Saint Catherine of Siena Medical Center Strike
<http://www.nysna.org/NEWS/current/stcath.htm>
02 March 2002 - Day 97
Saint Catherine¹s talks break down
SMITHTOWN, Feb. 27, 2002 Negotiations to end the 94-day-old registered nurses strike at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center broke down at 6:30 this morning over terms of a return-to-work agreement. Hospital negotiators are demanding several provisions that are not only unreasonable, but illegal. For this reason, the nurses are filing charges of unfair labor practice. The outraged nurses will picket in front of the offices of the Diocese of Rockville Center on Thursday starting at noon. They have continued to maintain a picket line in front of the hospital during this stage of negotiations. The 475 RNs are represented by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA). They have been on strike since Nov. 26, 2001, fighting for better working conditions and safe patient care. Their contract expired on May 15, 2001. ...
Parade for Safe Patient Care: The "Red Storm" Sweeps Through Smithtown
SMITHTOWN, NY More than 500 striking registered nurses from St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center and their supporters came out for a community parade through Smithtown on the sunny afternoon of Saturday, February 16. An appropriate mix of fun and business, the parade gave nurses an opportunity to make the community aware of their concerns about forced overtime, while showing St. Catherine¹s management that their incredible spirit is unbreakable. With the nurses wearing their bright red sweatshirts bearing their motto: "Whatever it takes, for as long as it takes," the mile-long march started at the intersection of Main Street and Lawrence Avenue in busy downtown Smithtown. As the chanting nurses walked by, employees and patrons of local businesses came out to see what all the commotion was about and to cheer them. Some of the nurses were handing out leaflets to passers-by, detailing the issues in the 12-week-old contract dispute. Traveling behind was a float emblazoned with a large "83" signifying the number of days the nurses have been on strike and a five-piece band, playing pop oldies, rock and roll, and even some reggae with lyrics changed to fit the event. Behind the float were representatives of many local unions and organizations that support the nurses in their fight for safe patient care. They included nursing students from Suffolk County Community College, who have honored the strike line from day one by refusing to conduct their clinical rotations at St. Catherine¹s. ...
Striking Nurses Hold Rally
<http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ny-linurs172591782feb17.story>
Sumathi Reddy, Newsday, February 17, 2002
A sea of red and white, hundreds of striking nurses from St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center snaked through downtown Smithtown yesterday, calling for better patient care and an end to forced overtime. It was part parade, part protest as the nurses and their supporters joined a band in singing patriotic songs with a union twist, blew noisemakers and emphatically waved signs and balloons. "The union makes strong," they sang, leaving a line of snarled traffic in their wake, some cars honking in support, others out of frustration. The parade marked the 83rd day that 474 nurses have been on strike. ...
Nurses demonstrate in Smithtown parade
<http://www.tbrnewspapers.com>
Anna Demian, The Times of Smithtown, Saint James & Nesconset, February 20, 2002
Registered nurses on strike from St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown, as well as supporters, paraded down Main Street on Saturday forming a sea of red ‹ 500 strong. As police escorted the throng from Lawrence Avenue and Main Street down past the Bull along Route 25A and eventually to the hospital entrance, there were mixed reactions from the community. Some onlookers honked and waved enthusiastically in support, some were not interested, some were clearly not supportive, and still others were just upset about the traffic delay. Nurses weren¹t just walking. They danced to songs, with lyrics changed to reflect strike issues, spoke with passersby and handed out fliers. One of the main goals of the parade was to ³get the word out² about the last of the four major issues being actively debated by the two sides ‹ that of mandatory overtime. ...
In Strike Talks, A Snag? Or A Recess?
<http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-linurs0228.story>
Barbara J. Durkin, Newsday, February 28, 2002
It looked good that a settlement in the three-month-long strike by nurses at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center in Smithtown might be within reach, as negotiations stretched from 10 am Tuesday into the early morning hours yesterday. But by 6:30 am, the talks were over with no contract. Depending on whom you asked, the talks either broke down in an angry dispute over "return-to-work² issues or simply adjourned as a matter of course so negotiators could iron out remaining issues when they were fresh. The New York State Nurses Association, the union representing the 474 nurses who have been striking since November, said yesterday that it was filing unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board as a result of the latest talks. The main issue that ended the talks, the nurses' union said, is a hospital request that nurses who crossed the picket line would not face any union charges. Twenty-nine nurses have crossed the picket line since the strike began 94 days ago, union representative Michael Chacon said. All but three of them have resigned from the union, which means union charges cannot be lodged against them. ...
Save Waltham Hospital
DPH Issues Ruling that the Entire Waltham Hospital Is an Essential Service
Following a public hearing attended by more than 1300 citizens at Waltham High School on Feb. 11th, the Department of Public Heath has made a determination that supports the contention of the citizens who pleaded at the hearing that the hospital provides essential services vital to the health of the community. In a letter dated Feb. 11th to CareGroup CFO Joseph Dionisio, the DPH ruled that the entire hospital and all of its services are essential. The letter gives CareGroup 15 days to submit a plan that must address alternative access for EACH inpatient and ambulatory service that is currently offered at Deaconess-Waltham Hospital. The DPH letter states: "The Department has considered all of the comments received at the hearing and has examined the current utilization of the services, reviewed the capacity of alternative service sites to provide the services, travel times to alternative service delivery sites, and the clinical importance of local access to the service and finds, pursuant to 105 CMR 130.122(F), that the services that CareGroup contemplates discontinuing at the Hospital, are necessary for preserving access and health status in the hospital service area." The DPH ruling gives weight to arguments made by the Coalition to Save Waltham Hospital for state action to support efforts to keep the facility open so that the community is not harmed by a closure. For interviews with members of the Coalition to Save Waltham Hospital about the DPH ruling, contact Coleman Nee at 617-359-6000. To obtain a fax of the DPH letter, call David Schildmeier at 781-830-5717.
Editorial: Hopeful signs on Hope Ave.
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/opinion/edit02182002.htm>
Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 18, 2002
The past month has seen the Waltham community come together as never before in memory, joined in the mission to rescue our hospital. Just a week ago today, more than a thousand people testified with their presence on a frigid night at the Department of Public Health's public hearing at Waltham High School. Walthamites made their point with firmness and dignity, and a stream of good news seemed to flow from the hearing. Department of Public Health personnel say they have been moved by the logic of the testimony and the hundreds of letters they have received on the hospital's behalf. Their response to CareGroup's closure notice is expected this week. The Coalition to Save Waltham Hospital formed action committees to deal with the complex specifics of planning for assuming the responsibility of running the hospital. This is an incredible commitment and, if they are successful, generations of Walthamites will owe these people gratitude. If you want to express yours, here are their names: William Mulroy, MD, president; Dianne Koch, treasurer; Regina Rockefeller, clerk. Trustees: Maria Aviles, (chairman) Frederick Brasco, Wayne F. Brasco Sr, Martin Coleman, Patricia Camuti, RN; Maureen Chartier, Kelly Cooper, Flora D'Angio, Peter French, Ruth Gately, William Hassett, Francis Joyce, Douglas Keene, MD; Richard Lyons, MD; (vice chairman) Anthony Mangini; Patrice McDonald, RN; Margaret O'Connor, LPN; Michael D. Richmond, MD; Alam Virk, MD. Our Mayor and legislative delegation, along with coalition president Dr. William Mulroy, had their first meeting with the governor, who prior to this week, hadn't even been returning their phone calls. Though Acting Gov. Swift has emphasized she made no guarantee, supporters came out of the meeting with the feeling that the state will participate financially in a viable recovery plan. The City Council committed $2 million to back the effort, a positive step, though the details remain to be ironed out. ...
CareGroup to study plan to save Waltham hospital
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/walthospital02182002.htm>
Patrick Golden & Mary Timm Gomes, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 18, 2002
WALTHAM - CareGroup HealthCare Systems confirmed it has entered into negotiations with developer Roy MacDowell of Boulder Capital LLC and proponents for saving Deaconess-Waltham Hospital, but wants two weeks to study the plan. CareGroup released a brief written statement Friday that said the parent company wants "two weeks to assess the likelihood of a successful plan to operate the hospital and the parties' ability to close a transaction." ...
CareGroup may keep hospital open passed (sic) April: Consultants hired to see if rescue plan is viable
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/walthospital202192002.htm>
Shanley Stern, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 19, 2002
WALTHAM - Consultants will decide over the next 10 days whether or not a sustainable turnaround plan for the Deaconess-Waltham Hospital is possible if developer Roy MacDowell acquires the hospital property. The Hunter Group, a Florida-based consulting firm, was retained by hospital parent company CareGroup HealthCare Systems, the Coalition to Save Waltham Hospital and MacDowell, CareGroup officials said yesterday. CareGroup will keep the hospital open for an extra 60 days if the Hunter Group, along with two additional local consultants to be hired by the coalition and MacDowell, decide a workable business plan could be developed to push the hospital out of debt, MacDowell said. ...
City Council waits for state's decision
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/walthospital02192002.htm>
Patrick Golden, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 19, 2002
WALTHAM - A request to transfer $2 million in city funds to a special account that could be used to help Deaconess-Waltham Hospital probably won't be discussed at tonight's Committee of the Whole meeting. City Council must wait for word on whether or not the state Legislature will allow the city to loan money to the hospital. ...
Cancer center will remain open
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/dwcanc02202002.htm>
Shanley Stern, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 20, 2002
WALTHAM - The Deaconess-Waltham Hospital Oncology Center will not shut down if the hospital closes its doors as scheduled in April. Hospital parent company CareGroup Health Systems officials said they are in the process of finding a short-term or long-term partner to support the cancer center if the hospital closes. ...
DPH rules hospital service essential
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/dph02212002.htm>
Shanley Stern, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 21, 2002
WALTHAM - The Department of Public Health yesterday deemed all services at the Deaconess-Waltham Hospital essential for the community, the first decision rendered under a new state law. DPH officials said in a letter yesterday that hospital parent company CareGroup HealthCare Systems must submit an alternative access plan to the DPH within 15 days. ...
State: Hospital's services essential
The state Department of Public Health has declared that Deaconess-Waltham Hospital provides essential health care services, a determination that places the burden on the hospital's owner, CareGroup Healthcare System, to present detailed plans on how patients will receive care if the hospital closes as planned in April. CareGroup said the state's move, announced in a letter on Monday, was expected and that the company is prepared to meet this hurdle. ...
The Department of Public Health has heard the evidence and ruled that Waltham Hospital is ESSENTIAL to the greater Waltham community
Waltham Hospital provides essential medical services to Waltham and it's neighbors -- services like the Emergency Room, Psychiatric Care and Dialysis. Losing these services would jeopardize the health and safety of the residents of Greater Waltham, particularly the community's most vulnerable -- the elderly, chronically ill and uninsured.
CareGroup has given notice that they will close Waltham on April 11, 2002. But the Coalition to Save Waltham Hospital has developed a viable plan that would allow them to assume ownership of the hospital and thereby protect Waltham's health care safety net. All that is needed is some funding from the state and for CareGroup to negotiate with the coalition in good faith.
Hospital could win stay of execution: Consultants expected to rule on rescue plan in just over a week
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/dw02212002.htm>
Patrick Golden, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 21, 2002
WALTHAM - The grass-roots group trying to save Deaconess-Waltham Hospital expects to know by March 1 whether it has any chance of taking control of the Hope Avenue institution and guiding it toward profitability. That's when the consultant group hired by parent company CareGroup and the Coalition to Save Waltham Hospital expect to release its findings on whether the hospital could survive long-term under new ownership. Favorable news from the Florida-based Hunter Group in just over a week would likely trigger the creation of a detailed plan to transfer the hospital to local control by the end of May. But a negative Hunter Group reaction could all but ensure Deaconess-Waltham will shut its doors for good on April 11. ...
