PATIENT SAFETY CONCERNS REPORTED AT CHS HOSPITALS

REPORT what you're seeing at your CHS hospital or leave an anonymous tip @ 1-800-440-6877

Based on patient care reports compiled entirely from documents written by registered nurses employed in direct patient care at CHS hospitals, including Affinity Medical Center in Massillon, Ohio; Bluefield Regional Medical Center in Bluefield, West Virginia; and Greenbrier Valley Medical Center in Ronceverte, West Virginia. All incidents reported herein are believed to be not only accurate in their particulars but also representative of common or typical assignments. All reporting is consistent with HIPAA guidelines.

ALSO SEE: Patient Billing Concerns

Report Your Own Experience at a CHS-owned Hospital

Patient Care Reports by CHS Nurses:

CHS: Ohio and West Virginia Patient Care Report

CHS: Barstow Community Hospital and Fallbrook Hospital Patient Care Report

Nurses are ever present with their patients. In fact, the primary reason that patients are admitted to hospitals is to receive nursing care. When RNs do not have enough time to care for patients, patients are put at unnecessary risk of adverse outcomes. One such risk is the so-called “failure to rescue.” Because nurses are often the first to detect early signs of possible complications, their vigilance makes timely rescue responses more likely.

In a survey conducted by the National Nurses Organizing Committee (NNOC) in September 2012, 92% of RNs cited unsafe staffing as the number one patient safety concern in their facilities. In some of the facilities, there is no plan in place to ensure that a safe amount of skilled nursing care is available to patients at all times. In others, there is a staffing plan and staffing grids, but they are not followed. Higher nurse workloads are associated with more patient deaths, complications, and medical errors.

When RNs are unable to follow the laws guiding nursing practice, it not only jeopardizes patient safety but also each nurse’s state license. Both the Ohio and West Virginia Nurse Practice Acts (NPA) clearly state the standards of nursing care. The Ohio NPA explains that based on the "health status assessment" it is the RN who determines the nursing care to be provided (4). Thus, in CHS hospitals nurses are accountable for the care they provide but are powerless to influence the decisions that surround nursing practice. None of these three CHS facilities takes into consideration the individual needs of the patient when deciding the amount of nursing care that they will receive, as is required by both the West Virginia and Ohio Nurse Practice Acts.

In addition to inadequate RN staffing, nurses report that there is inadequate support staff, such as nursing assistants, unit secretaries, transporters, and environmental service employees. This creates additional strain on the quality of nursing care that patients receive because the RN then becomes responsible for these additional duties. For example, in one department it is now the responsibility of the RN to routinely dust cabinets and clean other areas of the unit. This practice is reminiscent of early 1900s hospital culture when nurses were treated like domestic servants rather than skilled professionals.

Nurses have repeatedly brought these concerns to the attention of administration and have been repeatedly ignored. In many cases, RNs face hostility when they bring these concerns to the attention of CHS management. Such hostility is misplaced; nurses seeking to fulfill their professional duties are merely advocating for quality care for their patients.

The outcome of dangerously high patient loads includes delays in nursing assessment, delays in the administration of tests and medications, significant changes in patients’ hemodynamic status which go unnoticed and uncorrected, poor patient outcomes, patient falls due to lack of available assistance with ambulation, and increased infection risks. In addition to safety concerns, basic human dignity is being neglected. For instance, patients are left in soiled beds until staff can address these basic human needs—sometimes hours after they should have been cared for.

The Assignment Despite Objection (ADO) forms submitted by RNs at these CHS facilities document attempted suicide, several falls, and patients removing their breathing tubes and IVs. All of these incidents should have been prevented if CHS had responded to nurses’ safety concerns and provided adequate staffing. There is no question that patients are being harmed by CHS’ refusal to act. This is evident in the ADOs but there are indications of substandard care in official data from the hospitals as well.

RN understaffing is dangerous and unacceptable. It contributes to hospital morbidity, mortality, and medical errors. It is outrageous from a patient safety standpoint, and drives up healthcare costs. Most importantly, adverse patient outcomes take a significant emotional and economic toll on those who are harmed. Research studies show that poor staffing contributes to millions of preventable complications for patients and causes tens of thousands of preventable deaths each year.

CHS in these three hospitals has willfully engaged in practices that place patients at risk of harm with the result of inflating corporate profits. Its practices violate national and state standards of nursing practice. When these concerns have been brought to the attention of CHS administrators by registered nurses, they have been dismissed, ignored, and, on at least one occasion, threatened with physical harm. Based upon review of ADO forms it is clear that the most vulnerable patients, those who require the most nursing care, are at greatest risk.