You think your staffing is bad....

hope3456, ASN, RN · Jul 26, 2005

A local nursing home has been shut down. Staffing issues were just a small piece of it.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_357055.html
Medicare fraud, falsifying documentation, neglect, manslaughter......you name it. They have charged the Adm and DON.

It is great to know the system is actually working (at least in pennsylvania). The admin actually being held accountable...I have known far to many who think they are invinsible and care about nothing more than profit margins

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Jul 26, 2005

I've been following this story and a few other local ones....what bugs me is that this went on for soooooo long until a resident died after wondering outside..they brought her in and tried to make it that she died in bed. Sick.

NurseyBaby'05, BSN, RN · Jul 26, 2005

Yes, but for this to come to fruition, it took a resident getting locked out in the cold (inadvertantly, because a door was propped open), dying and "rewarmed" in bed after they found her b/c they told her family that she died "peacefully in her sleep." The staff did this per orders from above. Oh, they had to falsify the records too. Family came in and noticed that the heat was cranked up unbelieveably high and began to question what had gone on.:angryfire If that woman had not died or it had been another person who did not have anyone advocating for her, how much longer would their bad practices continued?

I'm not trying to bash LTC nurses. They do an awesome job:bowingpur and I would love to do it. I just can't see putting my license and livelihood on the line every time I go to work. This case is a drastic example, but in general, I have seen very poor working conditions in LTC's and no hope of it improving in the near future.

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Jul 26, 2005

Nurseybaby...I'm in your area, too. There are good faclities around:uhoh21: Im in LTC rightn now. What kills me is that this was "the best" facility for alz care...we had a few of ours leave to go to this place:uhoh21:

NurseyBaby'05, BSN, RN · Jul 26, 2005

That is unbelievable. I'm just surprised at how many people wound up working under those conditions. You know that a lot of other things must have been happening along the way for something like that incident to come to a head.

I know there are some good ones. But even in the good one's it's all you can do to come up for air before the s*&^ hits the fan again. Maybe I'm daunted by the sheer numbers in the nurse to pt ratios. I keep forgetting that most of these people aren't "sick." I keep thinking of my med-surg pt's in the hospital combined with those numbers and can't even begin to fathom it.

Sorry for the hijack, BTW.

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Jul 26, 2005

One more hijack...

I work in a smaller facility. Some weeks it is incredibly slow even with my 24 pts, others its crazy. As far as the sick people, unfortunatly, we get our share. I've gotten some post ops that should have been on a med surg floor, some nights I'm hanging triples on at least 5 or six residents, a few weeks ago we had a dobutamine drip:uhoh21: Not to mention the wound care and look out flu or pneumonia season...I'd die to have a respiratory therapist back.

When the kids get older....I'd love to move to med surg or try something else....

We have soooo many opportunities in our area:)

NurseyBaby'05, BSN, RN · Jul 27, 2005

One more hijack...
....We have soooo many opportunities in our area:)

Amen to that! What if that Atrium facility was the only game in town for nurses in this area? :eek:

I really lucked out. My floor is a Neuro step-down with a splash of med-surg thrown in for good measure. (They tend to frown on empty beds during slow times. :rolleyes: ) I'm glad to be able to start in an area I find so fascinating. When I mention working in Neuro though I usually get this look . . . . .:barf01: .

Do you know there's hospitals around here that have weekend programs where you work 2 12's on Sat & Sun and are off the rest of the week? The wages are the same as if you worked regular full time and you get full time bennies. The other nice thing about working in one of those facilities is that if you don't do the weekend program, you work Mon-Fri and have the weekends off. I'm not sure how young your kiddos are, but it might be something worth looking into.

Mandylpn · Jul 30, 2005

A local nursing home has been shut down. Staffing issues were just a small piece of it.
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/search/s_357055.html
Medicare fraud, falsifying documentation, neglect, manslaughter......you name it. They have charged the Adm and DON.

Is there more to the story? How do we find out more, I mean, more or other articles? :uhoh21:

CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN · Jul 30, 2005

OMG...there is more. Both of the local papers have daily stories.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette and Pittsburgh Tribune Review. Ill try to post links.