City solicitor says state could grant Waltham permission to loan hospital money
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/walthospital02222002.htm>
Patrick Golden, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 22, 2002
WALTHAM - City Solicitor Robert Pilicy told Mayor David Gately he thinks the city has enough legal standing to ask the state Legislature for special permission to loan money to Deaconess-Waltham Hospital. The City Council voted two weeks ago to ask the state to allow a loan, but news from the State House indicated the request wouldn't be approved because it clashed with the state constitution. The potential sticking points rests on a section of the constitution which states the Commonwealth, or any of its political divisions, can't allocate public funds to a hospital. ...
CareGroup leaves door open: Company will weigh all options to save Waltham hospital
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/walthospital202222002.htm>
Patrick Golden, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 22, 2002
FRAMINGHAM - CareGroup Board Chairman John Hamill said yesterday the ailing hospital network will give fair consideration to a local bid to buy Deaconess-Waltham Hospital but won't pay to keep it open past April 11. CareGroup is continuing with its plans to close the hospital once the 90 day closure notice expires, but those plans could change if a soon-to-be completed study by the Hunter Group determines a new ownership group has a reasonable chance of turning Deaconess-Waltham around. ...
State health department seeks hospital's plan for patient care
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/055/west/State_health_department_seeks_hospital_s_plan_for_patient_care+.shtml>
Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe, February 24, 2002
WALTHAM - The state Department of Public Health last week declared that the Deaconess-Waltham Hospital is essential to the community, so its owner, CareGroup Healthcare System, must address how patients will receive care elsewhere once the struggling hospital is closed. In a letter sent Monday to Joseph D. Dionisio, CareGroup's chief financial officer, the agency stated that ''the services that CareGroup contemplates discontinuing at the hospital are necessary for preserving access and health status in the hospital service area.'' Under a relatively new state law, the state health department is requiring CareGroup to present detailed plans on how patients could receive care at alternative sites and proof that those nearby medical facilities can take extra patients. ...
Boston University professor says state should declare healthcare emergency
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/walthospital0252002.htm>
Patrick Golden, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 25, 2002
WALTHAM - While the Coalition to Save Waltham Hospital and Roy MacDowell await word on whether their plan turn around Deaconess-Waltham can work, one public health expert thinks the state should declare a public health emergency to save the hospital. Alan Sager, a professor of Health Services at Boston University's School of Public Health, wants those involved in the rescue plan to press ahead in their bid to acquire the hospital from CareGroup. But he thinks the state should declare an emergency to give the Department of Public Health Commission Howard Koh the potential to take temporary control of Deaconess-Waltham. ...
Crunchtime in Waltham
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/058/business/Crunchtime_in_Waltham+.shtml>
Steve Bailey, Boston Globe, February 27, 2002
WALTHAM - Who killed Deaconess-Waltham Hospital? The finger-pointing is well underway, and the patient hasn't even expired yet. The doctors (sic) campaigning to save the 116-year-old hospital use words like ''parasite'' to describe their corporate parent, CareGroup, operator of Beth Israel Deaconess. ''Relatives ask what changed after CareGroup came in, and I say nothing. They changed the soap dishes,'' says Dr. Richard Lyons, who runs the hospital's emergency room. Says Dr. William Mulroy, an orthopedic surgeon: ''Their focus and attention was with the mothership.'' ...
City to be split between five hospitals
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/waltambulance02272002.htm>
DeAnna Putnam, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 27, 2002
WALTHAM - American Medical Response plans to divide Waltham into five regions for ambulance runs, each assigned to different area hospitals, if Deaconess-Waltham Hospital closes. ...
Group works to boost use of hospital
The coalition that wants to save Deaconess-Waltham Hospital is exploring potential partnerships with New England Medical Center in Boston and Franciscan Children's Hospital in Brighton to boost the number of patients at the Waltham hospital. A declining number of patients and mounting financial losses are the reasons cited by CareGroup Healthcare System for closing the 116-year-old community hospital, one of six area hospitals in the CareGroup network. ...
Developer sweetens rescue proposal: Hospital spokeswoman denies layoff plan is in place
<http://www.dailynewstribune.com/news/local_regional/walt_hosp02282002.htm>
Patrick Golden, Waltham Daily News Tribune, February 28, 2002
WALTHAM - A developer with a plan to keep Deaconess-Waltham Hospital open said he received word last night from the hospital owner's chief financial officer that his recently sweetened proposal may be feasible. During a meeting of the Coalition to Save Waltham Hospital, developer Roy MacDowell took a phone call which he said was from CareGroup CFO Joseph Dionisio. MacDowell has increased from $2 million to $2.5 million his offer to keep the hospital open past its scheduled April 11 closing and during a two-month transition from ownership by CareGroup to its ownership by another entity. In exchange, MacDowell is looking for the rights to build apartment buildings on a large parcel now used as the hospital's parking lot. ...
NURSING HOME CRISIS
90 percent of nursing homes are short of staff
<http://home.post-dispatch.com/channel/pdweb.nsf/da37732b0078d6c285256ad500494df3/86256a0e0068fe5086256b640034ffaa?OpenDocument&Highlight=0,nurses>
New York Times, February 18, 2002
WASHINGTON - More than 90 percent of US nursing homes have too few workers to take proper care of patients, a new federal study has found. But the Bush administration, citing the costs involved, says it has no plans to set minimum staffing levels for nursing homes, hoping instead that the problem will be resolved through market forces and more efficient use of existing nurses and nurse's aides. The report was ordered by Congress and prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services. It concludes that "it is not currently feasible" for the federal government to require a minimum ratio of nursing staff to patients - as many experts have recommended - largely because of cost. It would take $7.6 billion more a year, an 8 percent increase over current spending, to reach adequate staffing levels, the report said. Instead of imposing new rules, the Bush administration said, it wants to publish data on the number of workers at each nursing home, in the hope that "nurse staffing levels may simply increase due to the market demand created by an informed public." Also, the administration said, it will encourage nursing homes to adopt better management techniques, so nurse's aides can achieve "high productivity." ...
