Nursing Home Medicare Skilled Units Offer Good Experience - Page 2

I am a new nurse turned Administrator. The types of patient we are seeing are exhausting!! I agree with you! The government doesn't give a hill of beans about our patients. My residents are getting sicker and the reimbursement is getting smaller, and their demands are high. Before you say administration doesn't care about not having enough staff , I too stay awake nights worrying about my patients. LTC is regulated more than hospitals in most states, yet they get the least support . I work the floor once in a while and see how hard the staff does work. I wish I had all the answers . I hope you consider all the back door expenses of running an operation. I know being an administrator now has really opened my eyes. So many things to comply with. So much money is spent on employees , benefits, training, licensing, OSHA, FLSA and a billion other agencies . Most people don't even consider. Hospitals can bill for supplies. Skilled Medicare units get a lump sum per day to provide all the care needs- including medications and all supplies. My facility also accepts Medicaid. We believe that everyone needs care. If my marketing person claims we run the Hilton, I'd fire her in a minute! People need to understand that we are human beings caring for human beings. The public is so educated in what our jobs are, they need to educated on how to treat people who care for your loved one!

See, though, Muffin139 at least you understand that we are all human, you sound like you are a good administrator or at least try to be...it just gets disheartening when you realize you work for people who seem like they don't care about the residents or direct care staff and just about saving money, and support other people like dishonest admissions. I know not all admins are like that, I just haven't had the pleasure of meeting one yet..it's a difficult job, and one I wouldn't want to do. A good administrator must be worth their weight in gold. Trying to make resources stretch is something I know I could not do all that well--but when you're quibbling over trash bags and gloves and bandaids, denying patients medications, you're cutting corners in the wrong places.