A lot of experienced travel nurses avoid HCA facilities. I worked at one in VA. One of the top 3 worst hospitals I ever worked in outside of El Paso, TX and Newark, NJ. Being a nurse is immensely terrifying once you figure out how lazy and uneducated some of your colleagues are.
I worked as a telemetry tech in college (thankfully at a higher quality hospital than this). Telemetry techs are paid little more than minimum wage - this health system could have easily hired more staff.
They could never afford it with all the Christmas bonuses they HAVE to dish out to their higher ups. Their kids need new cars. They don’t care about staffing or even taking care of the staff they have. It’s sad.
If it was his wife or family, the manager or the floor would make sure they got special treatment And would give them only 1 Nurse (if ICU), or a lesser patient/easier load for the Nurse caring for them. It's ridiculous.
Yes, we can effectively monitor 60 people. So long as techs are trained and we have **effective communication tools**. I work in a huge hospital. The biggest problem is getting someone on the phone when we immediately see the patient’s arrhythmia or change in vitals. It’s no different when we work on the floors. If we cannot communicate the problem to the nurse, we can’t abandon the telemetry station. It doesn’t matter if we are 100 feet away or if we’re multiple floors away. It’s all about the ability it get the information to the nurse. Someone needs to answer a phone call. But well trained techs can and do effectively monitor 60 patients without a problem. And it doesn’t matter where they are. Centrally or from the floor they’re monitoring. It’s less chaotic than it sounds. And we can (and do) monitor more than just ECG.
The alarms are going off all the time in hospitals. 02 monitors that are loose on the finger. BP cuffs that don't fit quite right. Leeds with sticky pads that get disconnected. Sit in a hospital ER for hours and you'll hear the alarms going off every 5 minutes. And a few staff are expected to serve all of the patients that show up unpredictably. Unless a particular patient is under emergency observation constantly by dedicated staff, there is just no way to keep up with the alarms. They would need to hire people to just constantly monitor the alarms at each station, and then check on them immediately. Since most of those alarms are random non-emergencies, I'm not sure the hospitals will be willing to dedicate that much staff time to it? If you want to keep your family safe, you have to stay by their side during their emergencies. No one will be able to dedicate as much time and attention to them as you. That's been my experience.
💯 having an advocate with you in the hospital is so important and potentially life-saving, BUT I’ve worked as a telemetry tech on the nursing unit. We investigated every alarm. There is absolutely no excuse for these deaths.
During nursing school, I have always been told to stay away from HCA hospitals. Before becoming a nurse, I worked as a virtual telemetry tech and one night we had to file a complaint against our supervisor and facility because we were short staffed and was told to split the extra screens amongst staff which had us getting up from our monitors to look at the next screens. We we already looking at 50 plus patients' monitors smh and to make it worse it was during Covid so the nurses we had to contact were burnt out
When i was at Hospital I was yelling at top of lungs in pain &.staff ingnored me they were not even buisy-they were sitting at the counter accross from me talking to each other about their life the others watching anfootball game, so i got up took my iv fluid thing with me went to counter I told them Im still feeling exstreme nausea that they're nausea medication did not work on me at all and they just continue to ignore me so it's half the time it's profit the other half is they just don't care The Gaslight patience
welcome to capitalism, you wanted to privatize everything to corporations, all you health and well being is now under the mercy of some billionaire whose greed is cutting every little corners to make more bucks. goes around, come around america
As a monitor Tech I have had days with 12 patients, others were we were understaffed and i was responsible for over 130 (they would sometimes throw a non-cardiac trained staff member in to take/make calls). While effective communication tools are important, patient volume and accuity also factor in. It is fact that at a certain point we become more alarm responders than being able to actively spot every change. Just saying when you have double high monitors, and they are 5-10 monitors wide, each with 16 sectors, no one can keep that field of view with the best attention to detail.
When insurance companies own hospitals ... cost cutting permit important medical personnel to be eliminated and "technicians" have taken their place - Cost cutting.
I can assure you that properly trained, experienced “technicians” know significantly more about cardiac telemetry than 90+% more nurses. We spend thousands of hours watching dedicated telemetry. We know the nuances that nurses don’t have the time to learn. Most nurses aren’t even taught telemetry in nursing school. They are taught interpretation in a short hospital class. So don’t sell “technicians” short.
These executives would sell their own mother just to turn a buck. I’m amazed that the lawyers that put these half a&@ generic responses together for HCA don’t get tired. They never want to come on camera which exposes their guilt. HCA is horrible. I wouldn’t work as a nurse there ever again.
A lot of experienced travel nurses avoid HCA facilities. I worked at one in VA. One of the top 3 worst hospitals I ever worked in outside of El Paso, TX and Newark, NJ. Being a nurse is immensely terrifying once you figure out how lazy and uneducated some of your colleagues are.
