Alexandra Robbins is the author of “The Nurses: A Year of Secrets, Drama and Miracles with the Heroes of the Hospital.” She recently wrote an article for the New York Times titled “Skip the Fancy Towels and Hire More Nurses,” which discusses how hospitals are going about providing more concierge-type services.  Flat screen TVs, monogrammed towels, gazebo patios for patient smoke breaks, fancy gyms, pool and even expresso machines. None of these luxuries are for use by hospital … [Read more...]

I recently read an article on a study from The Journal of the American Medical Association concluding that hospitals make more money by administering poor care. This shocked me.  The study analyzed the per incidence contribution margin relative to cases in which patients suffered from surgical errors. As a result of these complications, patients needed additional treatment and additional time in the hospital. Rather than draining hospital resources, the study indicated that hospitals actually … [Read more...]

As health care continues to progress, more and more new technologies are adopted in the hopes of improving the industry. However, not everyone benefits from technological changes. One topical technological addition to the healthcare industry is the use of tele-ICUs, a branch of telemedicine defined by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses as, “networks of audiovisual communication and computer systems that link critical care physicians…and nurses to intensive care units (ICUs) in … [Read more...]

Recently a petition appearing on the website change.org was directed to members of the American Nurses Association (ANA).  Titled “ANA: No More Staffing Committees, We Want a National Nurse-to-Patient Ratio Law,” it called for action and urged readers to neither join nor renew membership to the Association. The blaming of the ANA here for the short-staffing issue does not help in addressing this crucial topic. The ANA was behind the recent “Safe Staffing Act” in Congress, but the bill … [Read more...]