It's all about the budget

Published

July marked the beginning of the new fiscal year at the hospital I work & as always they are trying even harder to cut costs. For over a year now a "SHARE" program has been in effect where employees find ways to cut cost & are rewarded monitarily (i.e. standardizing after-hours snacks, using cheaper contrast media, eliminating sign-on bonuses, blah blah, blah). They have also changed the staffing grid AGAIN. We were using a 4:1 ratio on our unit & our customer service scores were improved, but now they want budget cuts (even if that mean sacfrificing customer service???) & they have made us go 6:1. The hospital I work at is in a poor community mostly populated by senior citizens or people receiving government aid. We see very few private insurance, but we see a ton of self-pay. This has to effect the bottom line & don't they know that? Anyone out there going through similar situations at their hospital & what steps are being taking to improve the budget?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiac.

Similar situation here.Just heard they are uping our ration just in time for us to start computer charting..like that will make my job easier!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Tele, ICU, ED, Nurse Instructor,.

At the facility I work, I believe they are making some similar changes. Now I work in a Resource Pool. I dont belong to a unit, I just float between them. Some units are not hiring nurses or CNA's because the nurse managers and director want the big bonuses. I feel this should not be tolerated and NM/directors wondering why they are unable to keep staff on their units. I know most changes come from corporate but it really hurting our nurses.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I know most changes come from corporate but it really hurting our nurses.

You are so right. I came in last night to the latest staffing grid change & as I protested I could feel the eyes from the staff on me. I come to find out that all day the staff was completely overwhelmed because the day RP is a total "yes man" & just kept taking more patients. They were glad someone finally said something, but now I'm afraid my big mouth will get me into hot water for bucking the system.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in M/S, Travel Nursing, Pulmonary.
At the facility I work, I believe they are making some similar changes. Now I work in a Resource Pool. I dont belong to a unit, I just float between them. Some units are not hiring nurses or CNA's because the nurse managers and director want the big bonuses. I feel this should not be tolerated and NM/directors wondering why they are unable to keep staff on their units. I know most changes come from corporate but it really hurting our nurses.

Not a problem here. Everyone is holding onto their jobs as like a hungry wolf to meat. With my facility, its gotten to the point where they don't even ask what we think is best. They just announce the changes, and if you don't like it.......tuff, saves them from laying you off anyway.

Admin. and management keep saying they are trying to hire more CNAs to help with care quality, and there are jobs posted in the HR section of the website, but DO NOT believe that song and dance. I know personally two different people who have applied for CNA positions, good workers who were out of the field for a year or two (because they didn't need to work, not fired or anything like that) and they never got called. Its just a smoke screen to make us think they are interested in pt. care. And I am far from being the only one who knows people who applied and were not contacted.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

@eriksoln this practice of posting jobs and never filling them is rampant out in the other job markets.I have no idea why they do this, except to have a continuous flow of applications to pick over. Maybe it is required by law or contract that all openings must be published to the public, when HR is really waiting for an intra-facility transfer request.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in medical/telemetry/IR.

its awfull where I'm at too.

I'm down in Interventional radiology. Our upper management seems to like to fire the little people-transporters, assistants.

lost like 5 transporters in last few months. management just posted the job opening like a few weeks ago. I just get so frustrated with upper management. I really have no idea what they do. guess they don't know what I do either.

our dept has gotten so busy its not even funny. guy had to wait 5 hrs to get back the other day for a G tube replacement-it takes like 15 min to replace one.

we are short nurses-we had horrible rash of pregnancies, and FMLA. we constantly work short.

so in short my little dept is saving money by not rehiring people when they leave. If you are alittle transporter that makes 9/hr or a assistant that helps with stocking/ordering/etc and make very little -nope not going to replace.

so don't freaken talk to me about the scores. I don't really care about your damn scores.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

To Corporate: You and your policies SUCK! Without your employees you are just a bunch of starched shirts and panty hose! Without the employees who serve the health of the public, you would be looking for work like 25% of the country is! Find ways to obtain donations for the sole purpose of keeping the staff you have. You cannot cut service in a now service oriented industry. Remember the early 80's? Find other ways to lower overhead than not filling needed positions. You cannot have it both ways.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Geriatrics.

I work LTC, you would not believe the cuts we've undergone. At one point they shut off hot water at night (try washing a confused LOL with cold water when they've had an accident), Cut hours on one Nurse per unit per shift between 7AM & 11PM, (you still have to do 8hrs work but now you have to do it in 6), I have heard of people finding short pays and having to fight for the difference, you get written up if you punch out past the 15 minute time limit after work (if your hours are 7AM to 3PM you have until 3:15 to punch out or trouble), cut laundry staff (no face cloths to wash bottoms on 11 to 7), no snacks for residents, and at one point they tried to limit the amount of fluids we could pass during each med pass. The list is growing every day! State is coming in soon, hope they step down bigtime on these cuts!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Laundry people are hit really hard. They cut their hours, which makes laundry part of CNA work. Our laundry folks are very worried because they dont know more than one week to the next if they will get enough hours to live on at minimum wage.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Were have been short as well!! "Don't have a nice word to say anything about her--So i won't," lol Assoc. CNO came in a month back and state dover that she knew we were super short, blah blah blah------then 5 min later she stated pour HCAP scores were down and Pt Falls were Up, and she stated she could figure out why!! Weren't we not just talking baout being short staffed less than 5 min ago?? lol They go on and on and on about how important HCAP scores are, but are not willing to staff the floor properly and safely! Typical stick your head in the sand management! Care more about the stock prices then the pts!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in pediatric.

On my floor, charge nurse no longer gets a 1$ incentive, and now they are taking anywhere from 1-3pts...so basically, we DONT have a charge nurse to help facilitate and assist sometimes cuz they are busy with their OWN patients!

Its because of this whole budget crisis that I am still a CNA with my BSN and RN since last may....they cant afford to hire new grads, they arn't replacing those who go on maternity leave and they are cutting corners everywhere!!! not safe....

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion