update on Mt Sinai

[-jt]

On may 26th, NY newspapers reported that "Mt Sinai Improvement Plans Approved by State".

Remember that another 97 pt deaths are being investigated there because the state dept of health already found that poor hospital staffing practices were to blame for at least one death, & 96 other families have come forward with similar complaints.

Remember that the hospital, after this incident & at the same time that the RNs were picketing over poor staffing conditions, thumbed its nose at the issue by having the audacity to lay off 650 workers & eliminate vacant RN positions - saying these cuts would "not affect pt care", while requiring the remaining nurses to pick up the slack & have an even heavier workload as well as the duties of the laid off workers.

So now after its own investigation, Mt Sinai submitted plans to the state for hospital improvements in pt care to prevent another needless death as that unfortunate healthy liver donor who died from poor staffing.

The hospital has included in its plans submitted to the state that it is reducing the RN : PT ratio from 1:7 to no more than 1:4 there - which means instead of eliminating vacant RN positions, it will have to fill them. And it finally settled the nurses contract without forcing the strike.

You think the bad publicity finally woke them up?

[-jt]

Many of the complaints being investigated by the state at this hospital came from the families of pts who died or contracted serious infections there. A common complaint was about unclean, unsanitary conditions. Even still, the hospital continued to lay off ancillary & housekeeping workers - having the nerve to say their absence will not negatively affect pt care. I wonder if any of them are reading the news reports this week:

Hospitals' hidden killers: More germs are taking patients' lives -

Chicago Tribune:

The American Hospital Association said the last decade of unprecedented cost-cutting and financial instability has impacted all areas of hospital care, including infection control..........

Nurses hardest-hit

Nurses, in particular, say staffing cutbacks have made the most basic requirements of their jobs difficult to fulfill, and a survey by the Harvard School of Public Health recently linked nurse staffing levels to hospital-acquired infections.......>>

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/134499777_infect25.html

(gee........ funny how they can be in 'financial instability' when they still rake in millions in salaries, pensions, & perks for themselves?)