Top 5 Tips To Properly Celebrate National Flip Flop Day
It’s time to kick off those weathered, non-slip Dansko clogs and let your toes hang loose, healthcare travelers. National Flip Flop Day is here, and since we’re headed for a sunny weekend according to national forecasts, there’s no better time to slip into a pair of slides and hit the beach. That said, National Flip Flop Day is a very serious and formal occasion, and it’s important to be tasteful when celebrating everyone’s favorite low-key sandal option. To that end, we’ve compiled an exhaustive list of do’s and don’t’s to help you properly enjoy the holiday. 1. Do: Wear them to the beach, pool or on a boat Don’t: Wear them with socks 2. Do: Wear all kinds of different styles Don’t: Wear any that look like this. Ever. 3. Do: Use some DIY to keep your favorite pair in working condition Don’t: Try to make them from scratch 4. Do: Use them scare off predators via GIPHY Don’t: Throw them at people. That’s just rude. via GIPHY 5. Do: Cherish your flip flops above everything else No! This is my flip flop! Don’t: Take out your frustrations on your flip flops via GIPHY
EMR Conversion: Upcoming Opportunities In North Carolina
Two hospitals in the UNC Health Care system in North Carolina will swap from Meditech to Epic during an EMR conversion in the fall. The go-live dates for Epic at Wayne UNC Health Care in Goldsboro and Nash Health Care in Rocky Mount is September 22. The facilities are the latest in the hospital system’s efforts to convert all their facilities to Epic since 2014. The hospitals are anticipating needs in at least these specialties; MedSurg/Telemetry, ICU, ER, and OR. Travel nurses looking to apply are expected to have both Meditech and Epic experience, at least 2 years of experience in their specialty, and some previous travel assignment experience. Additional EMR Conversion needs The Covenant Health System, based out of Knoxville, Tennessee, is finishing up its Q3 rollouts at these facilities: Fort Sanders Medical Center is a 352-bed hospital located in Knoxville near the University of Tennessee campus. LeConte Medical Center is in Sevierville, Tennessee, 30 miles southeast of Knoxville. It’s a 111-bed facility. Two hospitals in the system haven’t been assigned a phase–Claiborne County Hospital and Morristown-Hamblen Hospital. Claiborne County Hospital is in Tazewell, Tennessee, 50 miles north of Knoxville. It has 129 beds. Morristown-Hamblen Hospital is a 128-bed facility located 50 miles northeast of Knoxville in Morristown, Tennessee.
Louisiana Passes Compact Nursing License Legislation
Update, February 19, 2019 at 9:50 a.m. CST: The projected implementation date for Louisiana has changed from December 1, 2018, to July 1, 2019. Original article: Louisiana legislators passed Senate Bill 202 last Thursday, making Louisiana the 31st state to enter the Enhanced Nursing Licensure Compact, according to a Louisiana State Board of Nursing press release. The bill, introduced by Sen. Barrow Peacock and Sen. Ronnie Johns on March 12 and signed into law last week, will enable Louisiana nurses to apply for compact licenses, which will allow them to work in any eNLC states without having to apply for a single state license. It also means current compact license holders can apply for Louisiana jobs after the implementation date. The state has six months to establish eNLC processes, and the current projected implementation date is Dec. 1, 2018, according to the state board press release. “[Passing] Senate Bill 202..was a team effort,” Sen. Peacock said in a statement to the Louisiana Hospital Association. “It was the way the process should work, and it was educating the members of the legislature of the importance of the nursing compact. This is a win for medical outcomes, for our nurses and for the great state of Louisiana.” While the exact impact on travel nurse activity is hard to measure, states that join the eNLC have a proven track record of getting more attention from travelers soon after, according to StaffDNA job board data. The eNLC went into effect early this year, updating the original Nursing Licensure Compact by adding uniform licensure and federal background check requirements. Five non-NLC states joined the eNLC when it was implemented, and Kansas brought the total to six after passing legislation in March. Of the remaining non-compact states, Indiana, Michigan, Rhode Island, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and New Jersey currently have legislation in the works to join the eNLC. To see a detailed map of all states in the enhanced Nursing Licensure Compact, click here.
