Can a small hospital ask Kaiser not to take their nurses?

[patientadv]

I currently work in a small not for profit hospital which has a contract with Kaiser. So we basically take non-Kaiser and Kaiser patients.

Some of the nurses have been interviewing at Kaiser and many instances have been hired on.

Can a hospital, let's call it ABC, ask Kaiser not to hire or recruit nurses from ABC? It's a rumor but can they really do that?

Wouldn't that be unprofessional?

Patientadv

[heron, ASN, RN]

Yes, they can. There just needs to be a non-compete clause in the contract.

When my hospice was bought out, VistaCare signed a contract that specified that the nurses working for the hospice could not work for the hospital that sold the hospice for a certain period. It essentially said that we had to work for VistaCare or find a new job outside the sysem.

[Reno1978, BSN, RN]

I don't like this. If a business' idea of nurse retention is asking the competition to not hire their employees, there's probably a bigger reason why people are looking elsewhere

[EmergencyNrse]

They can ask...

Kaiser is raising the bar for nursing wages across the country.

The lil' hospital can ask but ultimately needs to meet current standards

or lose their nurses. Competition is a GOOD thing...

Be thankful that Kaiser is in your area.

(And by the way, they have a really good benefits package)

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

Yes, they can. There just needs to be a non-compete clause in the contract.

When my hospice was bought out, VistaCare signed a contract that specified that the nurses working for the hospice could not work for the hospital that sold the hospice for a certain period.

When our hospital sold off its home care services to a private company, it was the same thing. The service would have little value if it lost most of it's valued employees so part of the deal was that if you were offered a position with the new entiity, you couldn't apply to work for the mothership again for 3 years.

Makes sense for the companies, not so for the employees, some of whom had worked for X-Medical Center for many years.

But in this case, what incentive would Kaiser have to agree to not hire from another institution? If there is such a policy, it should be public. Have you asked your HR or DON?

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

the nurses are not owned by either hospital and can go where they can get the best deal. If that is Kaiser then so be it.