LA: FAcing a real emergency--2 hospitals ? closing

pickledpepperRN · Aug 12, 2002

Thank you, Karen.

It is frightening for anyone who gets sick or injured. Even the CEO with $$$ can die as paramedics try to find an ER.

lindalee · Aug 12, 2002

The bed situation continues to be a major problem. Too many people needing beds and nursing care and not enough resources. All we need is hospitals closing. This ugly situation is going to blow up one day soon. I suspect it will blow when there is a major disaster (earthquake, terrorist attack, whatever.) There are already no extra resources-----and the public remains blissfully unaware. I cannot tell you how often I hear "my surgery was scheduled weeks ago, I have a reservation. Why don't you have a bed for me?" Patients are held in the emergency rooms, recovery rooms, where ever until a bed opens up. People are discharged from critical care only to return as they are transferred to floor care too soon. Of course they leave acute facilities to go home too soon only to return in 24 to 48 hours. Perhaps when this situation finally hits the news big time things will start to improve for nurses and the public. We certainly are not being heard when we speak up about this dangerous situation. Certainly at this point very few people seem to be listening or aware of the critical lack of resources in their community. And Spacenurse is certainly right--it matters not if you have money. There simply is not the ability to take care of the current patient load, much less the increased volume that would be seen in a major disaster situation. The staff is already putting in so much overtime that the ability to respond will be limited. Granted adrenalin will help for the first day or two--then what? I am also frightened about what I see as a lack of available resources to respond to even the normal load of patient care. And this is the "quiet" time of year. (No flu season, nor are people trying to get medical care as the deductible has been met and they want things done before the end of the year.) Wish I had solutions but until a major problem develops I do not expect this situation to be addressed, much less fixed.

Cascadians · Aug 12, 2002

Yep, the downward spiral that has been squeezing nursing into an impossible vice-grip will become a crisis evident to everybody when the next public emergency occurs :eek:

-jt · Aug 13, 2002

I have had an active California RN license for years & work there every fall. I have not once been called by a California hospital with an enticement to relocate & join their staff (like they do for MDs all the time). I do get almost daily calls from travel agencies to come work for a few weeks but I dont want to hop from city to city right now. There must be other California-licensed RNs around the country who also are not being sought after by hospitals as MDs are. I wrote the California governor about that --- and never received a reply. Nurses are out there - the hospitals just dont want to do what it takes to get them to work for them. Oh well-------- their loss.

sjoe · Aug 13, 2002

Of course this has been happening all over the country for a number of years now. The solution--don't get sick!

-jt · Aug 14, 2002

While these hospitals are closing, the for-profit conglomerate Tenet Hospital System is building a 10 story tower addition to its facility & bragging that they will have no trouble filling the beds with pts. Sure - when little unprofitable hospitals close, the pts have no choice but to go to the big for profit powerhouses. They may have no trouble filling the beds but the article I read on it didnt bother to mention how it plans on filling 10 stories worth of nurses stations.