Code green : money-driven hospitals and the dismantling of nursing / Dana Beth Weinberg ; foreword by Suzanne Gordon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weinberg, Dana Beth.

Series:

The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nursing--Massachusetts--Boston.

Nursing.

Hospitals--Massachusetts--Boston--Finance.

Hospitals.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (231 pages) : 1 table

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : ILR Press, 2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

We are on the verge of the nation's worst nursing shortage in history. Dedicated nurses are leaving hospitals in droves, and there are not enough new recruits to the profession to meet demand. Even hospitals that were once very highly regarded for the quality of their nursing care, such as Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, now struggle to fill vacant positions. What happened? Dana Beth Weinberg argues that hospital restructuring in the 1990's is to blame. In their attempts to retain profit margins or even just to stay afloat, hospitals adopted a common set of practices to cut costs and increase revenues. Many strategies squeezed greater productivity out of nurses and other hospital workers. Nurses' workloads increased to the point that even the most skilled nurses questioned whether they could provide minimal, safe care to patients. As hospitals hemorrhaged money, it seemed that no one-not hospital administrators, not doctors-felt they could afford to listen to nurses. Through a careful look at the effects of the restructuring strategies chosen and implemented by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the author examines management's efforts to balance service and survival. By showing the effects of hospital restructuring on nurses' ability to plan, evaluate, and deliver excellent care, Weinberg provides a stinging indictment of standard industry practices that underestimate the contribution nurses make both to hospitals and to patient care.

Contents:

A troubled hospital

No working model for nursing practice

Dismantling nursing

Power contests and other obstacles to providing patient care

Doctor-nurse relationships

Not enough staff

Was quality affected?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-205) and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9780801464911

0801464919

9780801464928

0801464927

OCLC:

1105908829