Is my employer the only hospital wasting tons of $$$$???

[nurs4kids]

In fifteen years of working for my lovely non-for-profit hospital, I've always been sickened at the waste of money at taxpayer's expense. I worked in purchasing years ago at this same hospital, this was my first experience with waste of money and of padding pockets. I remember once, years ago, the hospital was on a very tight budget..had froze hiring, etc. Across my desk comes a requisition from an administrator..for a LEATHER desk pad for HIS desk. My first experience, sadly not my last. I've seen outside contractors paid big bucks to do things our own maintenance people should/could be doing..the same contractor..same one that has ties to administration. Yet each year, we sign a "Code of Conduct" policy. Disgusting.

Then, just this week, they sent these PR things to every employee's home. This was in a box, about 8" X 12"..shipped UPS...inside was a video and some literature. The video was a ten minute run about "why we do what we do". Basically, it looked more like a nurse recruitment tool to me, since it contained interviews from nurses and doctor's only (all young and attractive..lol). I'm still bracing to see the exact reason behind this video. They sent these to EVERY employee (we received two since hubby works there too). This has many people hot because it did not include any ancillary depts, nor did it include respiratory, radiology, etc.

Is this a new trend or is it another waste of money that could be going to paying nurses more???

[ptnurse]

My not for profit hospital spent half a million dollars a couple of years ago on a consultant to come in and tell the hospital how to save money. The consultant had meetings with the employees (mandatory) and gave us all what amounted to a pep talk and he was gone. I could tell the hospital how they should have saved a half a million bucks. My unit last year probably processed 10 new nurses through orientation. Net result 1-2 that will stay for a year. Think they have given any thought to how they could save money through retention?????

[Estella]

In 1997 my hospital passed JCAH with a 100% rating. To celebrate, each employee was sent an overnight bag with "100%" printed on the side, a gift card for a video store, and a custom woven lap blanket with a quote from the man the hospital is a memorial to on it and a pharmaceutical picture including a rather obscene looking mortal and pestal. (We have nicknames for that blanket, describing the anatomical part it looks like, sticking up so pround and pale against the navy blue background. It has to be folded just right around small children....) Within a month after these "gifts" were sent out, each costing about $100, nurse staffing was cut on every floor and unit. a year later they began to try to get those nurses they cut back, but couldn't. And they wonder why! Needless to say, we haven't made another 100%. I'd hate to see the outcome if we did.

[sjoe]

Unfortunately, these accounts seem to be the rule, rather than the exception.

The biggest problem is that administration pays NO attention to suggestions from the people actually doing the work, much less consulting them in the first place in any serious way, but more attention to those with the big cars, free meals, and gifts to hand out. Who, not coincidentally, often offer the spoken or unspoken possibility of a future career move for those making these decisions.

Remarkably similar to the daily functioning the US Congress, as mainstream voters and their/our needs are left behind. IMHO.

[cactus wren]

....My hospital is in the end(?) stages of remodeling. Ever try to take care of patients while a jack hammer operates 20 feet away? Very interesting:o

About 5 years ago a new icu, er and or was added, they are nice, roomy, we even have a skylight above the nurses desk in icu,luv it.......

But this remodeling is being done by different contractors, different architect, and what a diaster !! respiratory has new department with a room for stress tests so small that if ( Heaven forbid) a patients codes, they will have to drag patient out into the hall. But added a second story for admin.......And wow.....room for all........stained glass windows, plush, plush.....Of course the patient rooms are far,far from being done...did i mention jack hammers??

last col at this fine:p nonprofit hospital was over 10 years ago, we get on average 3% raise a year....too bad it doesn`t keep up with the increase in health ins.....

And then admin is puzzled as why the nurses are experiancing burnout...Go figure:( Chronically short staffed, but use agency nurses whenever we can get them........

[shannonRN, BSN, RN]

our hospital just sent out a rather expensive looking booklet that outlined what our hospital did in the past year...patient wise, new projects....some of us staff discussed this book, most saying that they didn't even read it....said they were offended that they gave us this worthless book, when they could have been giving us a raise!

[nurs4kids]

I didn't want to sound totally negative, so I left out the constant remodeling that has been going on ever since I started there 15 yrs ago. And yes, I can imagine working right above a jackhammer..do it everyday. Nothing like a kid waking up from anesthesia to the sounds and vibrations of a jackhammer. I've watched them put up walls only to tear them down in a month or so....

[deespoohbear]

Do you mean by feeding the hospital board members every month a 7 course meal for their meetings? Or employing tons of administrative personal and giving them fancy job titles? Or letting the ER docs eat for free when they are on duty? At least we haven't had to put up with constant remodeling. There has been some minor things here and there, but nothing major. It really burns my butt though when the administrators and DON's have bigger offices than the patients have rooms!!

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

This was the main reason I left the hospital I loved after 13 years there. Hired a new peds cardiac surgeon. He didn't even have a license in NJ yet, brought him and his whole entourage on, only to sit around for FIVE MONTHS!!! Doing NOTHING!!

Built this a-hole a new peds ICU, and as soon as his contract was up, he left! Now that peds ICU is barely filled, the peds unit was downsized, and several people lost their jobs who have been there for YEARS!!! (This is a specialty hospital, so not a regular peds unit.)

So many nurses left during that time, the entire hospital changed for the worse, and they are still in the red due to that bad move.

I got tired of our staffing changing b/c of the $$ issue. In the MICU where I had transferrd to to get away from the peds surgeon, who I didn't mention was very abusive, we couldn't even find a pulse ox or a dinamap cuff to use, and couldn't get new supplies, since the peds budget was eating the hospital alive. I stayed there for so long b/c it used to be a p[lace where we could really give nursing care the way it should be, but once it became like every other place, I had to leave. I couldn't justofy a 45-min drive to go there anymore.

Lot's of the same other frivolities mentioned too. Like one employee watched in line at the mall, while another employee purcahsed clothing, assuming for xmas gifts, with a hopsital credit card. Doc's were given Mercede's, the list goes on!!!

[aus nurse]

i read the thread topic and thought...is there any employer out there not wasting money?

my list includes:

accomodating all locum doctors in free accomodation, but not nurses

board memebers and their generous expense accounts

endless committees (with of course their expenses) to investigate why we can't retain our nurses

million dollar hospital renovations that are totally user unfriendly

consultants to tell us why we are overstaffed

yep, sounds the same the world over.............

[fergus51]

My very favorite was that we have recently undergone a horriffic round of cuts (we lost 2 full units at our hospital alone), but in the reorganization of the health care structure, the government paid out HUGE severance packages to the execs who lost their positions.

[BadBird, BSN, RN]

It amazes me how the administrators can find money to re-wallpaper, re-decorate, plant flowers, etc. All fluff, but no money for supplies, nurses, raises, etc... When you walk in it is pretty, when you are admitted it is not.