About 18,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses to strike

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

SAN FRANCISCO —Roughly 18,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses throughout Northern California are expected to walk off the job for a two-day strike.

California Nurses Association negotiator Katy Roemer said the strike Tuesday and Wednesday will impact 21 Kaiser hospitals and about 35 clinics.

Snip: Roemer said the nurses are striking because they don't have the resources needed to care for patients. The strike also coincides with a "national day of action" Wednesday, on which nurses are demanding that hospitals give them better protection and training against Ebola.

FULL story at link.




Read more: http://www.kcra.com/news/about-18000-kaiser-permanente-nurses-to-strike/29638314

[Lancero]

1. Rather ironic...

"Roemer said the nurses are striking because they don't have the resources needed to care for patients."

Seems like this is just going to make the issue worse. They don't have the resouces to care for patients, and now hospitals won't have the manpower either.

Here's hoping no people die during the strike for lack of a nurse. Kaiser is rescheduling things to work around the strike, but all it takes is one unforeseen accident to make a missing nurse the cause of someone dying.

[belzabubba333]

4. a missing nurse wont be the cause of someone dying. if management is so concerned about people

dying then they wouldnt need to strike. this is very foxian/rightwing of you. way to stick up for the nurses. good for you !

[Lancero]

7. Nurse shortages do results in deaths.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/08/us/patient-deaths-tied-to-lack-of-nurses.html
http://www.nursing.upenn.edu/media/Californialegislation/Documents/Linda%20Aiken%20in%20the%20News%20PDFs/jama.pdf

Kasier Permaente is a non-profit, so it's kinda hard to brand em as a greedy 'cut all corners' company.

And speaking of Foxian, you'd be surprised just how similar your writing style is to your average Fox viewer.

[uppityperson]

8. Indeed. More resources and better staffing is needed. When it doesn't happen, everyone suffers

and I fully support the right of nurses to strike over that.

[Cal Carpenter]

13. I don't think you understand how so-called non-profit hospital systems

work. Particularly in light of the fact that they are tied into other aspects of the health care system which are vehemently for-profit and profitable and, like everything else, gain more profits by lowering quality and workers' conditions.

A quick google turns this up...a couple years old but is a starting point...
"The top paid, actively employed executive on the list was George Halvorson, the outgoing chairman and CEO of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente, who received total compensation of $7.9 million in 2011 with $1.2 million in base salary and $5 million in incentive pay. His total compensation increased 2.5% in 2011. Kaiser, which operates a giant health plan, 32 hospitals and more than 600 medical offices, ended 2011 with revenue of $47.9 billion and operating income of $1.6 billion." http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20130810/MAGAZINE/308109991




I also hope your anti-worker sentiment is couched in misunderstanding as well. Particularly in this case when they are striking to increase resources for patients, not even for their own pay or working conditions. They are trying to improve their ability to treat patients, not to risk their wellbeing.

eta: If I'm not mistaken, you edited your post a bit while I wrote this in reference to a nonprofit hospital having no resources, but my point remains the same.

[belzabubba333]

18. well then mangement better hurry up and settle with the nurses

your concern about the greedy demands of these greedy nurses is duly noted. you know what else causes patient death , not giving nurses the things they need

[Doremus]

21. What's ironic is that many of the 1st responses on threads like this are anti-worker.

Ever wonder why that is? Someone posts a pro-worker topic and invariably several of the first responses are typically anti-worker. And on a progressive board yet, go figure.

Very ironic indeed.

[Yo_Mama]

22. I don't think you understand the meaning of the word

I don't know anything about that hospital system, but most of the hospitals of which I do know something have cut nurse staffing levels over the last few years to the point that it endangers the patients and occasionally causes serious injury and death. So what you think the strike will cause is probably what's already happening.

The nurses aren't getting paid. They are doing this to get management to talk to them, and it will probably work, because they'll have to cancel elective procedures and that will cut into revenue.

I know one nurse whose hospital just cut their hours several years ago. They did not cut their workload. So now most the nurses are working 5-10 hours free a week just to catch up with recordkeeping, etc, after their paid shifts. These are the type of people you are dismissing so ___________ (I won't write the word I want to).

In short, I think you are tossing this off without regard to your own welfare. No one can guarantee they won't wind up in a hospital, and a hospital without enough nurses is a damned dangerous place to be.

I'm not a nurse. My cousin is, and she retired not too long ago because she just couldn't take the working conditions and the stress any more. I've heard it from so many that I believe it.

[Warpy]

26. If you don't think Kaiser has been diverting patients to other facilities for weeks

perhaps you need to educate yourself about how health care works.

You obviously don't know any nurses and how bad it has to be to get us to walk out on strike, even a very limited, two day strike.

You obviously don't know what it means to be on the front lines, providing intimate care for patients with every lethal bug on the planet, often with inadequate equipment and always with inadequate staffing.

Patients are dying, all right, from lack of care because of understaffing. This strike is to call attention to the intransigence of hospital suits when it comes to protecting staff and their patients because it might cost them something.

[bananas]

2. Their website

http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/

[underpants]

3. For profit medicine

Hospitals cut costs every way they can think of

[cbayer]

6. KP is not for profit and my experience with them has been really positive.

I signed up with them when ACA went into effect after 8 years of no coverage and no care.

There may be issues with allocation of resources and I support the nurses. Frankly their IT system is unbelievably good and I am sure it cost a small fortune.

But I've been around for profits and they just don't behave like one.

[underpants]

9. I used to deal with KP at my old job

I was working for a charity and we had good dealings with them. I meant that the for profit thing is the problem.

KP is not for profit in the same way the NFL is - special friend$ help the corporation avoid taxes

[cbayer]

10. I am glad that you had a good experience with them.

They could be a model for single payer, imo. They are efficient, humane and fair in my experience.

I agree that not-for-profit is quite different than non-profit. But they do have to reinvest their profits and that is a good thing (generally).

[allinthegame]

5. Kaiser

is a non-profit organization....I was in one of their offices in SoCal last week and I was amazed at all the Ebola information they had
posted at the facility (including the elevators)...I also heard two stories on NPR about the training sessions Kaiser is giving its employees regarding Ebola and the use of equipment....
I would imagine something else is the root problem

[cbayer]

11. I'm pretty sure that the health care system is not-for-profit, not

non-profit. There is a difference.

But I have had very positive experiences with them.

They sent an excellent email about ebola that was very helpful for the general population, imo.

OTOH, they were showing scary congressional hearings in the waiting room that did nothing to calm the hysteria.

[Vox Moi]

12. Non-Profits are still in it for the money.

Non-Profit health care providers like Kaiser can amass considerable wealth. Hospitals and other providers own parking lots, hotels and other peripheral interests for the purpose of maximizing income and sometimes, all that money can become a problem. I have seen non-profit hospitals give out bonuses or gifts to employees at the end of the fiscal year for the purpose of NOT showing a profit.
Non-profits can and do maintain that status by increasing costs, not decreasing them. Inflated salaries for administrators, bloated and inefficient staffing and even devising unnecessary expenses are common. As private institutions, they are not subject to oversight on those matters.

They are judged on the health care they do provide, but not on the health care they might have been able to provide.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

14. Bottom line after all the comments;

I'm in a union comprised mostly of nurses and CNA's (I'm neither) and the facts are ALL hospitals seem to want to reduce head count and or add patients to the affected nurses. They cannot provide adequate care when they have too many people to care for which is caused either by reduced staff or increased loads. The nurses are not the problem here...........

[GoldenOldie]

15. When nurses strike, it is to save patients and themselves!

Any Nurse that works within the confines of a hospital, works a12-hour shift and are being given2-3 times the safely authorized critical care patients, to care for. They are often have to do this without any breaks, which usually include bathroom breaks, meal breaks or rest breaks. Because Hospital Administrators are always cutting costs, to insure their own self-image, Nurses are working with medical equipment that is broken, out-of-date, orand classified as one time useage. Al though they are required to report, but they are normally ignored.

[Mr.Bill]

16. California, where this strike is taking place,

Has nurse-to-patient ratio laws and other laws that prevent conditions you are describing, and they are vigorously enforced.

But these laws wouldn't exist (they don't in many states) if it were not for the lobbying efforts of the California Nurses Association. Nursing strikes in California are most often about patient safety directly or working conditions for nurses that relate to patient safety. They are seldom about money with California nurses being among the highest paid in the nation.

My wife is a retired RN and a former CNA union rep and organizer for Nurses United.

[marions ghost]

17. CA nurses

[DrBulldog]

19. Yet another reason why I have always stayed away from Kaiser.

"Medicine with Mediocrity" has been their motto all these years.

[locks]

20. It may very well be that Kaiser

has done a mediocre job in your state. I have heard lots of complaints about Kaiser in CA but I have had Kaiser in Colorado since 1975 and it has been very good and far better than our other HMOs and insurance plans here, both care and cost.

[dreamnightwind]

23. Kaiser absolutely sucks

In my own experience they are terrible, the worst plan I have ever been a part of. I am in California.

They have great public relations people, they know how to look like they care, but they cut corners on patient treatment. They spend a ton of money on empty front-end feel good messages which are relentlessly advertised on T.V. and radio, while they find infuriating ways to deny patients drugs and treatment.

I am just piping up here for balance, I've seen a few posts in this thread that make them look like a wonderful institution. I've been with them the last 8 years or so and I have never disliked any corporation this much, ever, which is saying a lot. There are some good people that work there, for sure, it's hit and miss like anywhere, but institutionally it is all about cutting expenses and looking good while doing so, a smiley face on a piece of crap.

Good luck to the nurses, they are the heart of any health organization and need better staffing and resources.

[Live and Learn]

24. I have to disagree. I have had Kaiser in CA since I was 5.

It has had its ups and downs but now is definitely one of the up times.

My spouse had a stroke last year and was treated at the for profit hospital close to home for several days before being transferred to a Kaiser facility. The difference was remarkable.

The for profit room was very small and dingy, the nurse very pushy, the food was awful and visitation was extremely limited.

Kaiser on the other hand, had a large airy room with a sofa bed for visitors. Visitation was not limited at all and was in fact encouraged by the cheerful staff. The food was very pleasing (chosen from a restaurant style menu complete with health information regarding the meals) and guests were welcome to order off the menu as well (for a very fair price). A cheerful garden within view of the patient.

I wouldn't have believed the difference if I hadn't experienced it myself but Kaiser was far superior.

How have they cut treatment? That hasn't been my experience. In fact, I find them to be a bit annoying in their constant notifications that I am behind in my pre-emptive health tests.

Their computer system is also outstanding and very easy to use for patients and healthcare workers.

I am extremely pleased with the direction Kaiser has taken in Southern California.

[dreamnightwind]

25. I'm glad you had a good experience

I won't go into the difficulties I've had with them, it would take an incredible amount of time to detail. I know people here who like them and people here who don't. I spoke from my own experience, as you did.

I am in northern California, not sure if there are regional differences, I think it's more likely that we've just run into different aspects of their system, or that we use different criteria to come to our opinions.