Nurses not immune to sick economy

Hospitals are worried about cuts in funding. The present Health care bill proposes to help pay for universal health care by cutting reimbursement for medicare and medicaid patients. Unfortunately Hospitals now do not get enough reimbursement to cover the cost of care of many Medicare and Medicaid patients. Further cut could be devastating. One quick way to save money is to increase nurses workloads, now a Nurse will have to care for eight patients instead of six. The Hospital saves money by having to pay fewer nurses, but the patients don't get the care they deserve and the Nurses get burned out quick. I saw this happen in the mid ninetys when their was talk about universal care. I don't understand how goverment officials expect Hospitals to cover more patients for less money.

Nonprofit hospitals, originally set up to serve the poor, have transformed themselves into profit machines. And as the money rolls in, the large tax breaks they receive are drawing fire.

Riding gains from investment portfolios and enjoying the pricing power that came from a decade of mergers, many nonprofit hospitals have seen earnings soar in recent years. The combined net income of the 50 largest nonprofit hospitals jumped nearly eight-fold to $4.27 billion between 2001 and 2006, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from the American Hospital Directory. AHD, an information-service company, compiles data that hospitals report to the federal government..........

One reason for hospitals' soaring profits is a gradual increase in Medicare reimbursements after federal budget cutbacks during the 1990s. By merging and gaining scale, many hospitals also gained leverage in price negotiations with health insurers.

However, much of the industry's profit growth comes from strategies it honed to increase profits. Among them: demanding upfront payments from patients; hiking list prices for procedures and services to several times their actual cost; selling patients' debts to collection companies; focusing on expensive procedures; and issuing tax-exempt bonds and investing the proceeds in higher-yielding securities.

Untaxed investment gains have greatly increased some hospitals' cash piles. Ascension Health, a Catholic nonprofit system that runs 65 hospitals, mostly in the Midwest and Northeast, reported net income of $1.2 billion in its fiscal year ended June 30, 2007, and cash and investments of $7.4 billion. That's more cash than Walt Disney Co. has.

I did it. I finally wrote to Oprah on her website for show ideas. I think it will take someone like her to shed light on this so-called nursing shortage issue. I recommend that you all do the same thing so that they see that this is a national problem. Speak your mind! Here's the link:

https://www.oprah.com/ord/plugform.jsp?plugId=216

(Use your Microsoft Word to help you keep it under 2000 characters. Thanks for all your support!)

"Dateline" may be a better place....

Actually a lot of not for profit hospitals are making A LOT of money.



http://www.wsbt.com/internal?st=prin.../news/consumer

Read the whole story. Most hospitals are making more than enough to pay for adequate nursing staff. They choose to compromise patient care and safety in order to increase their profit margin.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/h...rses16.article

When I graduated with my BSN in 1992 only 7 out of my class of 40 got hired-I felt lucky to be employed at $13/hr.. Seems like this is somewhat cyclical-the lack of hiring. I have heard about nurses in the 80's not being able to find jobs as well.

After reading the numerous postings on this subject, in short, one ironically say, You can't teach an old dog new tricks! "- in reference to the exorbitant greed, power hunger and sense of entitlement by hospital and health care executives. It appears that very few reflected or learned from the recent Wall Street financial collapse which echoed around the nation and the world. Many were in fact, bailed out and have thus remained entrenched in beliefs and behaviours which are seemingly unchallenged.
There is no bail out for nurses, professionals, many of whom have sacrificed and saved to earn a nursing degree/ diploma. The diploma is a symbol of achievement, learning and success - your entry into a unique world of caring, knowledge, ethics and professionalism. And there it stops - suddenly, you are a disposable commodity, a frightening and sobering reality, frightening to us as nurses and to patients who never stop needing our care and expertise.
There are many ways to achieve something when we believe strongly in the concept. It would seem that nurses do need to develop a greater universel professional voice which encompasses all of us and enable us to meet the pundits of health care with grounded knowledge and forethought. - we are the pivot of health care because the amount of bedside and community contact time allows the highest patient contact. This contact engenders multiple roles and variables with the power to serve as counseller, teacher and spiritualist, among others. From a research perspective, it is a variable which has been fitfully examined only and merits closer studies. The link below addresses this question and the empowerment /position of nurses today.
Nurse staffing and patient, nurse, and financial outcomes

- ►critcaremed.com
L Unruh - AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 2008 - ajnonline.com

My instructor told our class the same thing before we graduated in May. She said the last time she saw this lack of hiring was back in 93'. She also told us to give it a year and things will turn around. I hope she's right!