Is your wife's hospital a Joint Commission hospital? Meaning is it certified as being compliant to receive Medicaid and Medicare payments from the Government? If so then the patient to nurse ratio is established by The Joint Commission and the hospital dare not deviate from the Joint Commission's standard or they will not be "deemed" compliant and will not be paid by Medicaid Medicare. The Joint Commission is HQ in Chicago and dropping a dime may be a good idea. Or at least doing some name dropping in another meeting. Have the wife do some research on The Joint Commission. Knowledge is power.

Gooser,
Perhaps a decent little short-term distraction, but probably not a good long-term solution! :-)

I'm going to stop working on my retention document this evening, so we can watch Game 7 of the NHL Playoffs.
The Ottawa Senators need to win to stay in. (So do the Islanders for that matter.) So we're going
to the pub to watch the game with friends.

Back at the nerve-wracking document tomorrow.

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"Remember, for every mile of road, there are two miles of ditch."

Bill MacTavish
Clayton, Ontario
'70 BRG Roadster 'Monty'
'69 Roadster parts car

I think you're confusing triage with audit.

The term comes from the French verb trier, meaning to separate, sift or select

Auditors were the people who counted ears after a battle in the roman days, presumably to divide by 2 to get heads. Even back in those days bean counters had to make it a little complicated.

---

Chris Howells

1968 MGB Purchased already dis-assembled which is why I'm often ignorant about what some parts are, and even more ignorant of where they go.

My God i feel the same way.im literarly foaming at the mouth. I shall return

........hydro phobia??? 1 800 PetMeds....

You’re lucky she was not fired for mouthing off.

Clearly she is in the crosshairs of management now that she was screaming at them. Who in management would tolerate insubordination such as that.
My advice would be to tell her keep quiet, unless she is willing to look for another job.
Number crunchers are reality that she needs to internalized, or leave

Hey Don, let me rephrase that to 'spoke up loudly' and if that is considered insubordination...! At close to 40 years workin' for the hospital she can walk tomorrow without qualms. You don't really think she would lose a pension or health benefits? Never offerred unless you opt for the company "pay your own" plan. Wife is plugging for those future nurses who we will all rely on sometime.

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"Not all who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien

Jim you must excuse Don,he never worked in a enviorment were workers could express there opinions without fear of reprisable. Besides you dont mess with a head nurse with 40 years on the job. Your wife is my hero,her dedication is to be admired,her courage to defend the well fare of her patients as well as the working conditions of the nurses in her charge is the utmost bravery. When i visit Cal. and if we ever meet you and your wife im going to buy her some flowers and thats no joke

The Number One job of the Professional Nurse is Patient Advocate. Sometimes the management types forget that and have to be reminded in not so subtle ways. Their priority is sometimes at odds with the nurse. Nurse Patient ratios are established to promote safe nursing care.

It is better to provide NO care than to provide POOR care.

when you put : next to P you get

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Jim K is a grease-stained wretch



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2012 08:39PM by Jim K.

WOW!!! $100,000!! Tore up my left knee badly several years ago. Ambulance ride (no life flight), surgery, 4 days in hospital, many visits with orthopedic surgeon and lots of physiotherapy. My direct cost....$325.00 for an articulated leg brace and a cane (which I claimed on my tax form as a medical expense). I don't know how folks can get by without medical insurance.

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Adventure before Dementia.
The older you get, the more important it is not to act your age.

...5 inch long and to the bone cut on my right leg playing touch football at age 8 at my grandmothers house....old sheet torn in pieces and packing tape...still have the scar and it's a 1/2 inch wide but the length has shrunk a bit...total cost....a bowl of ice cream and some asprins...

Worked in a Union shop for 31 years. It was for one of the worlds largest health care companys. I was also a shop steward for part of that time. I found the union harder to deal with than the company. At many step 3 & 4 disciplinary meetings I found myself thinking most of the time " If I was running this company I'd want to fire this person too!" 99% of the worker issues were caused by 2% of the people. Most of the managers I dealt with just wanted to get the product out the door and would bend over backwards just to have "peace". In 2002 the company anounced that there was a "package" they were offering for the new contract. It wasn't the greatest but it was OK. They said it was non-negotiable because of cost pressures from off shore competitors. The union went on strike for 8 weeks. We came back after all that time for the original offer. Two years later the facility was shut down, after over 50 years of operations. Production was sent to Brazil and China. The union lead us into a suicide pact.

This is not a union bashing thread,but since you brought it up let me say your correct Quote"99% of worker issus were caused by 2% of the people. Im a union memeber and still am since 1970. I was a steward for many years. Many times i accompanied members to disiplanary hearings and many times it was the same people,but not always. The point is you take the good with the bad. Its your job as steward to represent all members regaurdless how you feel personally about them. I do know just how you've felt. Your union made some bad choices but this much i can tell you if you think the union could have swayed the company to stay in the USA as opposed to China,i dont see how that is possible. Would you like to work under the same conditions as they do in China or for the same amount of money? It sounds like your company let the union push them around and that is because of bad management. The china move was sure to happen soon enough.