Outsiders Swoop In Vowing To Rescue Rural Hospitals Short On Hope — And Money
Barbara Feder Ostrov, Kaiser Health News Photos by Heidi de Marco (@heidi_demarco) CEDARVILLE, Calif. — Beau Gertz faced a crowd of worried locals at this town’s senior center, hoping to sell them on his vision for their long-beloved — but now bankrupt — hospital. In worn blue jeans and an untucked shirt, the bearded entrepreneur from Denver pledged at this town hall meeting in March to revive the Surprise Valley Community Hospital — a place many in the audience counted on to set their broken bones, stitch up cattle-tagging cuts and tend to aging loved ones. Gertz said that if they vote June 5 to let him buy their tiny public hospital, he will retain such vital services. Better still, he said, he’d like to open a “wellness center” to attract well-heeled outsiders — one that would offer telehealth, addiction treatment, physical therapy, genetic testing, intravenous vitamin infusions, even massage. Cedarville’s failing hospital, now at least $4 million in debt, would not just bounce back but thrive, he said. Gertz, 34, a former weightlifter who runs clinical-lab and nutraceutical companies, unveiled his plan to pay for it: He’d use the 26-bed hospital to bill insurers for lab tests regardless of where patients lived. Through telemedicine technology, doctors working for Surprise Valley could order tests for people who’d never set foot there. To some of the 100 or so people at the meeting that night, Gertz’s plan offered hope. To others, it sounded suspiciously familiar: Just months before, another out-of-towner had proposed a similar deal — only to disappear. Outsiders “come in and promise the moon,” said Jeanne Goldman, 72, a retired businesswoman. “The [hospital’s] board is just so desperate with all the debt, and they pray this angel’s going to come along and fix it. If this was a shoe store in Surprise Valley, I could care less, but it’s a hospital.” Looking For Salvation The woes of Surprise Valley Community Hospital reflect an increasingly brutal environment for America’s rural hospitals, which are disappearing by the dozens amid declining populations, economic troubles, corporate consolidation and, sometimes, self-inflicted wounds. Nationwide, 83 of 2,375 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, according to the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program. These often-remote hospitals — some with 10, 15, 25 beds — have been targeted by management companies or potential buyers who promise much but often deliver little while lining their own pockets, according to allegations in court cases, a Missouri state audit and media reports. Enticed by such outsiders, some struggling rural hospitals around the country have embraced lab billing for faraway patients as a rescue plan. That’s because Medicare and commercial insurers tend to pay more for tests to sustain endangered rural hospitals compared with urban hospitals and especially outpatient labs. In general, this kind of remote billing is controversial and legally murky, and it recently has resulted in allegations of fraud in several states, according to government documents and media reports. Rural hospital boards, however, tend not to have expertise in the health care business. The president of Surprise Valley Community’s board, for instance, is a rancher. Another board member owns a local motel; a third, a construction company. That lack of experience “leaves them vulnerable in many cases,” said Terry Hill of the nonprofit National Rural Health Resource Center, based in Duluth, Minn. Seeking to distinguish himself from other would-be rescuers who ran into legal trouble, Gertz described his proposal to residents as perfectly legal — a legitimate use of telemedicine, essentially remote treatment via electronic communication such as video. “If you do it correctly,” he said in an interview with Kaiser Health News, “there is a nice profit margin. There [are] extra visits you can get from telemedicine but … it has to be billed correctly and it can’t be abused.” Gertz runs several companies — founded within the last four years —including two labs, SeroDynamics and Cadira Labs, as well as a wellness company called CadiraMD. He pledged in court documents to buy the bankrupt hospital for $4 million and cover its debts, saying he had lined up a $4 billion New York company as a financial backer. Kaiser Health News was unable to locate the company under the name Gertz cited, Next Genesis Development Group. He did not respond to emails seeking clarification on the issue. Gertz, who acknowledged that he had never before run a hospital, was asked at the same gathering whether he had disclosed his “financials” to the hospital board. “As a private entity, I don’t have to show my financials and I have not provided my financials to the board,” he replied. It was not clear whether board members had ever asked. Surprise Valley Health Care District board President John Erquiaga declined to comment. A Sad Decline Surrounded by the Warner and Modoc mountains and forests in California’s northeastern corner, Surprise Valley is home to four small communities. The largest is Cedarville, population 514, at last count. The valley, covered in sagebrush and greasewood, is part of Modoc County, one of California’s poorest, with a median income of about $30,000. The closest hospital with an emergency room is roughly 25 miles away, over a mountain pass. One of hundreds of rural hospitals built with help from the 1946 federal Hill-Burton Act, the Surprise Valley hospital opened in 1952 to serve a thriving ranching community. But it has struggled since, closing in 1981, reopening as a health clinic in 1985, then reconverting to a hospital in 1986. A county grand jury report in 2014-15 found that “mismanagement of the [hospital district] has been evident for at least the past five years.” By last summer, those in charge didn’t seem up to the task of running a modern hospital. By then, it was hardly a hospital at all. Crushed by debt, it primarily offered nursing home care, an emergency room, a volunteer ambulance service and just one acute care bed, with three others available if needed. When state inspectors arrived last June, they found chaos.
