ToddMSRRT

It depends on the laws in your state. In NY the court has determined that those "contracts" equate to indentured servitude" and therefore not able to be enforced. The hospitals many times use those contracts to fill positions/units that are traditionally very difficult to fill. Hospitals also bank on the fact that you will not seek out the help of an attorney and guilt you into paying, however in 27+ yrs, I have never seen or heard of one being enforced. Check into the state laws.

Charges have nothing to do with revenue.

Hello Folks- For those of you that work with tracheostomy patients (specifically those with disposable inner cannulas) what is the practice standard of changing the inner cannula? When I looked for the evidence based practice information, basically what I found is that there is little to support anything but institutional preference or manufacturers recommendations. The problem is that in my setting (LTC) the inner cannulas because of lack of buying power are very expensive ($11.00 each) We went to a process of Q week and PRN about 6 months ago and have had 0 issues in 24 patients. The patency of the cannula is checked several times a day by the Respiratory Therapist and the nurses, rinsed as needed and changed when the caregiver thinks it is needed and weekly. I am interested in any thoughts or experiences.... Thank you