{"id":98288,"date":"2020-12-14T09:48:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T17:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=98288"},"modified":"2020-12-14T09:48:10","modified_gmt":"2020-12-14T17:48:10","slug":"op-ed-hospital-industry-putting-lives-of-patients-nurses-workers-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2020\/12\/14\/op-ed-hospital-industry-putting-lives-of-patients-nurses-workers-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-ed: Hospital industry putting lives of patients, nurses, workers at risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By California Nurses Association <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The California Nurses Association\/ National Nurses United warned that a campaign by the hospital industry to exploit the pandemic as a pretext for rolling back safe staffing standards in California puts the lives of patients, registered nurses and other health care workers at risk.<\/p>\n

During the pandemic, California hospitals have been bombarding state health officials for individual, temporary waivers in adherence to California\u2019s landmark safe staffing law, which requires minimum levels of registered nurse staffing for various hospital units.<\/p>\n

Hospitals exploited that process to demand more reductions in safety measures and now, have been authorized to request \u201cexpedited waivers\u201d to require already overburdened nurses to unsafely care for more patients at a time in intensive care units and throughout the hospital setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis scheme will not ease the Covid-19 crisis facing California hospitals today, it will make it far worse,\u201d warned CNA\/NNU President Zenei Cortez, RN. \u201cIt will surely lead to more hospital acquired infections, and more nurse, other healthcare worker and patient deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 59,000 California health care workers have been infected with Covid-19, and 228 have already died, as of Sunday, according to the California Department of Public Health. \u201cSlashing safety standards will only increase the suffering and the death count,\u201d Cortez warned.<\/p>\n

Since February, noted CNA\/NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo, RN, \u201cnurses have been working under enormous strain, putting their lives and safety in jeopardy, without enough personal protection equipment, and without sufficient hospital engineering controls to reduce the spread of infection that have turned hospitals into Covid-19 hot zones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLarger patient assignments sharply cut the time nurses can provide individualized patient care, properly monitor a patient\u2019s condition, and increase the likelihood of mistakes, as studies have documented for years,\u201d said Cortez. \u201cIn a pandemic, that\u2019s an open invitation to increase the risk of spreading the virus to other patients and other staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now, the hospital executives want to double down at a time when nurses have no more to give. We simply can\u2019t afford to lose more nurses, and more patients,\u201d Castillo said.<\/p>\n

Current conditions have already led to acute moral distress among nurses as described in a new NNU white paper, \u201cDeadly Shame: Redressing the Devaluation of Registered Nurse Labor Through Pandemic Equity,\u201d which details the consequences of the crisis standard of care for nurses on the front lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the same industry that wants to further erode life-saving protections by pushing the state for an expedited waiver above the hundreds of individual ratio waivers already approved,\u201d said CNA Legislative Director Stephanie Roberson. \u201cExpedited waivers will create further stress, and fatigue for nurses who have been putting their health, safety and lives on the line for months.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been the malfeasance of the hospital industry, and its goals of higher profits that have led directly to the current crises in capacity and staff,\u201d said Castillo. \u201cThey have had years to prepare for this pandemic and ignored the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2000, there have been at least 50 hospital closures in California, including hospital and emergency rooms closures in Los Angeles, Long Beach, the Bay Area, and in rural communities, along with cuts in \u201cless profitable\u201d patient services.<\/p>\n

In recent interviews, Carmela Coyle, president\/CEO of the California Hospital Association, the industry trade lobby, defended the profit-focused goals due to \u201ca lot of pressure on making health care more affordable\u201d and questioning \u201cshould we invest in additional capacity\u201d that will \u201cadd to the cost of the health care system\u201d even though \u201cjust-in-time does not work during a pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, Castillo noted, \u201cit was exactly \u2018just-in-time\u2019 practices sold by management consultants, that slashed preparedness in staffing, supplies, and other safety protocols. They treat safe staffing and needed supplies as a drag on budget goals and profit margins, rather than the prerequisite for a humane, fully prepared patient-oriented health care system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in the midst of this pandemic and current surge,\u201d notes Castillo, \u201cwe have seen hospitals not cancelling elective surgeries, making temporary or permanent closures of hospital units, not filling RN vacancies, sending scheduled nurses home, and even laying off nurses.\u201d<\/p>\n

California\u2019s multi-billion hospital industry fought for years to block the state\u2019s landmark safe staffing law, and then tried to overturn it, even though studies have shown the California law has resulted in up to 14 percent fewer patient deaths than in comparable hospitals, assured nurses more time to spend with patients, and kept nurses at the bedside far longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that for the hospital industry, they hope to use \u2018expedited waivers\u2019 as a permanent standard, a first step to permanently overturn a law that has made California the safest state in the country for patients and a model for the world. Nurses will do whatever it takes to defend the law, which protects our patients and our nurses,\u201d Castillo said.<\/p>\n

About the author<\/span>: The California Nurses Association\/National Nurses Organizing Committee is a labor union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States.<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By California Nurses Association The California Nurses Association\/ National Nurses United warned that a campaign by the hospital industry to exploit the pandemic as a pretext for rolling back safe staffing standards in California puts the lives of patients, registered nurses and other health care workers at risk. During the pandemic, California hospitals have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":98289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1480],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98288"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}