New Management Is Killing Me

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The long term care facility where I work has just been sold to a major nationwide firm. They are making so many changes to policy and staffing. In the past we were a little 130 bed skilled nursing facility. They want to rip out a nurses station to turn it into a pharmacy, turn a whole wing into a family practice clinic, move all of our business and accounting offices into the current lobby area. They also want to rip the old dining room and open up and expand the activities area. They are talking about turning some of our patient rooms into offices. The whole place is going to be a giant mess very shortly:angryfire . In the past we have worked 8 hour shifts from 6a-2p, 2p-10p, and 10p-6a. Everyone worked these shifts. Now they tell us that we have to send two of the 2nd shift CNA's home at 8p to cut waste. We also have to send home the CMA at 10p when she used to leave at 11p. However they allow one woman to work 17 straight days with three doubles. We have no supplies and we have no help as it is. I am getting sick and tired of this facility and their budget cutting and how they are cutting patient care to improve the bottom line. The nursing staff is really begining to hate working there. We liked it the way it used to be. The board put up with administrators who drove us into the ground and we were 15 million dollars in debt. I am going to college in a few months and I plan on quiting so I won't have to deal with it much longer. I just needed to vent. Thanks for listening.

Specializes in Med-Surg.

Good luck in school Chad. Same thing happened at my spouses hospital. He worked for a nice small community hospital and a greedy corporation came in and ruined it all for them.

Sounds like a terrible position to be in....... It is to bad that greedy corporations like that make for such inhospitable working conditions just to save a buck or two....

Wouldn't be north port would it?

It's a company from Florida. Feel much better having ranted. LOL @ myself. :)

We liked it the way it used to be. The board put up with administrators who drove us into the ground and we were 15 million dollars in debt.

And uhhhhhhhhh....you expected that the new company bought the facility to lose another 15 million? :uhoh21:

Ahhh the good ol days. I worked in Long Term Care for nearly 20 years (oh God) and it was the same way. Don't even think of going to another facility because they are all the same. You may find one that seems ok now but give it a few months... you will be in the exact same boat. You have a new management company in there trying to raise reimbursement to snag some of that 15 million dollar loss. They cut supply spending to take care of in house folks but spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to impress those "just walking thru". My last facility gave us one box of gloves per shift per unit. That was 100 gloves for 30 patients, 4 staff members, 4 rounds, and not to mention the miscellaneous uses such as eye drops. We got one trach care kit for 24 hours! But they spent over $200 thousand just on new art. $850 on an ice cart.... CART NOT machine! It had an awning! They paid local painters thousands to "theme each unit". Needless to say our infection rates went thru the roof! But we looked like an apple orchard or a day at the beach! I left to move to another city. We had staff leaving that had been there for 15-20 years. Within 6 mos. of my leaving they were staffed with LPN applicants. The shift supervisors were also applicants. The only licensed personnel in the place was administration, and the desk jockeys (MDS and Care Plan coordinators). Glad it was their license and not mine.

It is all geography!!! Get out, look for a real job and good luck in school.

Don't get me wrong. I loved long term care and especially the higher acuity patients we had on skilled and subacute. But the system does not work, and until some of Washington is forced to endure what they have put into place it will never change.

It is to the point of reducing resident care. I wouldn't want to be a resident in my facility. They have reduced the quality of care, food, care supplies, briefs, and staffing. I would rather work short and take a pay cut than have my residents suffer the consequences of the former board which is what is happening. By all means I am glad to see them and their help but it is like Nitengale326 said, they are cutting care items and spending money on things we don't need. They bought brand new copy and fax machines to replace ones that were maybe 6 months old. We got new medicine and treatment carts for each unit which we didn't need, the old ones worked and looked fine. We paid someone to build a facility website and had a huge open house for the community to tour the facility, not a soul showed up:rotfl: . However we are only being given toothettes, razors, shaving cream, and green all-purpose soap for as far as care goes. The residents deserve better, they worked their entire lives paying medicare and medicaid and now they deserve to get what they payed for.

these are all the things you can do to take back control and improve resident care.

the best defense is a good offense

It is to the point of reducing resident care. I wouldn't want to be a resident in my facility. They have reduced the quality of care, food, care supplies, briefs, and staffing. I would rather work short and take a pay cut than have my residents suffer the consequences of the former board which is what is happening. By all means I am glad to see them and their help but it is like Nitengale326 said, they are cutting care items and spending money on things we don't need. They bought brand new copy and fax machines to replace ones that were maybe 6 months old. We got new medicine and treatment carts for each unit which we didn't need, the old ones worked and looked fine. We paid someone to build a facility website and had a huge open house for the community to tour the facility, not a soul showed up:rotfl: . However we are only being given toothettes, razors, shaving cream, and green all-purpose soap for as far as care goes. The residents deserve better, they worked their entire lives paying medicare and medicaid and now they deserve to get what they payed for.

Chad,

You are your resident's best advocate; if you feel this strongly that there is wrong-doing, you should be telling someone other than the people in this group. The number for your area Ombudsman should be posted in the facility- give them a call and be very factual.

Get Notebook And Write Down Everything And Encourage Family Members To Call Ombudsman And If There Are Grounds To Call State Inspectors Do So....usually These People Know How To Skirt The Law So That They Are Just (barely) On The Right Side....i Have Seen Facilities That Had New Sheets That Were Only Pulled Out At Inspection Times...same With Personal Items...evryone Had Toothpaste And Soap When State Was In Building...i Hope That These People Wind Up In A Facility Like The One They Ran

Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

Chad-

I've worked LTC for years too...but one thing...the residents we have now did NOT work their whole lives paying into Medicare or Medicaid. WE are footing the bill for them with what we pay now....

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