Medicaid expansion in Virginia could spur hospital needs, more travel jobs
On the heels of a five-year legislative battle, Virginia lawmakers voted to expand Medicaid this week, which is poised to bring in thousands of new patients to hospitals and, in turn, a potential for increased temporary staffing needs across state hospitals. The Virginia Senate, which is controlled by a Republican majority, voted Wednesday to approve a state budget expanding Medicaid, and the House of Delegates, which originally opposed the expansion, approved it shortly afterward. Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam is expected to sign the budget soon. Nearly $2 billion in federal funds that were up for grabs in previous years will now funnel into state facilities and help provide insurance coverage for an estimated 400,000 low-income residents. Under the Affordable Care Act, the Virginia Medicaid expansion will target citizens with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level—$16,643 for an individual and $28,700 for a family of three. Those who qualify will be able to enroll at the start of 2019. Newly insured citizens could cause growth in patient demand, which, in turn, could lead to increased temporary staffing needs in the state, said Sheldon Arora, CEO of travel nurse staffing agency LiquidAgents Healthcare. Many studies have shown states that expand Medicaid programs under the ACA also see a marked growth in Medicaid enrollment, according to findings published by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Additionally, a 2015 study by The Commonwealth Fund found that primary care physicians who accepted Medicaid reported seeing an increased number of Medicaid patients. “Underserved groups will use healthcare services frequently because they have never had insurance or haven’t had insurance in a while. When they get it, they’ll use it,” Arora said. “We should expect the demand to increase, because hospitals may not have the staff to take care of the influx in new patients, so they will have to get more help from temporary nurses.” Other states looking to expand Medicaid Virginia will be the 33rd state to approve Medicaid expansion, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, but several other states are also working towards expansion approval. Utah Utah residents will vote on a November referendum to further expand Medicaid to serve an additional 150,000 residents. Idaho Medicaid expansion was added to the November ballot after roughly 58,000 Idaho residents signed a ballot proposal in May. State officials are still verifying that all the signatures came from 6 percent of the registered voters in at least 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts. Nebraska Nebraska Democrats started a grassroots campaign encouraging voters to sign a petition to get Medicaid expansion on the November ballot. Organizers have until July 5 to gather 85,000 signatures.
Still Looking For A Summer Travel Job Now? Stay Flexible, Industry Experts Say
With Memorial Day weekend behind us, summer is unofficially here, and some travel RNs who’ve banked their earnings are looking forward to fun in the sun. For others, their next step is getting ready to start their new contracts in early June. But what about the not-so-early birds; the travel nurses who, for various reasons, haven’t locked in a new assignment but still want to work during the summer? They aren’t alone—but that’s not a good thing for those hoping to land a dream summer job. New travel nursing job opportunities haven’t dried up completely, but market demand is stabilizing, meaning hospitals are posting new positions with less frequency compared to the first half of 2018, according to market data gathered by HCT Today. The slow trickle of new jobs has travel agencies fighting tooth-and-nail to get their nurses into hospitals, which, in turn, has caused a surge in the number of viable candidates hospitals can choose from. “We have some clients that will no longer take a (candidate) submittal with a single day off on it,” said Jennifer Pomietlo, a director of client advisory at LiquidAgents Healthcare. “Why? Because they are getting more than 40 candidate profiles for every job.” Travel nurses have several ways they can stay competitive during this high-volume period, according to feedback from staffing agency recruiters and sales staff. Keep preferences flexible and profiles sharp Two months ago, getting a recruiter to negotiate with a hospital for more approved time off or shorter contract length might have been an easier task. Now, nurses have to get in line with dozens of other candidates, some of which have no scheduling conflicts or contract stipulations. “Hospitals are also looking for more specific years of experience based on specialty,” Pomietlo said. “Instead of a nurse saying they have six years of RN experience, hospitals want to know if they have two or more recent years of experience in ER if that’s what they are being submitted for.” Nurses should work with their recruiter and agency to put their best foot forward–in other words, that means avoiding compliance delays, providing a clean resume with the right information, and prepping for the interview. Don’t wait when you see an opportunity If you find a job board posting that looks promising, contact your recruiter immediately and let them know you are interested, especially if the job was posted within the last 24 hours. You may have the best resume in the world, but you also might as well be invisible to hospital staff if your profile is behind more than 30 other nurses who managed to submit their information first. This may not apply to all specialties, but for more common specialties like medical surgical/telemetry, speed is important. If possible, try somewhere new Everyone wants to find a fun vacation state to work in this summer, but waiting for the perfect high-paying Florida contract may not be your best bet if you need a job now. Instead, look for states where travelers aren’t applying and see what opportunities are available. Your chances to find high paying jobs can be much higher in less popular summer travel states like Nevada or Arizona. If you’re having trouble finding good jobs in these states, talk with your recruiter. An experienced recruiter can help you track down a great opportunity that you may have missed.
