Hospitals treatment of it's workers

It seems like Novant is going the way of their competitor the Wal-Mart of hospitals (CHS). The sad part is that the amount of hands on care staff has a direct effect on the outcomes of illness, Injuries and surgeries. Cutting 22% of this kind of staff will cause some changes in patient care. The problem with healthcare is it went from a service to a business and a really lucrative one at that for the hospital administrators and VP and the non-medical personnel. Why to we have repeat services like 20 or more MRIs in 25 miles? The answer is repeated services=$$$$$. I am sick of all the money wasted on high tech advertisements trying to tell us our hospital is better than the other hospital. Good old word of mouth can and will work just as effective. Give a hospital without the bells and whistles and fancy furniture that give me GREAT care, over a big luxury hotel looking hospital that gives mediocre care at best. Think about it someone came up with the simple idea if we say it enough you will believe it example (EXCELLENT CARE”. If you go to one of the hospital systems I am sure you will hear or see it. Hey don’t just give me the appearance of “Excellent care just give me the real thing. Oh but wait, in order to provide that care you would have to increase the staffing of which you are getting rid of((the hands on services). If hospitals were really interested in “Patient First” then the systems would work together and not repeat survives. I think it’s great to have all these cancer centers. But what if we just had one main super center that all the funds and research and high tech testing devices and medications would go to. The money we could save, and the lives we could make easier would be tremendous. If the location was not convenient provide transport, you could even build actual hotel accommodations for families, and still save money and funds. If we would think more about specializing and supplying the needs of the people instead of fighting among the systems we all would be better off.. As for now we must support Novant, otherwise the 2nd largest healthcare system, the VA being the largest, will take over this area like a vortex sucking in everything in sight. Remember how we use to support our local community hospitals and now they have changed their name and became part of a larger system. While they are telling the staff to tighten their belts and work with less staff and still provide the “EXCELLENT CARE” they are still building new centers to repeat services, while the administrators are still making big$$$$ and “bonus”. I am sorry for my rambling. But I want to challenge all of us the next time you go to the hospital for you or loved one, regardless of whatever unit it is ask the nurse, or the PR folks “WHAT IS YOUR NURSE/PATIENT RATIO”? Don’t be surprise is your nurse is lost for words, no nurse wants to have the patient or family loose confidence, but then they will not lie. So it may put them on a spot. But the public demand is the only way we are going to sustain enough staff to provide “EXCELLENT CARE”. Nobody who provides your care has intentions to give you poor care. However humans working with the lives and care of other humans have limits to what they can do. So please don’t blame a nurse for your substandard care if you do receive it. They are doing the best with what they have, be it supplies, energy,.or just plain compassion….

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said, "Someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people, one to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created two positions, a time keeper and a payroll officer, then hired two people.

Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, an Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year, and we are $918,000 over budget. We must cut back." So they fired the night watchman.