The Medicaid bargain
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/050/editorials/The_Medicaid_bargain+.shtml>
Boston Globe Editorial, February 19, 2002
HOUSE SPEAKER Thomas Finneran considers Medicaid a budget-buster and is trying to rein it in. The program provides essential medical services to nearly a million people and represents a powerful commitment by state government to the less fortunate. The Legislature ought to be very careful about tampering with these benefits. Medicaid, known in Massachusetts as MassHealth, is costing $5.2 billion in this fiscal year, more than 20 percent of the state budget, but, as Finneran knows from his years as a budget writer, it is one of the great bargains in state government. The federal government picks up at least 50 percent of the cost (higher in some categories), so the state can provide a much more comprehensive package of services than it could on its own. ...
Nursing homes seek safety net
TALLAHASSEE -- Worried that nursing homes could be forced to close because of a lack of insurance, state lawmakers are looking at reopening a divisive debate about reforming Florida's nursing home industry. A group of for-profit nursing home companies is lobbying legislative leaders to make changes that could better protect them from costly lawsuits. That likely would reignite a battle that led lawmakers last year to pass a law that limits lawsuits, requires improved care and forces nursing homes to have liability insurance. ...
Fund care for elderly or face backlash, Government told
<http://www.observer.co.uk/politics/story/0,6903,656150,00.html>
Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent, The Observer, February 24, 2002
The government must make long-term care free to all pensioners or suffer a massive backlash from the baby boomer generation, according to a controversial report from a Blairite think-tank. The issue topped a poll of priorities for extra NHS spending conducted by the BBC last week, with more voters willing to pay more for free long-term care for the elderly than for better cancer treatments or more doctors. Now the Institute for Public Policy Research, formerly regarded as staunchly loyal to Labour, will back their case in a report arguing it is unfair that a heart attack or cancer sufferer gets free care in hospital while someone who develops Alzheimer's must pay thousands of pounds for nursing home care. ...
Governors ask US to rein in Medicaid
Washington -- The nation's governors yesterday demanded that Congress and President Bush take immediate action to slow the explosive growth of Medicaid, which they say has become unsustainable in its current form. Medicaid dominated discussions yesterday at the winter meeting of the National Governors Association. State officials sounded a note of desperation as they sought ways to control health spending. Governors said Medicaid, the government health insurance program for 44 million low income people, had been eating up all the additional revenues states had collected in recent years. ...
Nursing home crisis won't fix itself
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/057/oped/Nursing_home_crisis_won_t_fix_itself+.shtml>
Joan Fitzgerald, Boston Globe, February 26, 2002
LAST WEEK the Department of Health and Human Services released a report revealing that more than 91 percent of the nation's nursing homes are inadequately staffed. Rather than establishing minimum staffing levels, which President Bush claimed would be too costly, the administration plans on letting market forces resolve the shortage. The fallacy of the market solution is that pay rates for direct care workers in nursing homes are essentially set by government reimbursements, not by labor supply and demand. The government pays about 60 percent of direct care worker wages through Medicaid and Medicare. Insufficient government reimbursement is a key cause of the understaffing crisis. The average starting wage for nurse aides in nursing homes is $6.70 per hour, yielding an annual income of $14,000 for full-time workers, mostly without benefits. Nationally, the average wage for nurse aides in nursing homes is $7.93, suggesting there is little opportunity for advancement. Low wages are a big part of the reason more than 40 states have critical shortages of nurse aides. During the boom economy of the late 1990s, nurse aides could earn more in retail jobs. Many nursing homes have staff turnover rates of 80 to 100 percent. ...
UPDATE: AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF REGISTERED NURSES
Old dispute leads to new nursing group
Supporters calling for mandated patient ratios form rival assocation
Victor Godinez, The Dallas Morning News, February 17, 2002
A long-running disagreement over how to solve the nurse shortage has resulted in the creation of a national nurse association whose major focus is government-mandated nurse-patient ratios.
The newly formed American Association of Registered Nurses - spearheaded by the California Nurses Association and other state nursing groups that have cut their affiliation to the American Nurses Association - is promoting the ratios as a way to alleviate the crushing workloads that are driving many nurses out of the profession.
"If you're going to make nursing attractive to young people, you're going to have to do something about the work setting," said Kay McVay, president of the California group. "If you don't have ratios, we'll never be able to attract people into nursing, because it's just become so difficult to be able to do your job." In addition to the California association, which left the ANA in 1995, AARN also includes the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the Maine State Nurses Association, the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, and the United Health Care Workers of Missouri.
All told, the AARN has roughly 70,000 nurse members.
California recently enacted the ratios that AARN is promoting. The ratios require that each general emergency room nurse be limited to no more than four patients at a time, ICU and neonatal nurses to two, and operating room nurses to one.
But the ANA opposes mandatory ratios, and Claire Jordan, executive director of the ANA-affiliated Texas Nurses Association, said her organization prefers to improve working conditions by giving nurses a greater voice in determining departmental hiring and budgetary needs.
"They have elected to say that the state will come to an absolute ratio of how many nurses can care for how many patients in these settings," Ms. Jordan said, referring to the AARN.
"We believe in being a little less prescriptive and putting in place systems that will make the nurse feel more in control of the staffing issue and the mandatory overtime issue," she said.
