Sunday, June 10, 2007

Job Security

Perhaps my job is not so secure as I'd like to think. Think about how many nurses (and other staff) will have to relocate after this happens.

Granted, I don't work in the ghetto of a large metropolitan city, but still, this is a frightening view of things to come.

7 comments:

mielikki said...

Thats just scary. I'm glad I live in a small town where the community is dependant on its hospital, and plenty community members are monied, and know how to share. But our admin. still gripes about its budget, especially when nurses salary is discussed. . .

Barbara said...

It's not just the big cities. Rural hospitals are closing and under threat of closure too. Safety Net helps some with critical access designation, but it's only a stopgap. Rural facilities often see primarily Medicare/Medicaid and indigent patients. I have worked in two under the threat of bouncing payroll checks and one of those refuses to do direct deposit even today.

Nurse K said...

Think of Detroit as a Little Britain with more vacant buildings and more shootings. I think we need more of this single payer healthcare!

SeaSpray said...

When I was first hired at the hospital my supervisor said that people think hospitals make a lot of money but they don't and many operate in the red. Our community hospital would have closed if it weren't for merging with a larger health system. Toward the end before we merged I know the ED doc checks were coming in late.

I feel for those people many of whom probably don't have transportation and for the squads having to transport farther away and eventually for the remaining hospitals to get overwhelmed, etc.

Monkeygirl - they will always NEED nurses but I know you are concerned about where.

Anonymous said...

babs - so true. I lived in North Dakota for a few years and...yeah. (I was doing my undergrad but we also had a med/nursing school as well.) You're talking about people who pay for their bills in jars of jam and hunks of meat. (No exaggeration!) Although I think that the rural folk are the ones who most *appreciate* their medical care.

--

Wonder how platy is doing? That's not his hospital that's closing, is it?

We've had quite a few closings within my city as well. It's not even the hospital that closes -- many hospitals are just closing down the ER in an attempt to stop the money loss.

Crazy shiznit, but I think the demand for nurses highly outweighs the hospital closure issue!

Margaret Polaneczky, MD (aka TBTAM) said...

Even though hospitals may close, you will never lack for a job. Good nurses are always in demand.

Constance said...

You're welcome, Monkey Girl ! I liked what I read here, so...

If people can't or won't pay -- there is no way hospitals can stay in business.

And it is a business. Compassion and desire to help aside you've got be financially solvent to be able to afford to do what you do.

And unless the government decides to subsidize (sp?) all hopsitals like it does farmers with certain crops, well, more and more hospitals will close.

And I never notice people in a neighborhood pitching in to have ongoing fundraisers/bake sales/car washes, etc., during the year as a way of paying back even in a small way for the treatment they get...

We all know insurance is a joke because how many really pay ???? Very few...

Where is the money going to come from to take care of a population that for the most part has a feeling of entitlement ?

Health care is a privledge (sp.?)not a right. Sometimes I think people lose sight of that.

Good nurses are VITAL to keeping a hospital going (I'm a volunteer in an emergency room, and I've watched what they do on and off for the last 6 years with an increasing amount of respect).

I don't know what the solution is -- I do, but it's not a poitically corret one. Raise state taxes 1% - and have it go straight to local hospitals...