Anyone keeping up with HCA? Interesting news regarding pay and staffing issues. They now owned the majority of hospitals in the greater Nashville area, and shift diff for day shift nurses from 3p-7p has been taken away and holiday diff has been decreased from 6.00 an hr to 5.00. Nevada HCA nurses are leaving and taking jobs in California for safer staffing ratios. Tampa Bay HCA nurses are being laid off and sent home early. One HCA ER in Florida had staffing ratios of 11:1 and hallway admitted patients for 3-4 days at a time. I remember in one hospital orientation being threaten with if they had any issue with a staff member you would never be eligible for employment at any HCA entity. What would that mean if you took issue with any unfairness or unsafe staffing issue? Also was notified "that cameras are everywhere and everything you do is watched". Ok, so what? Well I and some other travelers felt intimidated, not by the camera, heck they're everywhere but by the veiled threat. I urge anyone concerned with health care to research the impact on licensed professionals. At the rate the corporation is acquiring hospitals, it has the potential to affect a large portion of health care professions. I accompanied a critical patient to CT where there was only one CT tech who told me that the techs were cut from 3 tech to one and it wasn't uncommon to be on call after working a 12 hr shift therefore working a straight 18-20 hrs straight by himself.
I've did travel assignments at a couple of HCA facilities, one I loved, the other not so much.
What you were saying about the hospital in Florida sounds typical for the staffing ratios in that state. No offense to anyone in florida (I loved the weather and entertainment) but that's one state I will never work in again.