Mandatory overtime is a major concern for the ANA and AARN, and both agree that the best approach is to prohibit hospitals from requiring nurses to work overtime.
"To mandate overtime is silly," said Sam Ruffing, vice president and chief nursing officer for Methodist Hospitals of Dallas. "People will volunteer if they feel they are capable of doing it, and bless the hearts of the staff, especially the younger staff, for whom it's not a problem. We do not mandate overtime."
But Ms. Ruffing said she disagrees with the AARN's position on nurse-patient ratios.
"In the ideal world, wouldn't you just love to have only two patients? Wouldn't that be wonderful?" she said. "The bottom line is no system can afford to do that."
Even if hospitals could afford the extra workers, those nurses simply don't exist to be hired, largely because nursing schools are already operating at full capacity, Ms. Ruffing said.
Also, while states that mandate the ratios may manage to meet the ratio requirements, that will likely be because nurses specializing, for example, in critical care will be pressed into duty in labor and delivery departments, increasing the likelihood of medical errors, Ms. Ruffing said.
"So to me, the issue of ratios is so superficial," she said. "Yes, it has its point and we keep a very close eye on that, and there isn't a nurse alive who wouldn't tell you they would like fewer patients. But sometimes that's just not possible."
Ms. McKay said, though, that ratios are the only way to ensure that nurses have enough time to properly care for each patient and provide the emotional support that is such a vital part of nursing.
"We think that this is why we became nurses," she said. "That's what we want to do, and I think this national organization is going to give us the ability to do that.²
New National Nurses Organization Includes New England Organizations
<http://www.advancefornurses.com>
Regional News, Advance for Nurses, February 18, 2002
The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) and the Maine State Nurses Association (MSNA) have helped formalize the American Association of Registered Nurses (AARN), a new national nurses¹ organization whose constituents represent some 70,000 registered nurses and other allied professionals.
Other participants in the AARN, which adopted its name during a meeting held this month in San Diego, include the California Nurses Association, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, and United Health Care Workers of Missouri. Additional nurses groups from New York and Arizona were informal participants in the San Diego meeting.
AARN members will work together on a series of national projects as well as assisting each other in state legislative, collective bargaining, and organizing campaigns to improve registered nurse staffing conditions and to promote the health and safety of nurses.
While meeting in San Diego the group targeted several priorities for legislative and workplace changes. On the national scene, the member groups have already sponsored a federal bill to prohibit mandatory overtime in hospitals, and have hired a Washington-based public interest advocate to promote national legislation.
While the group made many moves to solidify itself at the San Diego meeting, it has been gaining momentum for some time. According to Julie Pinkham, BSN, RN, executive director of the MNA, her group started meeting with other constituents shortly after the MNA disaffiliated from the American Nurses Association (ANA).
³This is a group that says if the resources are at a state level then we have to work with each other on the goals that we decide are appropriate for each other. And there is not a lot of dissention about what that is, so it has been relatively easy to accomplish.
³I think what¹s nice about the AARN is that it¹s not another bureaucracy,² she continued. ³These organizations are not creating another layer of bureaucracy to funnel money into and then wonder what you¹ll get out of it.²
Nurses from all the member groups attended a rally in California last September in support of implementation of Califonia¹s minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. Pinkham said the organization plans to help both Maine¹s push for universal healthcare and Massachusetts¹ efforts to pass staffing legislation.
Massachusetts Nurses Association member Barry Adams RN in response to comments below made by ANA president Mary Foley describing the value of nursing:
Mary Foley, president of the American Nurses Association and an advisor to the Johnson & Johnson Campaign, said, ³Nurses are the face, the hands and the heart of health care. Their skilled care provides the safety net. Without them, the nation¹s health care suffers. I¹ve been a nurse for many years and this Campaign inspires me. I believe it will help attract the talent we need to revitalize the profession for the years ahead.²
"She forgot to mention brains. The opportunity to effectively advise a national campaign designed to attract individuals to the nursing profession may be lost if nursing continues to be described in demur, passive language which downplays, even undermines, our essential role in the delivery of healthcare. We work so hard to improve the image of nursing, and we have demanded that the media portray nurses as competent, intelligent, and essential healthcare professionals. We have nurses conducting research, testifying before Congress, running for public office and nurses on strike, walking picket lines for God's sake. All essential contributions to improving patient care and our entire healthcare system. Yet, in a national advertising campaign, we hear a professional nurses association refer to nurses in only the most sentimental terms? It's an image which, I believe, has held nursing back and has perpetuated the position we find nursing in today.
³The message we need to send to all young people is that nursing today offers endless opportunities which require intelligence, character, and a commitment to making a difference. As the backbone of healthcare, nursing challenges your mind with science and technology while providing the opportunity to examine the impact of other areas on patient care such as law, economics, politics, business, and ethics; all while making a huge difference in the larger society.
³Infantalizing nurses and luring children with coy language in a marketing scheme will only undermine the ultimate goal of Johnson and Johnson's effort, which is to invite sharp young people to consider nursing as a career choice ... That simpy image is misleading and I believe it has actively served to keep nurses subservient and powerless in an industry dominated by men."
US Department of Health and Human Services Survey of RNs Shows Critical Shortage Driven by the Exodus of Experienced Nurses, Slowed Recruitment of New Nurses And Job Satisfaction Levels that Rank Nurses Below Nearly All Other Employee/Professional Groups
HHS' nursing survey is the most extensive and comprehensive statistical resource on registered nurses with current licenses to practice in the United States. It shows that the average age of the nation's RNs continues to increase, the rate of nurses choosing to not practice in nursing is increasing while the rate of nurses entering the profession has slowed over the past four years. It also shows that nurses have significantly lower job satisfaction than other types of employees and professionals, which the survey attributes to their working/staffing conditions.
