Hospitals with financial woes

[Emergent, RN]

Has anyone here worked for a hospital in financial hot water? Without going into great detail, my hospital is currently in financial turmoil. It's been stressful on staff because of uncertainty. Some are leaving because of it. We wonder, will we stay afloat? Will we close?

Heathcare in America is in turmoil. It is dependent on imperfect computer systems to properly capture charges. Billing systems are probably the most complicated, and inefficient, in the world.

A doctor told me that the government wants to close hospitals. I think that means that health care will become more centralized. That has certainly been the trend, with rural hospitals struggling. What does the future hold?

[Nurse SMS, MSN, RN]

I do not know what the future holds, but yes, I worked for a financially insolvent hospital. It was a big name affiliate, in fact, and I accepted the position based on that reputation, choosing it over a second job offer I had at the time. Three days after I started they announced they were looking for a buyer. I was too late to get the other job. Not fun. I looked and found another position elsewhere. About 11 months later they closed their doors forever. This hospital had been in the local area for over 30 years and the suburb it was in now has no hospital in the local community. They saw a lot of the indigent population and basically 30 day readmissions combined with reduced reimbursement rates made it impossible to keep the doors open. At the time that I gave my notice, they offered me a $2K bonus if I would stay for a year. I declined. They worked very hard to retain the staff, since having a fully staffed hospital is going to make them look a lot better to any potential buyers and they were somewhat futilely hoping to be able to sell. It was devastating for employees who had been there a long time. For me it was just super annoying to be hired in and then told the hospital was insolvent.

From my point of view, jumping ship is the only logical move to make. We all have bills to pay and the powers that be are rarely as pre-emptively upfront with news and information due to their need to protect their own interests for as long as possible. Almost all not-for-profit hospitals are struggling now.

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

I’ve worked Per Diem in a hospital struggling financially. It was part of a Catholic Health System that in my eyes made some mistakes as far as keeping up with the advances in health care and was plagued by a poor ratio of insured vs indigent patients. They were outpaced by other surrounding hospitals backed by bigger healthcare corporations doing newer and more complex procedures and surgeries. I stayed there for over a year but would never have taken a full time position there. It’s not just the risk of the hospital closing that bothered me but also the evident poor quality of care as a result of staff/management turnover and dwindling supplies or resources that quality patient care requires.

[Davey Do]

Interesting reads!

I got my EMT-B in '79, my NR-EMT-A in '81, my LPN in '83 and my RN in '90 through Weed Rover Township Hospital where I worked in psych, surgery, and chemical dependency from March 1984 until December 1990.

The hospital closed in 1999 due to many factors, such as Docs dying or loosing their licenses and a CEO who did something underhanded that ended up sending the into financial ruin. Something about the selling of bonds to finance new additions to the facility.

I remember the advent and fear of DRGs and a meeting the CEO had with staff in 1984 and him saying something along the lines of "We will prevail!"

Alas... It took 16 years but the facility closed and now houses the county health department, state police substation, morgue and some other programs.

[Jedrnurse, BSN, RN]

25 minutes ago, Davey Do said:

Interesting reads!

I got my EMT-B in '79, my NR-EMT-A in '81, my LPN in '83 and my RN in '90 through Weed Rover Township Hospital where I worked in psych, surgery, and chemical dependency from March 1984 until December 1990.

The hospital closed in 1999 due to many factors, such as Docs dying or loosing their licenses and a CEO who did something underhanded that ended up sending the into financial ruin. Something about the selling of bonds to finance new additions to the facility.

I remember the advent and fear of DRGs and a meeting the CEO had with staff in 1984 and him saying something along the lines of "We will prevail!"

Alas... It took 16 years but the facility closed and now houses the county health department, state police substation, morgue and some other programs.

After the doctors started loosing their licenses, did they end up free-ranging around the hospital hallways...? ?