns, but most of us don't have hundreds of thousands to invest in the first place. PERHAPS< that investment is on paper only, but the collateral comes either from them personally, or their earning ablity.
One of the better ways would probably be a employee owned hospital. Kind of like HyVee, Each dept. employee would have that option as part of their salary package. As for who runs it, nurses would not have to own to run. I have always appreciated nursing administrators.
It sounds great, actually it sounds like the best way to run a hosp. In AL. you have to file a certificate of need and have it approved by some state agency in order to open a new health care facility (don't know if that applies all over). The hosp. I work for has such ties in that agency that they get every application rejected while they continue to build more and more buildings for outpt. services and add floor after floor. If we would have to fight the existing hosps it would be a dirty fight!
Updated
Jul 08, 2007 at 07:21 AM by Angie O'Plasty, RN
Re: Nurse-Run Hospital? Why not?
I've been looking at the problems of nursing for years and that's my final answer, Kenny.
We don't have the power because we don't own the place. Nurses -especially nurses in power - are not seeing the Big Business Picture. The only power that we have now is the power that they allow us to have. They own it.
Nurses try to tell the employer how to run the business. The employer is trying to figure out profits and losses. Frankly, I think nurses would be good at running a hospital because they've been taught customer service and how to slash a buck, but nurses just forever and always do not get this - if the hospital does not make a profit, the hospital will fail. Bingo - everyone loses.
The difference is that nurses at the Administration level would (theoretically) be willing to spread the wealth a little better.
OK so you can't afford to buy or build a hospital so how about getting the right admin staff instead. Nurses start at the ground and work their way up,nurses in all the admin positions that have to do with direct patient care,realistic staff to patient ratios,decent budgeting and realistic work loads.
Over here they made a big mistake when they thought that anyone with management skills could run a hospital.I don't see why it couldn't be possible.After all the old fashioned Matrons used to run hospitals very successfully ,usually with a rod of iron!
Most businesses that start up will fail within 5 years, most of those within 1 year. A hospital is a business. Money must be enough to cover the costs of running it. The water bill must be paid and the employees need to be paid. A hospital usually has to deal with competition. If nurses have to run the hospital as a business some of them will no longer be nurses.
Not trying to crush your dream, but reality must be faced.
OK so you can't afford to buy or build a hospital so how about getting the right admin staff instead. Nurses start at the ground and work their way up,nurses in all the admin positions that have to do with direct patient care,realistic staff to patient ratios,decent budgeting and realistic work loads.
Over here they made a big mistake when they thought that anyone with management skills could run a hospital.I don't see why it couldn't be possible.After all the old fashioned Matrons used to run hospitals very successfully ,usually with a rod of iron!
Nightmare, we've been dealing with this for a few decades and the thing is, if nurses wanted to be administrators, that's what they would do. Most nurses don't want to be administrators, they want to be nurses. So we don't have hospitals that are really owned and operated by nurses.
Nowadays, nurses can work their way up the ladder to middle management. But the big budgetary decisions are not being made by nurses and that is, IMO, why nurses get shortchanged.
And as far as affording to buy a hospital, sure we could. Pick one, note that it'd be a non-profit, nurse-run, patient-focused hospital, start a website, get publicity, and ask for donations.
I'll bet we'd be surprised with the results, because nurses are not the only ones fed up with understaffing and forced to sit by while insurance companies and big corporations make lots of money, then cry poverty and close hospitals, leaving the community in the lurch.
Love the idea. But - what company would be willing to insure a hospital run/owned by nurses? Would consultants be willing to allow their clients to go to a hospital run by nurses? Heck, how negative am I?
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Nurse-Run Hospital? Why not?
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