"The results of this survey confirm what the nurses of Massachusetts have known and been communicating to the public and to policy makers for years: we are losing experienced nurses and driving out new nurses because we have failed to create working conditions, specifically, safe staffing ratios, that make the practice of nursing the rewarding and fulfilling profession it is meant to be," said Karen Higgins, President of MNA. "To fix this problem and end this crisis, we need to pass legislation that guarantees safe nurse to patient ratios that allow nurses to practice the profession the way it is supposed to be practiced."
Hundreds of nurses and senior citizens plan to take this very message to the Massachusetts State House on March 12, as the Massachusetts Nurses Association and the Mass. Senior Action Council will host a "Nurses Lobby Day for Safe RN Ratios and Safe Patient Care in the Great Hall (9:30 - 12 noon). They will be appealing to legislators to support passage of HB 1186, a safe staffing bill that would regulate nurse to patient ratios in the Commonwealth. Similar legislation was enacted in California last month.
Below is a summary of some of the key findings of the survey. You can find the full text of the report on the web at <http://www.bhpr.hrsa.gov/nursing>.
UPDATE: AUSTRALIA
Lobbyists point finger at nation's errant hospitals
<http://www.theage.com.au/news/state/2002/02/19/FFXP1B95TXC.html>
Tom Noble, The Age, February 19, 2002
Hospitals have reacted cautiously to a report that names five Victorian hospitals among Australia's worst eight for medical errors. The report, by the Sydney-based Medical Error Action Group, is compiled from errors reported to the group by patients, patients' families and medical staff. ...
Govt confirms health insurance hikes
<http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/02/26/1014471635471.html>
AAP, February 26 2002
Federal Health Minister Kay Patterson today confirmed reports the government had approved increases to health fund premiums of an average 6.9 per cent. Senator Patterson told Melbourne radio 3AW it was naive to expect premiums not to rise, given the increased cost of health care provision. "(The increases) range from no increase at all to one small fund which has quite a significant increase because they've had a very low rebate over a significant period but the average is 6.9 (per cent)," she said. Senator Patterson also confirmed that government health insurer Medibank Private had won an increase of nine per cent, below the 13 per cent rise it had reportedly requested. ...
Health premium rise gets go ahead
<http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/02/26/1014471633098.html>
AAP, February 26 2002
Families could be slugged up to an extra $250 a year for health insurance under a rise in premiums of up to nine per cent, the federal opposition said today. The Australian Financial Review reported that the federal government had approved premium increases averaging seven per cent for private health funds following a Cabinet meeting in Melbourne yesterday. "These approvals are still double the inflation rate, they are in the context of $150 to $250 per family per year slug," opposition health spokesman Stephen Smith told ABC Radio. Mr Smith said the government had told the Australian public one story before last year's election but it was a different story now. ...
Public hospitals will bear the brunt says Bracks
<http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/02/26/1014471634282.html>
AAP, February 26 2002
Private health insurance fee increases would put more pressure on the public health system, Victorian Premier Steve Bracks said today. Mr Bracks called on private health insurance companies to explain why they needed to increase premiums by an average seven per cent. "This is not just the inflation rate, this is in some cases three times the inflation rate," Mr Bracks told Melbourne radio 3AW. "It's a big hike when you look at the profit reporting of some of the private health insurance companies, and they're not insignificant." ...
UPDATE: CANADA
Firefighters and nurses top list of most trusted Canadians: poll
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=11B39FBF-F141-4DAE-B30A-35BAA2049EB6>
Donald McKenzie, Canadian Press, February 24, 2002
MONTREAL (CP) - Firefighters and nurses had almost unanimous trust of Canadians, while politicians and car salespeople were at the other end of the spectrum, suggests an opinion poll. Leger Marketing asked 1,516 Canadians last month to rank 20 given professions in terms of trust. The poll found 98 per cent of respondents trusted firefighters. Nurses registered a 96 per cent rating. The top five was rounded out by farmers (93 per cent), doctors (92 per cent) and police officers (88 per cent). Politicians obtained the lowest rating (18 per cent), while car salespeople had the trust of 23 per cent of respondents. ...
He should check his facts
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=0D881D7E-D269-4BE3-8A9A-0CB835C41F94>
D. Chamley, RN, Langley, The Province, February 15, 2002
Imagine my surprise when Campbell said "hospital administration couldn't even move nurses from one floor to another." Before he puts his foot in his mouth one more time about the nurses, he should check his facts. As a nurse who has more than once been "floated" to another ward or unit within the hospital where I worked, I feel more than confident in criticizing Campbell on this issue.
She wants to be a nurse. We need her. But she can't get in
Mani Uppal is bright, cheerful, thoughtful and energetic -- just the kind of nurse you'd want if you were in hospital. But Uppal won't be nursing anytime soon. She and hundreds of others can't even get into nursing school. And that's a big reason why you may not be able to get into a hospital. Uppal has been waiting three years to start nursing school, ever since she graduated in 1999 from North Delta Senior Secondary school. "It's nuts," says the frustrated 20-year-old. "There's a nursing shortage. Yet I and a lot of others can't get in. If they opened more spaces at nursing schools, in four years they'd have a lot more nurses." ...
Nurses not interchangeable
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=AC964964-D9E6-42F3-9A17-7179BB5291FD>
Geoff Reiher, Registered Nurse, Vancouver, Vancouver Sun, February 18, 2002
Premier Gordon Campbell should have done his homework before criticizing the professional judgment of nurses in his televised address last week. It is nurses' professional responsibility to refuse to perform any procedure or work in any area in which they may not have the necessary training or experience. This decision, protected by the BC Nurses' Union, is based on the safest outcome for the patient and not, as Mr. Campbell would make it seem, on the whim of the nurse. Nurses are not interchangeable components that can simply be shunted from ward to ward. Would anyone tell a gynecologist to perform cardiac surgery because the operating room is short-staffed? I doubt it. ...
