Quote:
Originally Posted by graciegirl
I am not challenging you, but I have to ask, how can a hospital meet a financial deficit? When the financial climate was tough in industry and the bottom line couldn't be met, hours got cut and people lost some perks and some people were let go.
You can't continue in the red indefinitely. It is obviously NOT an easy solution and something has got to give. Or SOMETHING needs to be refigured. I wish that the cost of charges for any hospital services were the same for the uninsured as they are for the insurance companies...to begin with and that medications were not so extravagantly expensive, although I know the cost of developing medicine is astronomical.
I can wish too. Not an easy answer at all it seems.
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G-Person..you're not asking a wrong question. There are no easy answers. However, let's assume for a minute that there was nothing else that TVRH could do. (I don't believe that for a minute) By cutting all of these incentives away from the professional staff, the hospital is left with choosing from people who essentially can't get a better deal anywhere else. That doesn't bode well for the hospital in general.
There are a set of problems that challenge the hospital that are unique to TVRH. We've talked about lack of beds, lack of an increasing revenue stream and lack of staff. Now, many of the kind of professional people you might want on staff can't live here. If you've got a sharp nurse or other medical professional in their upper-30's or early 40's who would be an asset to the hospital, where will they live? They'll have to commute. So if the hospital is going to pay poorly, why commute and have the fuel expense and travel time? In today's world it doesn't make any sense.
In the letter the hospital administration sent out, there wasn't a peep about consolidating multiple management levels, looking for savings in purchasing or service contracts or other areas of cost savings, only cutting professional incentives.
The vast amount of complaints on this board about the hospital is how slow everything moves. So if you cut the pay of the people who you're counting on to keep things moving, why in the world would they want to work harder for less money..AND..commute?
The letter sent out by the hospital does not sound like a comprehensive plan. It sounds like this was the EASIEST thing they could do. Bad for their staff and bad for their community.