Dirty hospitals

[GreyEyes]

I'm watching Marketplace right now and they're talking about improper and insufficient cleaning techniques by cleaning staff in acute hospitals. What they've discovered is mind boggling. I think we all know that hospitals are in general great places to pick up germs but how can they be allowed to be as filthy as described on the show?

I think most hospitals contract out for cleaning services...Mom am I right? Last place I worked was Northwood and they used their own cleaning staff. They were people hired off the street and were given minimal training in infection control.

Sounds like nothing has really changed. I swear, if something happened to me and I woke up in a hospital I'd be out of there so fast the nurses heads would spin.

[mr. mom]

You are not wrong GE, except the nursing home bit, they are well inserviced on infection control etc in the homes and for the most part well staffed.  Now that being said the new nursing homes have a minimum of housekeeping staff and the rooms etc are being cleaned and maintained by the CCAs, who now also do the laundry.  I have been told that because they have cleaning to do the residents get less or the rooms are not done properly, probably a combo of both.  Our union has been lobbying the gov to apply the standards and staffing of the older homes but so far it has fallen on deaf ears.
  At the hospitals they cut way back on staffing levels when they contracted out, the also cut wages of course and went for cheaper cleaning products as well as rationing of supplies.  I was told by one who retired that she was disgusted by how bad things had gotten by the time she left.  There was actually a study linking the cost effectiveness of improved cleaning vs the cost cutting.  It found that the increase in paying for drugs and treatments associated with longer stays due to acquired problems in hospital, it was cheaper to hire more staff etc and improve cleaning standards.  again fell on deaf ears.  Hospitals would rather cut in areas that folks do not see an immediate effects from like cleaning.

[GreyEyes]

It's really that bad then. My god, humankind is screwed if more importance is placed on the almighty buck then cleanliness.

I also had no idea that CCAs were cleaning and doing laundry in some facilities! I'm speechless....  

[mr. mom]

It's really that bad then. My god, humankind is screwed if more importance is placed on the almighty buck then cleanliness.

I also had no idea that CCAs were cleaning and doing laundry in some facilities! I'm speechless....  

Oh it gets better they also do the heating and serving of the meals as well as light meal prep.

[GreyEyes]

Oh my god Mom! I can't believe this! How did it come to this? CCAs were created for bedside nursing care. Period. When did they change the job description and how in the hell did they get away with it??

[mr. mom]

Oh my god Mom! I can't believe this! How did it come to this? CCAs were created for bedside nursing care. Period. When did they change the job description and how in the hell did they get away with it??

Part of the eden and holistic approach to nursing homes.  They want consistency of staff and a minimum of people working around and with the "clients" they are not residents anymore.  They are saying that a nursing home is their home not an institution, so therefore it should be set up like a home care enviroment, in home care the person coming into the house is not a group of people but only one who does it all.  Sounds nice but we don't provide one on one in facilities, more like one to 6/7 on days and 1 to 12 on nights.  Makes doing it all a little difficult and in the case of dementia means there are even fewer people to supervise.  This came out of the states, and the government has lapped it up as the new greatest thing ever.  Of course folks don't become CCAs to clean toilets and empty garbage cans.  I don't know of too many folks that want to shell out 10k for a course and not be allowed to do what they are taught.  In most homes they do two out of every six weeks in the kitchen, so by the time they go back to the residents a lot can have changed.  We actually had a few residents admited because families had them transfered to our facility, they could not stand the new model.  They found that they never knew who was supposed to be taking care of mom or dad because they would say oh I can't do that I'm in the kitchen this week or I'm doing laundry etc.  And of course staffing in the new places is horrid, I know one that has such a hard time they are forcing overtime on staff  and they are not allowed to take breaks.  I know of one person who never got a single break in 12 hours because there was no one to relieve them, they were the only person there all night.  One person worked a 16 hour shift and a few hours after they got home was ordered back in for another 12 hours.  When I say we have major problems with long term care I have not been kidding but it does not seem to be on the radar because the work is getting done, folks will kill themselves rather than have grandma not get her care done.  The only stories we see are of staff abuse or neglect, not the everyday horror the staff themselves live with or the abuse they take from residents and families, it is swept under the rug.  We cannot keep people and in the new homes the problems are much larger.  The hospitals are eating up CCAs like crazy and with good reason, CCAs get treated better there.

[GreyEyes]

When I read the phrase "holistic approach" I was taken back to when my oldest daughter was in elementary school and they had just incorporated the holistic approach to reading comprehension. The program failed miserably and many of my daughter's peers went on to graduate high school while functionally illiterate.

What you're describing Mom is bullshit! Not from you but this asinine program. It's absolutely insulting. The only reason our government lapped this up was because it would save them money - they wouldn't have to hire as many cleaners and laundry workers and kitchen aids! OMG I am flabbergasted!

The public needs to know about this. You're right, the only time a nursing home hits the news is because of alleged resident abuse. The public needs to know about the nursing staff abuse by our very own government. 

[mr. mom]

Yup, and on night shifts it is downright dangerous, one cca for an entire unit of 12, no help close by in an emergency, only a float who can be called by phone.  Don't drop it if being attacked I guess

[GreyEyes]

It sounds like something out of the 1950s. Good god, by today's standards my days at Northwood and Oakwood were idyllic.

[mr. mom]

It sounds like something out of the 1950s. Good god, by today's standards my days at Northwood and Oakwood were idyllic.

It's all about quality of living for the clients...... ya right.  It all looks good on paper and the families lap it when they are told about all the rights they and the "client" have but the reality is that we do the best we can but the expectations of most are impossible to grant.  I would love nothing better than to be in a position to influence the changes that really need to happen as opposed to merely suffering under the poor decisions that have been made.  A lot of us have lost our hope of a better future for us and our co workers and definitely are heartbroken about what we cannot do for our residents.  In a lot of ways it has become quite hopeless and many have packed it in and many more are counting the days to either getting out or retiring.  Folks who I knew loved their job that just cannot take much more.  They look to me and I have nothing to offer because I only see it deteriorating and us struggling just to keep what we have contractually and working even harder to try and do things for the residents while we get fewer resources to do it with.

[GreyEyes]

I've been thinking about the residents/clients during both our conversations here. If they staff are so unhappy - and I'm now seeing why they are - how are they? Staff in the 80s/90s when I was still working had what I would call medium to heavy workloads but they also had time to spend with their residents i.e. socializing, listening to them, laughing with them and holding their hand as they were dying.

I built up "friendships" with so many of my residents....OK I admit to being the charge nurse but I made a point of working right beside the PCWs and assigning a few residents to myself - one would be heavy care.

Do you have that now? Are your clients suffering right alongside you all?

[mr. mom]

When i started GE we would take shifts to ensure no resident died alone, most times now though, the best we can do is frequent checks, we just don't have and cannot find the time, it is heartbreaking really.  Very little time to sit and spend with them, a few minutes here and there and that is about it, it kinda runs like an assembly line, where by you must not stop to chat as it were or something falls off the line.  In the newer homes they are supposed to spend a half hour of their shift sitting with a resident, at least on paper they are supposed to, I laugh at that because if you have 6 residents that would be 3 hours, when would the work get done.  Christ I don't have more that an hour to spare on a good night and usually I spend that catching up on something not done, paperwork or cleaning something etc, searching for lost items.