Health authority memo threatens workers' jobs
<http://www.bowesnet.com/goldenstar/Z04_story4.html>
Ryan Kuhn, Star Editor, February 19, 2002
Staff employed by the Interior Health Authority are alarmed by a memo threatening their jobs and possible jail time if they choose to strike, said Marsha Bishop, a registered nurse in Golden and a British Columbia Nurses' Union representative. "It's a pretty nasty letter," said Bishop. "The public should know that the people running our health care are pretty desperate, drastic people." ...
Nurses sound alarm over hospital cuts
<http://vancouver.cbc.ca/template/servlet/View?filename=bc_Nurses020220>
Pamela Post , CBC radio news, February 20, 2002
Vancouver - The BC Nurses Union says planned cuts to three major hospital wards in the Lower Mainland defy logic. The short-stay surgical ward at Vancouver General Hospital which provides surgical and diagnostic services for cancer patients and others awaiting surgery is slated to close on March 2. Angela Beiko who works in the unit, says it handles 400 patients a month, and its closure will have a huge impact. ...
Nurses say dismantling health care services does not put patients first
Axing efficient units such as Delta ER, VGH Surgical Short-Stay and UBC Discharge Planning Unit will take its toll on Lower Mainland residents
<http://www.bcnu.org/News_Releases/nr022_2002.htm>
British Columbia Nurses Union, February 20, 2002
The Liberal government¹s promise to put patients first is being broken time and time again as health authorities throughout the province scramble to restructure services. On the day following the budget that professes to increase the quality of patient care, nurses spoke out about closures of the Surgical Short Stay Unit at VGH, the Discharge Planning Unit at UBC Hospital and the 24 hour ER at Delta Hospital. ...
Today's training for nurses is far more complex
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=8D8166CA-9264-4342-AD90-A335DB2F933E>
Dr. Rita Schreiber, RN, Chairwoman, Practice education committee, University of Victoria, School of Nursing, Victoria Times Colonist, February 24, 2002
A letter writer ("Aspiring nurses being conned about training," Feb. 8) suggests a nursing program that is straight from the 1950s. Wake up. The health-care world has drastically changed since then, and acuity in hospitals is beyond anything we could have imagined when I was a student in 1972. ...
BC unions rally against 'Campbell chaos'
<http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/02/23/bcprotest_020223>
CBC News Online staff, February 24, 2002
VICTORIA - More than 20,000 demonstrators converged on the British Columbia legislature Saturday for one of the largest protests against government budget cuts in the province in decades. Unions chartered a ferry, nicknamed Solidarity Queen, and rented about 100 buses to help get people to the march through Victoria. ...
Tens of Thousands of Protesters Demand End to Neo-Liberal Agenda
On Feb 23, an estimated 40 000 unionists, activists and other concerned citizens marched to the provincial legislature in British Columbia to show Gordon Campbell their displeasure with his socially regressive policies. Gordon stayed home and watched the Olympics with his family. The atmosphere was festive and peaceful, with giant puppets, pirate costumes and a mobile xylophone ensemble. Beneath the celebrations there was a strong undercurrent of resolve and patience. It was the confidence of a movement that has faced this beast before, and defeated it. ...
Province expected to make offer to nurses' union
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=EB3DC1DA-021A-4FF9-9AE6-FF189B384420>
Canadian Press, February 18, 2002
WINNIPEG -- Negotiations resume Monday between the provincial government and the Manitoba Nurses' Union. The province has delayed putting a monetary offer on the table. The union says it has received a commitment from the government that an offer will be put on the table when the talks resume Monday. ...
Man. Nurses' Union calls latest contract offer by the province an insult
<http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020222/6/jucx.html>
Yahoo! News, February 21, 2002
WINNIPEG (CP) - The union representing Manitoba's nurses is calling the government's latest contract offer an insult and says its members could stop working overtime as early as Friday in protest. The government offered a raise of 16 per cent over three years. That's about half what the union was asking. "This is completely unreasonable," said Manitoba Nurses' Union president Maureen Hancharyk. "I think they are going to start refusing to work those extra shifts." ...
New Brunswick government offers help for nurses looking to go back to work
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=35CBC39A-CE69-4C9A-9398-27B05BF61B63>
Canadian Press, February 20, 2002
FREDERICTON (CP) - The New Brunswick government is offering some financial help to nurses who want to return to work. As part of its three-year nurse resource strategy, the province is offering to reimburse tuition fees for refresher courses. ...
Family MDs limiting home, hospital visits
<http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=nurses&option=&
start_row=24¤t_row=24&start_row_offset1=0&num_rows=1&search_results_start=21>
Canadian Press, February 19, 2002
Comprehensive personal-health care under the supervision of a family doctor seems to be going the way of the dodo -- or the house call, to be more precise. A study of billing records in Ontario from 1989 to 1999 shows that increasing numbers of family doctors have abandoned the practice of overseeing a patient's care regardless of where the patient is being treated ...
Ontario's border babies stir health-care storm
<http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=nurses&option=&
start_row=18¤t_row=18&start_row_offset1=0&num_rows=1&search_results_start=11>
Lisa Priest (with a report from Richard Mackie), Toronto Globe & Mail, February 20, 2002
Sending Ontario women with high-risk pregnancies to Buffalo for medical treatment shows how the health-care system has been "cut to the bone" -- and it's only going to get worse, politicians, doctors and other health experts say. "This is about the uncertainty and instability of hospital budgeting," Liberal health critic Lyn McLeod said yesterday. "It's going to get worse. ... It's disastrous for these women and their babies." New Democrat health critic Shelley Martel said the fact that at least seven pregnant women and three babies were sent to the United States in the past two weeks alone shows that the health-care system has been "cut to the bone." ...
