Taking your benefits away one by one

[JJ the crit RN]

Our non profit was bought by a Chinese investing group a few years ago, to add to the main owner's growing monopoly of hospitals. We'd heard he was cheap, cheap cheap, but didn't understand how much so until the years had passed. There was an understanding that any major changes wouldn't happen for 5 years. At first it was all great- massage therapist coming to the floor mid shift, sushi day in the cafeteria. Then we started hearing about things like "cost" and "profit." The gloves got replaced- thin and ripped when you pulled them on. The IV caths changed into this weird thing that you couldn't advance because they were long and clumsy instead of sleek and easy to use. Waves of people got pink slips. Great doctors disappeared while the crabby, awful ones stayed, and what looks like mobs of new grad doctors started filling the ranks. The worst though, probably just happened. Last year our health care option changed to HMO only. No longer could we find our own doctors, we had to stay with the local bozos. This year, pages and pages of medications are no longer covered including chemo and other cancer medications. If it costs, it's dropped. During an employee forum we were told to pick up Obama care or if nothing else, find a new job.

I'm sorry for the long post but I've worked for this place for quite some years and am sorely disappointed at the direction it's taken. I hear other such stories across the nursing network about how hospitals have come to regard their employees as little more than profit fodder. As an employee in a healthcare organization I expect much more in regard to medical coverage and am insulted to get bare bones coverage and then told to find another job if I don't like it.

My question- are other nurses getting the same treatment? Or is our owner truly that one irredeemable Scrooge who delights in watching the crippled kid suffer?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

My question- are other nurses getting the same treatment?

I am definitely not getting this treatment at my workplace.

1. The gloves are nice, sturdy and non-latex
   
2. The benefits are affordable and my employer assumes most of the cost
   
3. The supplies are generally decent quality
   

[caliotter3]

You are not alone in this. A sign of the times. Not anything new, just occurring more often.

[817nurse]

My BS meter is ringing off the hook. Something about the OP is off, as if the story is partly or completely embellished.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

WHY would a Chinese investment group purchase a non-profit?

Someone must explain to me. Non-profit/investment??

Makes no sense.

[applewhitern, BSN, RN]

Perhaps I am gullible, but this post didn't sound "off" to me. I have worked in hospitals that were so cheap, we had to bring our own coffee cups because we weren't allowed to use the disposable ones! Perhaps it was a "non-profit" before it was sold, but apparently it isn't non-profit anymore. I have worked at two different hospitals that went bankrupt, were sold, and turned into profit makers.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Yep, I've seen it, dealt with it......and found a new employer :)

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Yup...I've seen it and they we US born and bred.

Sad sign of the times. Frankly I bought my own gloves.

[JJ the crit RN]

My BS meter is ringing off the hook. Something about the OP is off, as if the story is partly or completely embellished.

What a sweet and thoughtful post. My story is in fact completely true, though I left out the fact that the sushi and massages disappeared.

[JJ the crit RN]

WHY would a Chinese investment group purchase a non-profit?

Someone must explain to me. Non-profit/investment??

Makes no sense.

They turned it into a corporate for-profit hospital, therefore the cheap supplies and cheaper equipment. And the lack of care for employees.

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

We are slowly but surely losing ours as well. So far our supplies have not been affected, but our insurance rates are up, lost over 500hrs of set aside "sick" time (and wasn't paid for a dime of those hours), raises were slashed (and they were pathetic to begin with, shift differential hours were changed and decreased, etc. Not all employers are like this, but as they all merge together we will find more and more of this. Sorry things are so bad where you are. I would start looking elsewhere because anyone with senority surely is next to be on the chopping block. I'm biding my time while in school.

[caliotter3]

WHY would a Chinese investment group purchase a non-profit?

Someone must explain to me. Non-profit/investment??

Makes no sense.

They turned it into a corporate for-profit hospital, therefore the cheap supplies and cheaper equipment. And the lack of care for employees.

This is what I thought. Thanks for the clarification.