RNs Urge Tougher Federal Oversight on Unproven Medical Technology on which Hospitals Spend Billions

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National Nurses United is calling on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enact meaningful oversight and public protections on the use of unproven medical technology that is rapidly spreading through the nation’s healthcare system. NNU, the largest U.S. organization of nurses, made its appeal in formal comments submitted Monday to the FDA which has just concluded a comment period on its proposed “Risk-Based Regulatory Framework and Strategy for Health Information Technology Report.”
National Nurses United
Jul 8, 2014

Big bucks are driving big data

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The current rage for building, selling and using “bedside analytics” and big-data technologies is all about financial gain for investors and corporations, it is not about the best interests of the public. Whatever advances the Kaiser technology offers are all proprietary and hidden. Nothing is tested/vetted scientifically by other academic experts.
Modern Healthcare

John Nichols: High court ruling not the death knell for public-sector unions — yet

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There were undoubtedly justices on the most anti-labor U.S. Supreme Court in modern judicial history who wanted to strip public-sector unions of their ability to collect dues from workers they represent. But they were not quite prepared to strike the devastating blow that labor activists feared would be delivered Monday.
John Nichols, The Capital Times

High-Tech Health Gadgetry: Not All That Glitters Is Gold

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We’ve launched a national campaign intended to emphasize the point that all that glitters is not gold. Our campaign describes a number of changes occurring in healthcare delivery at the bedside that RNs believe are putting patients at risk. These include the premature discharge of patients to other settings, including the home, where the burden for care falls entirely on family members.
Deborah Burger, RN

RNs to Picket Doctors San Pablo Today, Stepping Up Call for County to Keep West County Hospital Open

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Following a decision last Tuesday by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors to table a sales tax to, in part, help embattled Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo, DMC registered nurses today announced plans to hold a picket today to demand the county assume operation of DMC with existing revenues and retain it as a full service hospital. Anything less than a full service hospital would abandon residents of West Contra Costa County and expose hundreds of thousands of area residents to the threat of no emergency and hospital care in their community, RNs said.
California Nurses Association
Jul 1, 2014

Michigan Nurses Association Endorses Patient Safety Advocates

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Leaders of the Michigan Nurses Association, Michigan’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses, have issued their second of two rounds of endorsements in state House and Senate races.
Michigan Nurses Association
Jun 30, 2014

Tell Your Legislators to Support the Rate Regulation Ballot Measure to Protect Patients

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The California Nurses Association has endorsed an important patient and consumer protection measure that will be on the ballot this fall. It’s a measure to rein in the spiraling rates and premiums charged by the health insurance industry by requiring them to justify their price hikes. This Wednesday legislators, that spent the past decade opposing rate regulation legislation, will hold a hearing in Sacramento to discredit the ballot measure. CNA members will be there to rally and participate in the hearing to let them know why the measure is needed.
Deborah Burger, California Nurses Association/National Nurses United

RNs: Rulings Continue Corporate Tilt with Further Attacks on Democracy, Women, Worker’s Rights

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The Supreme Court ruling today limiting the collective voice of Illinois home care workers continues a dangerous pattern of undermining democracy as well as eroding the rights of workers to have a collective voice through their unions, and signals a desire for broader restrictions, said National Nurses United, the largest U.S. organization of nurses. NNU also blasted a second court ruling sharply limiting access to reproductive healthcare for women by allowing corporations to refuse to provide contraceptive care in health coverage.
National Nurses United
Jun 30, 2014