Save St. Luke's Hospital
Save St. Luke's Hospital
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Testimony before the BOS Operations and Neighborhood Service Committee Nov 29, 2007 Re: working conditions on 9th floor and permanent closure of 10th floor of St. Luke’s Hospital My name is Mary and I have worked for St. Luke’s Hospital as a bedside nurse for 33 years. My current position as an RN doing specialized IV inserts takes me frequently to the 9th floor. The two 4 bed wards approximately 30 feet from the nursing station represent a nursing challenge that should never happen in a civilized country. Sometimes all four patients are calling for help but because of the noise at the nursing station they cannot be heard and they are too confused to use the call light system .Without supervision, these patients are often left to their own devices-pulling out IVs and other tubes, creating increased costs and nursing interventions. Often one patient will assume the role of “captain” and facilitate care in the ward. A lot of times I see trays of food left uneaten because there is no time or staff available to feed the patients All the rooms are packed with aging beds, deteriorating cabinets, personal belongings, commodes, walkers and other assistive devices. There is no privacy for toileting or personal care needs. Our previously present, hands on managers had the 2 bed wards converted to 1 bed rooms and the 4 bed wards became 2 bed rooms. The 10th floor was open. In addition 10 took all of our surgical cases, in particular our post-op ortho cases. Everyone found the arrangement to be conducive to good nursing care. In fact, this arrangement worked so well there was a huge reduction in medication errors and less missed treatments. The din at the nursing station on the day shift is so distracting you cannot think let alone find a chart to make a note. The area is completely impacted with nursing staff, visitors, doctors, nursing and medical students, case management and therapy employees. In spite of this and the fact that we are the lowest paid and have the worst benefits of all the CPMC hospitals-people like to work here. But we have a lot of trouble recruiting and retaining nurses at St. Luke’s. Currently there is a plan to cut back 5 RNs from 9, not taking into account we lost 5 after Dr. Brotman’s speech to the employees in October. He spoke about his plans to close the hospital. As for reducing the 9th floor’s infusion center’s availability from 5 days a week to two, if there is concern about the down time of the fantastic RN who works there, she could help out WITHOUT TAKING AN ASSIGNMENT, so she is available for all the unplanned infusion requests from the doctors’ offices. I would like to see a powerful recruitment and retention tool developed at St. Luke’s and not just posters of our tired faces with the heading “ Rediscover St. Luke’s”. There is nothing to rediscover. It is the same old barely surviving plan that is demoralizing and produces burnout. I believe the nurses and the patients would thrive if positive energy and not just lip service were a part of the experience of being a staff RN on the 9th floor at St. Luke’s Hospital. |
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