My wife has been a member of the New York State Nurses association for at least 35 years. In all that time ive never seen her union win any outrageous raises or benefits. Registered nurses who work in hospitals break there ass's taking care of there patients. They put long hours in and are either on there feet constanly or superviseing staff. Most hospitals would and do run rough shod over nurses if not for some sort of representation.The issue comes down to can workers in a particular field form a organization which will represent there best issues. When a worker contributes dues to support this organization one benefit is legal representation if needed. This does not come free. The organization can support politicians aligned with there views and they can lobby for better wages and benefits. I believe that the right to organize is covered in the Consitution. I believe all those who in the past have mentioned the current POTUS and Hitler/nazi in the same breath for the most part are anti-union and against workers forming organizations to rep/help them. I cannot understand how anyone can mention the word nazi (and im hearing it again)yet deny workers the right to join a union,it is hypocrisy of the highest degree. Once upon a time there was a forum member,he was a decent enough person but he held a opinion. He employed trades workers who were employed and lived in a state which was expensive to live in,similar to NYC. He paid these journey men about 40 grand a year,no sick time and miniumal benefits. He felt that since these workers made 40 grand a year no other worker anywere should make more specifically govt/muncipal employees. He in his mind passed judgement and that was that. I wondered who set his salary since i felt no CEO should make more than three times that journeyman but no surprise that was different. A union was not needed he told the un-knowing immigrant workers the govt would protect you he said. When the current hopeful for the GOP nomination gave his victory speech the other night ne talked about Americans working for less salary and how that was a shame. In the next breath he mentioned no union worker should have to have there dues go to support canidates that they in particular would not vote for. Now i'll be honest,im not that smart,ive had my grammer questioned and ive been put down by forum members because of it,but i know this much. If we keep supporting politicians who say these things while they accept money from companies who go overseas to make there products and these very same politicians sell you this line that its the unions fault were going to pay a price and a big one at that. Middle class America will just be a dream,your kids will go to college and garduate to un employment. The trades will be reduced to slightly above minium wage. There will be less manurfactoring than there is now because we cant live on twenty dollar a day. You get unlucky enough to get sick and be admited to that hospital were Jim's wife works,you'll never see a nurse. Goodnight and God bless

...ain't that typical...a union slacker up till all hours of the night jibber jabbering,then when he gets only a few hours of sleep and is worthless on the job the next day...he will still get over paid the same,and have a lot of "do overs" too,shameful....

Isnt that funny!!! few hours sleep?? is that you best argument?? You phony old fool,i can out work you any day of the week on four hours sleep a night.

somehow i have a feeling that this thread won't be long for this world. jim when you can get a word in try and let us know how your wife is doing with her "mission".

Drake,

Oh ye of little faith......the NRA thread has gone to 9 pages and the debate is vehement but reasoned, no-one has gone outside the guidelines, and it's actually pleasing to witness.

We have exactly the same problem in Aus with understaffing issues in the health sector but when workers livelihoods are threatened, our unions flex REAL muscle.

It's when I look at your minimum wage scenario that I have doubts about how hard the unions go to bat for the worker. Hourly rate in Aus is about $15, time and a half and double time for overtime. Shift penalties for afternoon and night shift. Weekend penalties can take those rates to between $22.50 and $30 per hour. If it's a public holiday then it goes up to $37.50 per hour.

And yes it's sending a lot of manufacturing jobs to China, but you can't send Hospitality jobs to China. An 18 year old student working as a casual waiter can knock out $480 on a non-holiday weekend, without tips........which is fine because in general we are a non-tipping society.

I see the USA as potentially so ripe for a People's Revolt because of the entrenched greed of Corporate America, under the guise of increasing shareholder value that I'm surprised it hasn't already happened.

The outbreak of Mad Cow in the USA further highlights this Corporate greed.........where in heaven's name did they get the idea that cattle are carvnivores or cannibals?

And then there is "Pink slime", (lean finely textured beef), offcuts and offal that used to be used for pet food is now treated with ammonia gas or citric acid to kill salmonella and other life threatening (to humans) diseases and they're now using it as filler to pad out foods such as supermarket hamburgers and sausages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_slime

Sometimes I think they're trying to do away with the lot of you.

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Chris Howells

1968 MGB Purchased already dis-assembled which is why I'm often ignorant about what some parts are, and even more ignorant of where they go.

No truer words were ever spoken...

Wife is an ICU nurse and the stories over the years are unreal. Talk about eating your own kind, the nurse union spends more time on witch hunts than anything else. Nursing management seems more focused on sucking up to the hospital chiefs than managing the nursing staff in any positive way.

As to the nursing union, they are no better in that it is largely a female run thing. Nurses would do a lot better if they joined one of the real unions like the autowrkers or teamsters.

chris, i will always be ready for a revolution.