Thank you Senators Frist and Scott !
Profits must come first and cutting pennies here and there is the name of the game today. Profit not lives are cherished.
I hope these families sue
I worked as a telemetry tech in college (thankfully at a higher quality hospital than this). Telemetry techs are paid little more than minimum wage - this health system could have easily hired more staff.
They could never afford it with all the Christmas bonuses they HAVE to dish out to their higher ups. Their kids need new cars. They don’t care about staffing or even taking care of the staff they have. It’s sad.
If it was his wife or family, the manager or the floor would make sure they got special treatment And would give them only 1 Nurse (if ICU), or a lesser patient/easier load for the Nurse caring for them. It's ridiculous.
Yes, we can effectively monitor 60 people. So long as techs are trained and we have **effective communication tools**. I work in a huge hospital. The biggest problem is getting someone on the phone when we immediately see the patient’s arrhythmia or change in vitals. It’s no different when we work on the floors. If we cannot communicate the problem to the nurse, we can’t abandon the telemetry station. It doesn’t matter if we are 100 feet away or if we’re multiple floors away. It’s all about the ability it get the information to the nurse. Someone needs to answer a phone call.
But well trained techs can and do effectively monitor 60 patients without a problem. And it doesn’t matter where they are. Centrally or from the floor they’re monitoring. It’s less chaotic than it sounds. And we can (and do) monitor more than just ECG.
The alarms are going off all the time in hospitals. 02 monitors that are loose on the finger. BP cuffs that don't fit quite right. Leeds with sticky pads that get disconnected. Sit in a hospital ER for hours and you'll hear the alarms going off every 5 minutes. And a few staff are expected to serve all of the patients that show up unpredictably. Unless a particular patient is under emergency observation constantly by dedicated staff, there is just no way to keep up with the alarms. They would need to hire people to just constantly monitor the alarms at each station, and then check on them immediately. Since most of those alarms are random non-emergencies, I'm not sure the hospitals will be willing to dedicate that much staff time to it? If you want to keep your family safe, you have to stay by their side during their emergencies. No one will be able to dedicate as much time and attention to them as you. That's been my experience.
💯 having an advocate with you in the hospital is so important and potentially life-saving, BUT I’ve worked as a telemetry tech on the nursing unit. We investigated every alarm. There is absolutely no excuse for these deaths.
The magic word's (FOR PROFIT) answers all the questions.
“Non-profits” are just as bad. They just get a better deal on taxes.
During nursing school, I have always been told to stay away from HCA hospitals. Before becoming a nurse, I worked as a virtual telemetry tech and one night we had to file a complaint against our supervisor and facility because we were short staffed and was told to split the extra screens amongst staff which had us getting up from our monitors to look at the next screens. We we already looking at 50 plus patients' monitors smh and to make it worse it was during Covid so the nurses we had to contact were burnt out
When i was at Hospital I was yelling at top of lungs in pain &.staff ingnored me they were not even buisy-they were sitting at the counter accross from me talking to each other about their life the others watching anfootball game, so i got up took my iv fluid thing with me went to counter I told them Im still feeling exstreme nausea that they're nausea medication did not work on me at all and they just continue to ignore me so it's half the time it's profit the other half is they just don't care The Gaslight patience
Where was your care? I’m guessing someplace in the south east. This won’t happen in a union hospital or the Midwest. Or coasts.
welcome to capitalism, you wanted to privatize everything to corporations, all you health and well being is now under the mercy of some billionaire whose greed is cutting every little corners to make more bucks. goes around, come around america
As a monitor Tech I have had days with 12 patients, others were we were understaffed and i was responsible for over 130 (they would sometimes throw a non-cardiac trained staff member in to take/make calls). While effective communication tools are important, patient volume and accuity also factor in. It is fact that at a certain point we become more alarm responders than being able to actively spot every change. Just saying when you have double high monitors, and they are 5-10 monitors wide, each with 16 sectors, no one can keep that field of view with the best attention to detail.
When insurance companies own hospitals ... cost cutting permit important medical personnel to be eliminated and "technicians" have taken their place - Cost cutting.
I can assure you that properly trained, experienced “technicians” know significantly more about cardiac telemetry than 90+% more nurses.
We spend thousands of hours watching dedicated telemetry. We know the nuances that nurses don’t have the time to learn. Most nurses aren’t even taught telemetry in nursing school. They are taught interpretation in a short hospital class.
So don’t sell “technicians” short.
These executives would sell their own mother just to turn a buck. I’m amazed that the lawyers that put these half a&@ generic responses together for HCA don’t get tired. They never want to come on camera which exposes their guilt. HCA is horrible. I wouldn’t work as a nurse there ever again.
American capitalism at its best.