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QUESTION: I live in the Hartford CT & Springfield MA area.
I was working at Parkview Hospital in Springfield MA on a per diem basis.
One morning the front page of the Springfield Republican broke the news of
closing 98 beds, three units and affecting 200 jobs. Not a word to me as a
staff RN! That week I signed on as a Correctional Nurse in a federal prison
where the money and working conditions are much better; they want me to go
to full time federal status from contract.
A close friend of mine works at Genesis Windsor Hall in Windsor CT. I read
in the paper this week how they are closing the entire facility due to low
Medicaid reimbursement rates. As of this week they still have 130 of 150
beds filled as residents bail out. It has put a strain on staff to keep up
with the discharges. Word is they are going to either level the building to
replace it with condominiums or assisted living, or sell it off after they
level the building.
According to the Hartford Courant 24 nursing homes in CT have closed
recently. State DPH keeps telling the families not to worry as there are
enough beds. Ironically Greenwood Nursing Home is coming back up to fulkl
bed capacity after rebuilding from the fatal fire last year that claimed 16
lives.
I am being told by people I know at Parkview and Genesis Windsor Hall that
many nurses have already quit and they are actually short. The prevailing
attitude seems to be that a first class seat on the Titanic still ends up on
the ocean floor when it is all said & done.
If this continues much more the nursing home beds will become scarce. I see
real problems here.
I also feel betrayed not having been told by management first, and having to
read about it in the daily news. We used to have this website in Hartford
that said a lot of these things. It might seem selfish of me to have gone
back to correctional nursing where the budget is mucg bigger and more
stable. That fact alone makes me wonder what the real priority is in the USA
today.
We can take care of a growing number of inmates, but neglect our solid
citizens? Time to vote for Kerry and dump Bush!
ANSWER: Some people just don't get it. The U S Constitution forbids cruel and
unusual punishment, as it should. If inmates get less than the "community
standard" of care, the lawsuits start as inmates get free legal aid and
lawyers from different pro bono sources.
Yet the man and woman who worked all their life to pay the taxes gets very
little. In fact the care in prisons as quite good IMIO. The care in too many
hospitals and nursing homes is deplorable.
Some people just don't get it. I see more facilities closing due to lack of
profits. Do you really think many health care facilities are operated out of
compassion and care? Maybe this person will "get it" when "someone" is
lying in a nursing home or hospital bed with no one to clean up their waste
in a timely fashion. Maybe the lights will go on when their medications are
late or missing, or their dressing goes beyond one or two days and gets
disgusting.
Why is it the rich always hire their own private nurses? Do they know
something "someone" doesn't? Besides learning a more educated and
respectable vocabulary, how about thinking ahead to when you will be the
patient?
I wonder if you are really even a nurse. If you are, are you really taking
care of patients? That is a scary thought......
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