Dark before the dawn at Regional?
Published Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Things are looking up, it appears, at Natchez Regional Medical Center, the financially skittish, county-owned hospital.
But the sun isn't shining there just yet. In fact, it's likely to get a bit darker before the dawn.
The hospital announced plans Monday to work a restructuring plan that includes filing for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, reducing staff and seeking a buyer to convert the facility to a non-profit (rather than government-owned) facility.
Impending staff reductions will likely send many folks -- particularly those affected -- freaking out. And as much as it will hurt the families who depend on the jobs that will be lost, the hospital is apparently overstaffed -- plain and simple.
Any businessman or businesswoman knows that there's a fine line between profit and loss. And unfortunately, that difference is often marked by getting one's labor expenses in check.
The dark clouds ahead will likely not be pleasant -- for either the people directly affected or for those who must make the tough decisions over who stays and who goes. But the clouds will soon pass.
And, hopefully, when the clouds break the hospital can operate without a financial loss.
In the case of the hospital, the needs of the many (the patients, the remaining staff and the taxpayers) outweigh the needs of the few (those who are slated to lose their jobs).
Comments
Yes, Kevin the hospital is overstaffed. But not with the workers who take care of the pts. They are severely understaffed and Mr. Phillips wants to keep cutting. Personally i would not want any of my family to be a pt there because of the safety issue. When there are not enough nurses or nurse assistants to help on the floor who do you think it hurts. The patients. They need to cut the fat at the top of the list.
Having 2 for profit hospitals will only hurt the citizens of Natchez. For profit hospitals charge lots more for services than a county owned hospital. Natchez Community was one of the top 10 most expensive hospitals in the state in 2005 according to this article and I'm sure it's only gone up. Follow this link to it and go to pages 70-71.
http://www.calnurses.org/research/pdfs/I......
Also, the people that have the most experience only stay at Natchez Regional because of the retirement {PERS}. If it is sold the PERS will be gone and the best most experienced employees will be gone. So the city of Natchez will be left with two expensive hospitals and degraded health care. I don't think we should sell our county hospital just because of several years of bad management. The poor people won't be the only ones suffering if this happens, the whole county will suffer. Big Corporations like HMA don't care about patients. They only care how much money they make.
Call your supervisors and tell them you don't want to lose your county hospital to the money hungry corporations. They are the only ones that can keep this from happening.
I doubt they care Rhino. They didn't care enough to pay attention in the first place while the financial stability of the hospital was wrecked by the management they chose. This doesn't affect them at all. The supervisors will still get paid and still get their perks.
I stand adamant that it should be bought by the government and conditioned for the VETS. Who needs it more as we are facing a multitude of wounded, some severely crippled, being brought back home with no place to go for help. We owe that much to our VETS.
I work at NCH and I do care about my patients. I do the best I can to care for my patients regardless of who owns the hospital.
Good for you JustAPerson! Read more closely. I said Big Corps. like HMA don't care about the patients just about money. I said nothing about the staff at NCH.
My daughter had her baby at NCH it was EXCELLENT!!! Even got the bed changed everyday!!!! Shocker huh...I would NEVER use NRMC NEVER!!!! Thetime i did use it we had our mom moved to NCH due to not being able to get bed changed,nurses would not come when called, but, yet they could stand out there and talk about who was doing who last night...So needless to say we had our mom transfered to NCH the next morning....
I have experienced what staff at NRMC do first hand. The PCA's (NOT CNA's) need to get off their butts and change their patients. The nurses need to stop reading the newpaper and worrying about who is sleeping with someone else's spouse. Send the PCA's back to school to become a Certified Nurse Assistant, and let them come to a nursing home. Send all these RN's and LPN's to a nursing home and let them do ONE med pass, and I promise you this...they will be wishing that they had their old jobs back.
I've been saying this for a long time, and I stand firm on my belief that hospital nurses aren't worth the money you pay them.
Now, before anyone has anything else to say about me...I've been a CNA, and now a LPN. I'm also about to be a RN. I've done a little bit of everything, and I know how things really are. I've sent many of my patients to the hospital for pneumonia, and get them back literally ROTTING from the decubitus ulcers. When they left from the nursing home, they had NEVER had a ulcer before. Why is this...? Because they don't do their jobs.
MY husband died at NCH, of Lung cancer, he got the best care posssible any where. I am thankful for all the nurses and cnas that took such good care of him. Also Dr. Jeansone , Dr Rodrigus & Dr Givins. they did all they could do.
DON't Smoke. it kills. He hadn't smoked in years,,, OH, I have heard all the old saying, "GOT TO DIE FROM SOMETHING" He was only 57 years old. Said he guess he smoked even before he was born, because every one around his mother ,including his mother smoked. THink about that Mothers,, What a great lose to a wonderful man.
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