Nurses at 34 Calif. Hospitals to Strike Thursday

[CaféAuLait]

Nurses at 34 Calif. Hospitals to Strike Thursday

The California Nurses Association — the union organizing the strike — estimates that nearly 23,000 nurses will walk off the job at 7 a.m. at 33 not-for-profit hospitals run by Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health, and at the independent Children's Hospital Oakland. The hospitals include Kaiser facilities in Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose, and the Berkeley and Oakland campuses of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center — a Sutter Health-affiliated hospital.

Kaiser Permanente Nurses at 34 Calif. Hospitals to Strike Thursday - ABC News

Hospitals state they want to keep costs down for patients...

 

[Kiki Cannoli]

The average operating margin for hospitals within the USA is 2.56 (2008). This is a very difficult business. The best and the brightest struggle to maintain existence.

I respect care providers. But I find the CA labor union tactics to be indefensible.

Former CA hospital manager,
kiki

 

[MeBelle]

Kaiser nurses are walking off as 'sympathy' support.

Here is another strike:
Ralphs, Albertsons Supermarkets Could Close if Grocery Workers Strike - ABC News

The "Big Three" Southern California grocery chains are bracing for a strike and possible shut down after the union representing grocery workers canceled their contract with the stores.

There is also a city employee strike not too far from me.

Guess what all three of them have in common?

 

[old navy]

The agency nurses that will replace the strikers have a contract that states that they will be employed a certain number of days before the employee nurses are allowed back on the job. I don't know the California situation specifically, but there is no longer a nationwide nursing shortage. The down economy has affected the health care industry as well, and the employers have the upper hand. Employees in most occupations need to tread lightly when making demands.

 

[Listening]

The average operating margin for hospitals within the USA is 2.56 (2008). This is a very difficult business. The best and the brightest struggle to maintain existence.

I respect care providers. But I find the CA labor union tactics to be indefensible.

Former CA hospital manager,
kiki

If you could provide more information and a link, I would be grateful.

 

[asterism]

Nurses at 34 Calif. Hospitals to Strike Thursday

The California Nurses Association — the union organizing the strike — estimates that nearly 23,000 nurses will walk off the job at 7 a.m. at 33 not-for-profit hospitals run by Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health, and at the independent Children's Hospital Oakland. The hospitals include Kaiser facilities in Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose, and the Berkeley and Oakland campuses of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center — a Sutter Health-affiliated hospital.

Kaiser Permanente Nurses at 34 Calif. Hospitals to Strike Thursday - ABC News

Hospitals state they want to keep costs down for patients...

Aren't those on the left blaming "the profit motive" for all the problems in healthcare?

 

[Kiki Cannoli]

The average operating margin for hospitals within the USA is 2.56 (2008). This is a very difficult business. The best and the brightest struggle to maintain existence.

I respect care providers. But I find the CA labor union tactics to be indefensible.

Former CA hospital manager,
kiki

If you could provide more information and a link, I would be grateful.

Sure thing.

American Hospital Association aggregate margins table. The table reflects a scrubbed figure of 3.3 in 2008, so I stand corrected.

http://www.aha.org/research/reports/tw/chartbook/2011/table4-1.pdf

Operating margin definition:

When a hospital’s margin is computed only
with revenues and costs related to patient care, it is usually called an “operating
margin”, which expresses the difference between operating revenue and costs as a
proportion of operating revenue. In most business settings, the numerators in both
ratios would be referred to as a “before-tax profit,” but in the language of
government and non-profit entities, it is referred to simply as “net income,” or, more
formally, as “the surplus of revenue over expenses”.

The hospital equation is operating revenue minus operating cost divided by operating revenue. The quotient tells us how many dollars are made (before taxes and interest) for every dollar brought in. In healthcare settings, there is not alot of room of error.

When the California nursing ratios which were fully implemented in 2005, severly taxed resources to enforce implementation and still do today. Compliance is nearly impossible to ensure.

"The most onerous aspect to the ratios is the requirement that hospitals be in 'continuous compliance'—that means in compliance every minute of every shift on every unit every day," Emerson says.

"If a nurse steps away to use the bathroom down the hall, the regulations require he/she to reassign all the patients to another nurse. That doesn't make sense and frankly is very difficult to adhere to," she adds.

Does Mandating Nurse-Patient Ratios Improve Care?

The nursing ratios contributed greatly to operating margins having dipped to negative numbers and have withstood the decline for five years. Today, recovery is on the horizon. However much needed repairs and equipment investments have been dangerously ignored.

http://www.shepscenter.unc.edu/rural/pubs/other/Primer.pdf

Hope this helps.

 

[editec]

Nurses at 34 Calif. Hospitals to Strike Thursday

What are their demands?

 

[CaféAuLait]

Nurses at 34 Calif. Hospitals to Strike Thursday

What are their demands?

Ironically they do not want to pay more for Health Care Insurance premiums and apparently the hospitals are paying less to new hires.