Long Term Care Cutbacks

noc4senuf · Oct 4, 2011

I must say, I am blessed. Even with the cuts, I was able to add another supervisor. I entered my new building in Jan of this year. Wow, they rented equipment left and right. Thousands were going out each month on this equip. I put a fast stop to it and purchased what was needed ( bariatric beds, low air loss mattresses, computers, etc) before the end of the fiscal year last month. The reason I was able to add a sup.... they were not recouping on restorative. They were doing it but, had no one to sign off on it... now they do. I also have the sups completing end of month med sheets, since it was taking two nurses OT for 4 days to do so. Money saved got me the sup. Our insurance has been kept low ($37 every other wk for a single plan). There has not been Medicaid raises in our state for 4 yrs, so no raises for managment or those topped out. No staff have been cut. I run a ratio of 1:7 or 8 on the TCU and secure unit; and 1: 8 or 9 on the LTC for CNA's. We are in a 3 yr grant with the state that covers all my education hours and OT to complete them.

itthybitthythpider · Oct 8, 2011

Cheaper supplies, cutting out unnecessary supplies. They don't pay for over time. HUGE focus on therapy, so we have to bend over backwards for them to get minutes in. Skeleton crew for CNAs. No holiday pay for this fiscal year.

Luckily, no pay cuts. And we aren't desparate for residents and admits

katoline · Oct 14, 2011

noc4senuf, where are you located? i wanna go there!

maybe you should become a consultant and get things started in the right direction!!!

noc4senuf · Oct 14, 2011

MN... I started as an independent consultant in my building and was hired permanently. They were a Special Focus Facility and came off that list the last suvey with only 4 "D" tags.

morte, LPN, LVN · Oct 14, 2011

I came across this before i left for work this am. Oh ug! What next?
WASHINGTON - As the deficit reduction supercommittee hunts for $1.5 trillion in additional savings, US hospital executives are so worried about having their payments cut that they plan to start lobbying Congress next week to shift the burden onto their elderly patients - specifically by raising the age of eligibility for Medicare.
The American Hospital Association is rallying hundreds of hospital leaders to descend upon the Capitol on Tuesday and urge legislators to consider increasing the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 as one way to save money without reducing payments to hospitals. That move is so controversial that President Obama, who once expressed a willingness to entertain the change in Medicare age eligibility, omitted it from his deficit-reduction proposal last week.

I have no problem with this at all. SS eligiblity age is going up (as it should have been doing anyway, for YEARS) why shouldn't the medicare eligibility age??

mikeylikesitwhew · Oct 24, 2011

horrible , forcing u out the door almost at shift end, write ups for overtime incompleted work outside 8 hrs, supplies not being ordered, staff layoff, higher aquity patients less staffing

Nurse_Wretched · Apr 20, 2012

Staffing cuts with very few pay raises...then they hold one useless meeting after another! LOL 30 minutes here and 45 minutes there. I never show up for any of it. I am helping them save money! Yeah, that's why I never show up to meetings. Haha.

Kittypower123, BSN, RN · Apr 20, 2012

We all need to become more politically active. The government seems to have enough money for some questionable things. There should be enough to care for people who have worked and paid taxes their whole lives.

How, specifically, can we do this? I agree, we need to make ourselves heard, I just don't know how to do that.