[JillR]

This is a very intersting article. Go to http://www.nursinghands.com and see the article titled "A Rare Criminal Charge in Nursing Home".

If all administrators were held to this level of accountability, we would then see a real change in nursing.

[This message has been edited by JillR (edited October 07, 2000).]

[Mijourney]

Hi JillR. Interesting that you bring up this topic. I posted under another topic "Yet another sad story" which addressed the issue of painful actions taken by administrators. Along with administrators, I think the facility boards should be held just as accountable. They are usually the ones who allow or approve the actions of the administrators.

[JillR]

Myjourney,

i couldn't agree with you more. I feel that the more people begin to hold upper management and even corporations and maybe even board of directors accountable for the policies and practices that are done in health care, the more we will begin to see change for the better.

Jill

[LLDPaRN]

Hi Jill
I also read the article about the nursing home administrator who was arrested. I totally agree with you about holding upper management and even corporations accountable. In the Chicago Tribune series that appeared in September, there was a mention of a lawsuit that was filed against the corporation that ran a particular hospital in Wichita, Kansas. Maybe we should bring such cases to the attention of the attorney general of each state....that would certainly get the attention of administrators, now, wouldn't it?!

Laurie :-)

[karen_van_embden]

Originally posted by LLDPaRN:
Hi Jill
I also read the article about the nursing home administrator who was arrested. I totally agree with you about holding upper management and even corporations accountable. In the Chicago Tribune series that appeared in September, there was a mention of a lawsuit that was filed against the corporation that ran a particular hospital in Wichita, Kansas. Maybe we should bring such cases to the attention of the attorney general of each state....that would certainly get the attention of administrators, now, wouldn't it?!

Laurie :-)

I am from Wichita. There have been several interesting cases here lately including a large hospital who settled for a large amount of money to compensate a family for the sequelae to a stroke when not enough nursing staff was available to assist a family who called for help. Another case was decided by a jury where an LPN blew the whistle on a nursing home when a resident fell out of bed with unprescribed restraints and ended up dying. The administration apparently tried to hush it up and subsequently fired the nurse. The jury awarded over 900K, but the state cap is only 250K. (another story).
I would like to ask if any readers remember a case from the Boston MA area where a court decided that the staff nurses could not be accused of abandonment if they refused to stay past their assigned hours of duty, in spite of poor staffing or no staffing on the next shift. It was considered to be a "management problem" and the management needed to find the staff. I cannot find that reference after hearing about it (from about 1 year ago).
PS: MY take on the nursing shortage is that there is no such thing as a nursing shortage. At $5/hr there is a huge shortage. At $100.hr there is no shortage. You do the math. What we have is a good management shortage.



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kvern