The Amazing Explosion of "Excellence"

Very well said. It is much more appealing to tout beautiful new facilities with waterfalls and flat screens than to show actual statistics. The never ending dualing billboards are nauseating.

We won the Missouri quality award in 2010 and I think 2007. In 08 or 09, a hospital in the next town won it and put up a billboard right in front of our hospital. Ridiculous, I said. First of all, it's a business leadership award as opposed to a healthcare quality award. Fine, I see what is important. We just got new flatscreens in every room. Who gives a flying $&*!. I got a 1.88% raise last year. Maybe that paid for one of those TVs. and I still have 7:1 patient ratios. We censor our speech so that our Press Ganey Surveys will trigger a positive memory. Maybe if we had proper staffing and training and better communication with doctors, there would be better and better outcomes. Who cares how many abdominal surgical patients ended up with an ileus or on stepdown with afib RVR because their meds weren't continued for days. Their family memebr got coffee with three creamers every morning. It doesn't matter if they got good care, they just have to think they did.

I had to delete my entire post of what I really thought.

it is so easy for a hospital to set all kinds of ridiculous standards that can never be practiced because of ratios. if you talk the talk you better be able to walk the walk. unfortunately most cno's and/or cfo's have no idea what goes on nursing units daily.

WTH is a center of excellence anyway? To me they call themselves excellent just for doing what they should be doing. And the public really doesn't buy it anyway. I think that they use buzzwords to avoid addressing the cause of complications such pressure ulcers, falls, VAPs, BSI's, surgical site infections. Those causes being inadequate staffing and bad medicine. I would like to work at a hospital that publishes their Nurse Patient ratios, mortality and morbity reports. Forget the glossy brochures, tell me the infection rates for a TKR or CABG. I want to know how many hospitalists cover the house at night. I want to know how many nurses hold certification in their specialty areas and how are they compensated for that credential (I get nothing for my CCRN).But if they told the truth now no one would want to go there, would they?

NayRN, you said it all:"It doesn't matter if they got good care, they just have to think they did.

I'd like to copy this entire article and send it to my UM. Would you mind if I did that?You have an amazing way of putting down coherently and concisely exactly the message I want to get across to management.

I would be happy to have you pass the article along to your UM. Thank you for your encouraging words.I'd love to hear the UM's reaction.

Interesting - a local hospital brags on huge billboards all over town that a patient gets "seen" in 30 minutes or your care is free. Of course "seen" means triaged by a nurse and the public thinks it means seen by a physician. I was visiting my fil a few months ago when he had gallbladder surgery and the rooms were amazing. The TV's were on this long arm that could be pushed up out of the way into a corner or brought right to eye level within inches of the patient's face. But the CNA's and Ward Clerks were still scarce. Since the ratio law, RN's are pretty much alone on the job. I don't know how to fix things - you pass a ratio law and then other staff gets cut to pay for more RN's.

Quote from Spidey's momInteresting - a local hospital brags on huge billboards all over town that a patient gets "seen" in 30 minutes or your care is free. Of course "seen" means triaged by a nurse and the public thinks it means seen by a physician. I was visiting my fil a few months ago when he had gallbladder surgery and the rooms were amazing. The TV's were on this long arm that could be pushed up out of the way into a corner or brought right to eye level within inches of the patient's face. But the CNA's and Ward Clerks were still scarce. Since the ratio law, RN's are pretty much alone on the job. I don't know how to fix things - you pass a ratio law and then other staff gets cut to pay for more RN's.