Massachusetts regulators revoked or suspended the professional licenses of 13 nurses after discovering recently that the health care workers lied about having nursing degrees or being licensed in other states, health department documents show. The action sparked questions about the background checks state regulators rely on to issue licenses to thousands of nurses and applicants in 10 other health fields, including pharmacists, psychologists, podiatrists, and optometrists. And the discovery raised the unsettling prospect that patients might have been treated by health care workers with fraudulent credentials, although regulators said there is no evidence so far linking the nurses to any patient safety or quality of care issues.
In 2012, Medicare began to use the results of patient satisfaction surveys to calculate how much they would pay hospitals. They called it the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey—a short questionnaire asking patients what they thought of their stay—and used it to withhold up to 1.5% of revenue from hospitals that scored poorly. In an industry that survives off of razor-thin margins, hospitals heard the message loud and clear: protect your money by keeping patients happy. Ever since, the healthcare system has been looking to the hospitality industry to learn how to improve the patient experience.
Rising patient numbers combined with a booming need for more care has created growing demand for more nurses in Montana that's putting extra strain on health care facilities across the state as they race to fill the need. "I know that our members are having huge issues with staffing their nursing staff," said Casey Blumenthal, vice president of the Montana Hospital Association. "There’s not a continual pool of people (to fill the jobs), especially in the small towns." But, at least in Montana, some help may be on the way in the form of new programs designed to seek out, educate, train and retain qualified health care workers.
When Donna McDevitt, 51, went through nursing school, her instructors wore nursing caps and white stockings with white shoes. They were hardcore, McDevitt said, dedicated and selfless. You never called in sick. You skipped lunch. You didn't go home until your job was done. McDevitt relished it. Her work became her life. She worked 25 years as an intensive care nurse, first at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and then at Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital, closer to her home in St. Charles. The years of walking the hallways, moving beds and equipment, cleaning wounds and lifting patients took a toll.
A proposal by Representative Hazel Rogers of Lauderdale Lakes would require hospitals to track injuries and form committees. The Florida Nurses Association has no formal position on the bill. But Jeanie Demshar, a director, says FNA members are complaining about the problem. "You've got back injuries, you have shoulder injuries and I've heard it causing sciatica down the back and the leg. I'm sure there's upper back injuries as well, but mostly lower back." But a National Public Radio investigation credited Baptist Health Systems in Florida for aggressive policies that reduced lifting injuries 80 percent. Martha DeCastro, vice president for nursing with the Florida Hospital Association, says Rogers' bill isn't necessary.
Two Tristate nurses employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs are among those who have relaunched a federal lawsuit against the federal government, claiming they were forced to work overtime but were not compensated. Thirty-three nurses from VA medical centers across the country have joined the suit filed in the Court of Federal Claims. The nurses charge that the VA "expected, required and induced" them to work overtime performing View Alerts, an electronic health records system, according to the lawsuit. VA officials and the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys defending against the lawsuit would not comment while litigation continues.