Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job • Hacker News Board

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#141

Post by Jtsummers » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:40 PM UTC

yobbo wrote: post #130

varelse wrote: post #95

I suspect one could go a long way towards solving this by announcing that unvaccinated covid cases will get zero health insurance coverage. Make exceptions for those that truly cannot be vaccinated but to hell with everyone else. Going further, make society difficult to navigate for people unwilling to be vaccinated or wear masks and our frontline workers will have much better lives. Why are we compromising our quali…

> unvaccinated covid cases will get zero health insurance coverage Most unvaccinated are probably already without health insurance. Vaccination essentially follows socio-economic status, and has the lowest density in blacks and hispanics. Going door-to-door, or "vaccination buses", or things of the line might help.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/virus-unvaccinated-ame...

Some interesting statistics on the situation.

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#142

Post by adolph » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:41 PM UTC

varelse wrote: post #95

I suspect one could go a long way towards solving this by announcing that unvaccinated covid cases will get zero health insurance coverage. Make exceptions for those that truly cannot be vaccinated but to hell with everyone else. Going further, make society difficult to navigate for people unwilling to be vaccinated or wear masks and our frontline workers will have much better lives. Why are we compromising our quali…

Also smokers?

Also drunk drivers who wreck?

Also people who abuse drugs?

Also people without documentation?

Also those who don't accept blood letting?

Also people who make bad decisions?

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#143

Post by e40 » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

Ancalagon wrote: post #140

MattGaiser wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it absurd that we allow medical staff to work 24 hour shifts. We don't let pilots do that. We don't let truckers do that.

Anyway you slice this problem it just sounds like hospitals aren’t hiring enough employees. Sure maybe transitions produce errors but then I’d argue you had overlapping shifts where your prior carer was transitioned to a new one over a period of hours.

> Anyway you slice this problem it just sounds like hospitals aren’t hiring enough employees.

Over the decades hospital administration has grown (because health insurance is complex). Seems obvious that money would be better spent on people that provide healthcare to ease the pain of those currently providing it.

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#144

Post by citizenpaul » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

Hospital workers are like education workers in that they are spoiled. (not all of course but a huge percent)

Education workers already get over 4 months of leave every single year built into the job, they are almost unfireable for any infractions. Yet they want higher salaries even though in national stats they already make over the median salary by quite a bit. (yes there are bad pay areas)

Hospital workers are making a killing right now on par with crazy dotcom boom tech salaries. Due to the already in place massive bonus systems they have. Yet they are walking off for extra bonuses? Sounds spoiled to me.

Bracing for what will likely be the most downvoted thing I have ever written.

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#145

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

armchairhacker wrote: post #28

I've never worked as a nurse or doctor but it's hard to imagine what they go through. Every day they deal with people in serious pain, people with traumatic injuries, rude people, rude people with traumatic injuries, screaming children and babies. Apparently nurses in particular are also routinely disrespected by higher-ups, put in danger by higher-ups, and don't get paid much. In college I heard insane stories from…

Most girls I've been on dates with said it's very boring. It's not like ER. If anything they usually say that certain patients get really annoying. Blood, fecal, urine, etc done even bother them.

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#146

Post by dagsdgfhdgdj » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

Filligree wrote: post #30

linuxftw wrote: post #14

All the lockdowns started because we didn't want to overwhelm the hospital system. In the US, the hospital system, at least the ERs were already running on fumes. Our politicians have decided it's better to play world police and kill people overseas than invest in community hospitals. All the billions handed out to the vaccine companies and the propaganda machines, but no investment in increasing hospital capacity. T…

> All the lockdowns started because we didn't want to overwhelm the hospital system. In the US, the hospital system, at least the ERs were already running on fumes. Our politicians have decided it's better to play world police and kill people overseas than invest in community hospitals. America had more ER capacity than I think any other country on the planet. Perhaps due to a lack of preventative medicine? I don't k…

> America had more ER capacity than I think any other country on the planet.

ICU capacity per capita is larger in Germany and Austria at least.

Source: https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/en/data-insights/intensive-...

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#147

Post by e40 » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:43 PM UTC

originalvichy wrote: post #2

It was unexpected but still somehow expected since many of them were already overworked before covid hit. Turns out the healthcare systems didn't get overloaded by just the virus, but also the years or decades old issues bubbling under the surface. Nurses all the way in Finland are voting with their feet as well. Management that isn't up to par, working hours, pay... David Graeber's essays about how caring work is bo…

It's the same with service sector workers. Having months off, many are realizing actually how shitty their jobs were. I highly recommend yesterday's The Daily podcast. They talk with a bunch of small business owners and service sector workers. Very illuminating.

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#148

Post by mdorazio » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

Filligree wrote: post #30

linuxftw wrote: post #14

All the lockdowns started because we didn't want to overwhelm the hospital system. In the US, the hospital system, at least the ERs were already running on fumes. Our politicians have decided it's better to play world police and kill people overseas than invest in community hospitals. All the billions handed out to the vaccine companies and the propaganda machines, but no investment in increasing hospital capacity. T…

> All the lockdowns started because we didn't want to overwhelm the hospital system. In the US, the hospital system, at least the ERs were already running on fumes. Our politicians have decided it's better to play world police and kill people overseas than invest in community hospitals. America had more ER capacity than I think any other country on the planet. Perhaps due to a lack of preventative medicine? I don't k…

I'm going to need to see some data to back that claim up. ED crowding has been a major problem in the US, but not really so much in Europe, Hong Kong, etc. [1] If you mean total capacity, that's a bad comparison because the US population is huge compared to most developed countries, so of course if capacity needed is a % of total population then the total capacity will be similarly large.

[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1553-2712....

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#149

Post by eitland » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:45 PM UTC

xadhominemx wrote: post #91

armchairhacker wrote: post #28

I've never worked as a nurse or doctor but it's hard to imagine what they go through. Every day they deal with people in serious pain, people with traumatic injuries, rude people, rude people with traumatic injuries, screaming children and babies. Apparently nurses in particular are also routinely disrespected by higher-ups, put in danger by higher-ups, and don't get paid much. In college I heard insane stories from…

> Apparently going on shifts working 72+ hours non-stop is the norm. Absolutely not and it’s insane to even think that could be true.

Might be true some places but FWIW its not like that everywhere:

Around here the absolute maximum I've heard about is 12.5h and that includes at least two mandatory breaks.

Re: Hospital exec says employees are walking off the job

#150

Post by EricRiese » Thu, Aug 05, 2021, 3:46 PM UTC

The graph shown when talking about daily cases exploding was a graph of cumulative hospitalizations with the y-axis not starting at 0, to make an increase from 360k to 380k look like a tripling. Do better CNN.