Government, public await cost of care
<http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=nurses&option=&
start_row=20¤t_row=20&start_row_offset1=0&num_rows=1&search_results_start=11>
Lisa Priest (with reports from Richard Mackie & Rick Cash), Toronto Globe & Mail, February 20, 2002
The Ontario government will learn what it has cost taxpayers to send fragile babies and women with high-risk pregnancies to a Buffalo hospital -- when it gets the bill. "Nobody can tell me what it costs in Buffalo," said Gord Haugh, press secretary to Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement. "I guess we'll know when we get our bill." The cost, he said, "is not a consideration when it's time to go." ...
A list that keeps growing
<http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/GIS.Servlets.HTMLTemplate?tf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.html&cf=tgam/search/tgam/SearchFullStory.cfg&configFileLoc=tgam/config&encoded_keywords=nurses&option=&
start_row=21¤t_row=21&start_row_offset1=0&num_rows=1&search_results_start=21>
Lisa Priest, Toronto Globe & Mail, February 20, 2002
The list of Ontarians who have gone to US hospitals for taxpayer-funded treatment includes cancer patients, burn victims, and now fragile tots and women with high-risk pregnancies. Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement's press secretary, Gord Haugh, said patients have been sent across the border for "specialized services when there's only so many beds available." ...
Nurses demand relief
The Quebec Federation of Nurses yesterday fired its first shot across the bow of newly appointed Health Minister François Legault yesterday with a sharp reminder that Quebec's nursing crisis won't go away on its own. "There is exhaustion and the inability of five to do the work of eight, or 12 to do the work of 20," said Jennie Skene, president of the Quebec nurses' union. "We are calling on the government and on employers to shift into action." With Montreal-area emergency rooms filled to 167 per cent capacity yesterday morning and two brief walk-outs by nurses at short-staffed St. Luc Hospital during the weekend, Skene's rhetoric took on an extra note of urgency. "Nurses are working in untenable situations. In many hospitals - especially in Montreal but elsewhere also - nurses are increasingly refusing to work in conditions which endanger themselves and their patients," she said. ...
Nurses settle at Sacre Coeur
<http://montreal.cbc.ca/template/servlet/View?filename=nurses020223>
CBC, February 23, 2002
Montreal - A dispute over working conditions between nurses and management at Montreal's Sacre Coeur hospital is over. The two sides reached an agreement after 30 hours of intense negotiations before the Essential Services Council. The nurses had staged a series of walkouts to protest against the shortage of nurses in Sacre Coeur's emergency room. ...
UPDATE: IRELAND
Nurses demand closed-circuit TV in A&E units
<http://www.online.ie/news/irish_examiner/viewer.adp?article=1666318>
Seán McCárthaigh, The Irish Examiner, February 18, 2002
NURSING unions are set to press for closed-circuit TV systems to be installed in accident and emergency units of all major hospitals as part of their calls for major improvements in A&E services. Unions representing the country's 40,000 nursing staff will demand the use of CCTV as part of increased security measures amid claims that they are operating in "a war zone" on a daily basis. ...
Nurses unions to go ahead with strikes
<http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0221/nurses.html- RNAG>
Radio Ceolnet, February 21, 2002
The nursing unions say that they intend to go ahead with strikes over conditions in accident and emergency units. Representatives of SIPTU and the Irish Nurses' Organisation met the Minister for Health, Mícheal Martin, this evening. The unions intend to have nationwide two-hour strikes. ...
Nursing home beds offered to ease A&E overcrowding
<http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0222/nurses.html- Lyric FM>
Mícheal Martin, RNAG, Radio Ceolnet, February 22, 2002
The group representing most of the nursing homes in the eastern region have said that they have had empty beds available throughout the winter to solve the accident and emergency overcrowding crisis. The Federation of Irish Nursing Homes, which represents over 60 nursing homes, said that they could provide at least 80 beds immediately to alleviate the pressure on hospitals. But the managers of the homes have been told by the region's health boards that no funding for extra beds was available since last September. ...
Psychiatric nurses present startling survey
<http://www.rte.ie/news/2002/0224/nurses.html- RNAG>
Kevin Kelly, Radio Ceolnet, February 24, 2002
A national survey by the Psychiatric Nurses' Association of Ireland has shown that there were 856 physical assaults on nurses last year. The survey - the first of its kind to be conducted - will be presented by the Association to the Minister for Health to back up its demand for a compensation scheme for psychiatric nurses injured through assault. ...
Beds in disturbed teenager unit left empty due to staff shortage
<http://www.online.ie/news/irish_examiner/viewer.adp?article=1675713>
John Breslin, The Irish Examiner, February 28, 2002
TWO-THIRDS of the beds at a purpose-built care centre for the country's most disturbed teenagers are empty because of a chronic lack of staff. Workers at the Ballydowd facility in Dublin walked out in protest yesterday following a mini-riot at the centre last Friday. Over a dozen gardaí were called to the centre to quell a serious disturbance involving four teenagers. Staff were attacked and furniture was wrecked before the situation was brought under control. ...
UPDATE: NORWAY
Mediator calls for talks in nursing strike
<http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=280181>
Aftenposten, February 21, 2002
Federal labour mediator Reidar Webster called for a meeting Thursday between striking nurses and the employers' group NAVO. The strike remains deadlocked with hundreds of nurses off the job nationwide. More than 7,800 operations and medical consultations have been postponed because of the strike, which began in January. The nurses are demanding higher pay since the state took over ownership of local hospitals from the townships where they're located. The strike has not posed any threat to life or health, so government officials have been unable to order the nurses back to work. The nurses, fed up with low wages and forced overtime to make up for staff shortages, have remained firm in their demands. ...
No solution in sight to nursing strike
<http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=280471>
Aftenposten, February 21, 2002
A strike by nurses that began a month ago looked set to continue on Thursday. Both sides were called in to a meeting by federal mediator Reidar Webster, but he failed to get them to come to terms. ...