Community Health Systems Takeover

They are a reputable company that owns many hospitals across the US. Their hospitals are known for high patient care standards, high scores on publicly-reported information, and excellent compliance with regulatory standards. Our hospital was owned by them in the past, but they sold us because we were not profitable. I consider them to be one of the best, as far as for-profit ownership goes.

I am not a big fan of them.. They are all about the money and only the money. Just started working for them and highly disappointed. Crazy patient ratios ex: up to 7 or 8 pts on a telemetry floor. They harass patients during their stay about how they're going to be paying for their stay. Raises are non-existant under them. I constantly hear if it wasn't for the people they work with my coworkers would have left already.

I work in a CHS hospital and we have none of the issues Nrsstudent09 described. In fact, except for documentation, we saw few changes and this was about 3 years ago. FYI - it is all about the money for everyone. Don't kid yourself.

I work at a CHS owned hospital. CHS bought our hospital 8 years ago, and things have never been worse! Morale is low. Staffing ratios on a med/surg floor can be as many as 11 pts :1 RN, often with no aide or unit clerk. The Telemetry floor has seen ratios of 8:1 again with no aides or clerks. ICU is typically 3:1 ratios with no aide, and no consideration of patient accuity. Our CNO has shown nothing but disrespect for the nurses.

Working equipment is hard to find. They have cut staffing back so badly in all departments, that materials are not always stocked on the weekends, so that by Sunday afternoon, the floors are running out of IV tubings, etc. and the nurses must waste valuable time trying to find what they need to do their jobs.

There is practically NO nursing education in our facility, other than the mandatory annuals required by JCAHO and the State. It is practically impossible to get reimbursement for any educational events that we attend on our own time. New nurse orientation has been cut back to bare minimum, and these nurses are being "thrown to the wolves"!

Nursing retention is at an all time low. I have seen many good quality nurses come and go through our doors since CHS took over. I have chosen to stay, because I adore the people that I work with, and because it is conveniently located to my home.

CHS however, is wonderful at public relations. They will say all the right things to the public, and will train their staff to use all the right "buzz words" so that the patient satisfaction surveys come back looking great! Recent employee satisfaction surveys in our facility came back very low. Their response? To send the Directors back to their floors and ask the nurses... "what are YOU going to do to make these surveys better next year?" Hmm... if a boss gets a bad review, shouldn't the boss be coming back to the employees saying "here's what I am going to do?" Why should the nurses be responsible for making the boss' reviews better? Just another example of CHS logic.

If CHS is looking to buy your hospital, beware!

They bought our hospital in Northern California about 8 years ago. the usual stupid inroads and cutbacks were proposed, they did not understand what a CNA hospital meant. We have met every idiotic cut they have proposed with contract responses. Now our contract is up; and they think they can play hardball; so we probably will have to strike to get them to see clearly. These idiots from right to work states just come in here and think they can roll all over us like they do down South; boy, are they in for a shock.

I work at a CHS owned hospital. CHS bought our hospital 8 years ago, and things have never been worse! Morale is low. Staffing ratios on a med/surg floor can be as many as 11 pts :1 RN, often with no aide or unit clerk. The Telemetry floor has seen ratios of 8:1 again with no aides or clerks. ICU is typically 3:1 ratios with no aide, and no consideration of patient accuity. Our CNO has shown nothing but disrespect for the nurses.

Working equipment is hard to find. They have cut staffing back so badly in all departments, that materials are not always stocked on the weekends, so that by Sunday afternoon, the floors are running out of IV tubings, etc. and the nurses must waste valuable time trying to find what they need to do their jobs.

There is practically NO nursing education in our facility, other than the mandatory annuals required by JCAHO and the State. It is practically impossible to get reimbursement for any educational events that we attend on our own time. New nurse orientation has been cut back to bare minimum, and these nurses are being "thrown to the wolves"!

Nursing retention is at an all time low. I have seen many good quality nurses come and go through our doors since CHS took over. I have chosen to stay, because I adore the people that I work with, and because it is conveniently located to my home.

CHS however, is wonderful at public relations. They will say all the right things to the public, and will train their staff to use all the right "buzz words" so that the patient satisfaction surveys come back looking great! Recent employee satisfaction surveys in our facility came back very low. Their response? To send the Directors back to their floors and ask the nurses... "what are YOU going to do to make these surveys better next year?" Hmm... if a boss gets a bad review, shouldn't the boss be coming back to the employees saying "here's what I am going to do?" Why should the nurses be responsible for making the boss' reviews better? Just another example of CHS logic.

If CHS is looking to buy your hospital, beware!

Not new, your managers have all sold out to the corporate ideology. They get paid bonuses for "star" performances,, and the poop flows down the ladder to the grunts (you). The last time my manager talked about 'We have to do more with less, because if the hospital doesn't make money, we don't have jobs" spiel; I walked out, and I will continue to boycott staff meetings until this idiot realizes that her job is to support her staff and not her year-end bonus.

CHS has been nothing but awful at our hospital. Their reputation is getting worse and worse around the country. Check out this website- it has a lot of info about CHS Patients Before Profits. Their staffing is really worrisome, and they're really all about the money. We had a story in the news of a patient who was hounded for money WHILE SHE WAS IN LABOR!!! Unfortunately, lots of people have similar stories to hers. Watch out for CHS...

Wow, our experience has not been anything like that at all. In fact, we are expanding and hiring and thriving. Makes you wonder.