staffing cuts

imintrouble, BSN, RN · Aug 3, 2011

I'm not LTC, but in the hospital we've been experiencing serious cuts for about the last 3-4 months. To the bone cuts. Cuts that have caused nurses to quit because of the work load.

Administration cuts HOURS when possible. I mean sending people home early, not just calling them off for census. Morale is awful. You can only work people to exhaustion so long before they give out. Or give up.

Flo., BSN, RN · Aug 3, 2011

I work in the hospital and it has been brutal. They are changing our staffing matrix so we will have more patients and less support staff. We are already understaffed as it is. Lots of low voluming going on too. But then they are remodeling the whole hospital. Apparently that comes out of a different budget. Hmm which one actually makes patients safer. Maybe they ought to cut from the remodeling budget seeing that within the last 10yrs the whole hospital was already revamped. Oh and no raises again this year. I am getting so close to quitting nursing all together. Too much corporate greed.

drmorton2b · Aug 3, 2011

11.1% Medicare cut for SNFs google it. The outcomes are not going to be good. This is a CMS ruling

CareteamRN70 · Aug 3, 2011

So Far my LTC hasn't made any cuts that I as a floor nurse can see....but we have been understaffed since Ive worked there.

The corp head has sent out emails to the staff about the cut in medicare with mention of belt tightening, "creative" cost saving measures, and how it is all of our obligation to pitch in...talk about slowly pulling the bandaid off..

Only thing I have noticed is that in our rehab section we have started getting more pts that to me aren't really in the rehab category...used to be pacu and step down pts from hospital that needed a few weeks to rehab/pt/ot then go home...now most are better canidates for LTC in SNF ie dementia, TBI, failure to thrive with no outside support system.

I think the idea of a filled bed...any bed is one of the ways my facility is covering the bottom line.

pixie120 · Aug 4, 2011

So Far my LTC hasn't made any cuts that I as a floor nurse can see....but we have been understaffed since Ive worked there.
The corp head has sent out emails to the staff about the cut in medicare with mention of belt tightening, "creative" cost saving measures, and how it is all of our obligation to pitch in...talk about slowly pulling the bandaid off..
Only thing I have noticed is that in our rehab section we have started getting more pts that to me aren't really in the rehab category...used to be pacu and step down pts from hospital that needed a few weeks to rehab/pt/ot then go home...now most are better canidates for LTC in SNF ie dementia, TBI, failure to thrive with no outside support system.
I think the idea of a filled bed...any bed is one of the ways my facility is covering the bottom line.

Low census in all SNF's, all taking in the difficult clients that wreck havoc on the care staff (Bariatric, younger/more demanding and not easily satisfied, and dementia/elderly with fall risk/behaviors). This makes it very hard to rehab folks from the hospital, no one wants a wanderer in their room at night, no one wants a roommmate, they all want private rooms (don't blame them eitjher) and support staff not replaced when quit, so of course, nursing does all the work. Gee, this was LTC 10 years ago, and more surveyors than ever, with more documentation than ever, and meetings....who has time for patient care? Heads on the bed, even without legit payor source, to satisfy the bank/loan, seems like slum lord management, and I am shocked that surveyors are allowing it...oh yeah, not shocked, what was I thinking, they are just trying to justify their 85,000 plus pension jobs, on the backs of the elderly. Shocking all the way around.