Preparing for Failure, Fighting for Survival

The nurse crouches over to examine the bleeding patient in the crowded emergency room. The loudspeaker cracks, and an authoritative and threatening voice comes on, “all nurses who have not completed their charting will be hunted down.” A bead of sweat forms on the nurse’s head and the patient says, “Gee that’s sounds draconian.”

For those new to the Dirt, in good financial times county supervisors leave the public hospital alone, neglect has been the prevalent approach of the county supervisors to the medical center. In tougher financial times the supervisors consistently “bad mouth” the institution, berating it for providing expensive medical services to the indigent and failing to reap a profit (this is the mission of the hospital and the legal responsibility of the county).

So when the most recent financial crunch hit, the sups supported a tax to provide financial support for the hospital (Measure A) and when the tax passed they developed a pay back plan, so the hospital, could actually give money back to the county. Now no competent hospital management team would sign off on this plan so the politicians hired, consultants, Cambio Healthcare Solutions. They have managed to run off and retired many skilled employees, they upgraded executive titles and salaries and they have gotten the hospital in deep doo doo with ”regulatory bodies.”

Anyone who works in healthcare knows the fear and dread that inspections from regulatory bodies inspire. So how does a high-end top draw consulting giant like Cambio Healthcare Solutions approach the impending invasion of inspectors? Well consultants don’t make their money in smooth running well-oiled healthcare delivery machines, chaos and crisis is what drives their business. A well-planned failure, now that would necessitate more consultants, there would be cost cuts, blame to assign, reports to write and layoffs to implement. It’s a consultant’s wet dream.

A strategic belly flop, well Cambio laid the groundwork over the last year by running off nursing staff and replacing them with temps and travelers. Many of the nurses who will be attempting to comply with Medicare and Medi-Cal regulations are visiting from Canada. They don’t even have Medicare in Cananda, in Canada nurses treat patients not the medical chart.

Managers keep introducing more and more new forms to nurses who have more and more patients. Nurses can’t fill out the tons new forms, which have been introduced in the last two weeks if they don’t have nursing assistants to help them with patient care. While nurses get crushed under unbearable patients loads, hoards of managers run around auditing charts and threatening nurses.

The terms “patients” or “quality care” have not come up in the numerous mandatory meetings, which mangers attend in preparation for the coming inspection. Why last week a hoard of mangers was seen slaving feverously over the chart of a patient who had died weeks before. It is the strong sentiment of many Highland clinicians that quality documentation is most effectively achieved through quality patient care and that sane staffing would allow them to better achieve both.

One caregiver said trying to provide quality care and appropriate documentation in the current atmosphere of hysteria and blame was like trying to fry an egg in the back of Winnebago heading down Highway One with a drunk at the wheel. While Cambio Healthcare Solutions does all they can to fail the upcoming inspection, medical center employees have risen to the challenge, they plan to beat the odds and pass.