Nurse awarded $28 million in retaliation lawsuit against Mass. hospital
A nurse sued Brigham and Women’s Hospital for discrimination and retaliation and was awarded more than $28 million by a jury last Wednesday, according to a report from The Boston Globe. Gessy Toussaint filed the suit against the hospital in 2014, which described an incident where she stuck up for a fellow nurse who is also of Haitian-American descent who she believed was a victim of verbal abuse. Following the incident, Toussaint said, the hospital targeted her by investigating her for alleged instances of poor patient care. After three days of deliberation, a Suffolk Superior Court jury said Toussaint did not prove race discrimination but did say that the hospital and manager Mary Ann Kenyon were guilty of retaliation. The full report is available on The Boston Globe.
The Ebola outbreak is spreading—Here’s how it could affect U.S. travel nurses
UPDATE, 1:51 P.M., MAY 22, 2018: Health officials began a vaccination campaign today to combat the growing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a World Health Organization report. With more than 7,500 doses of the vaccine at their disposal, the campaign will first target health workers operating in Ebola virus disease-affected areas, followed by a “ring vaccination” pattern which will focus those who’ve had immediate contact with confirmed Ebola cases. Those who’ve had contact with those contacts will be treated as well, forming a defensive “ring” of vaccinations around each case. More than 600 points of contact have been identified to date, according to the report. The death toll rose to 26 since last week and there are 46 probable, suspected or confirmed cases in the region. Most have been confirmed in Bikoro, but four cases have been confirmed in Mbandaka so far, which prompted a quicker response from health officials because of the city’s size and location. “We need to act fast to stop the spread of Ebola by protecting people at risk of being infected with the Ebola virus, identifying and ending all transmission chains and ensuring that all patients have rapid access to safe, high-quality care,” said Dr Peter Salama, WHO Deputy Director-General for Emergency Preparedness and Response. Original Story DR Congo Health Minister Oly Ilunga Kalenga confirmed a case of Ebola virus disease today in Mbandaka, according to a BBC report. The disease spread to the metropolitan city of about 1 million residents from the rural town of Bikoro about 80 miles away, where the outbreak was officially declared last Wednesday. Since Mbandaka is major transportation hub because of its ease of access to the Congo river and the capital city of Kinshasa, World Health Organization officials say there’s a potential for a rapid increase in new cases. So far, there have been 44 total potential infections in the region, with three confirmed cases of EVD and 41 probable or suspected cases, according to WHO reports. “This is a major development in the outbreak,” senior WHO official Peter Salama told the BBC. “We have urban Ebola, which is a very different animal from rural Ebola. The potential for an explosive increase in cases is now there.” The WHO will discuss the potential of the disease spreading beyond the Congo in an emergency meeting Friday. They will decide whether to declare an international public health emergency, similar to the Western African Ebola outbreak in 2014-16. You can read the full BBC report by clicking here for more details. How it could affect travel nursing jobs in the U.S. If the WHO declares an international health emergency, it could affect policies and procedures at hospitals similar to the recording-breaking 2014-16 outbreak, which saw more than 28,000 confirmed cases of EVD and 11,310 deaths, including two deaths in the U.S. The disease first entered the states on Sept. 30, 2014, after a man who traveled from West Africa to Dallas was confirmed for EVD, according to a CDC report. The man later died from the disease, and two healthcare workers who cared for him later tested positive for the disease, which they recovered from later. During this period, U.S. hospitals adopted new Ebola safety policies at large–especially for Dallas-area facilities–including required Ebola training modules for travel nurses, Travel nursing staff was also required to complete questionnaires about their recent travel history and review forms related to wearing protective equipment. Some hospitals still require prospective travel nurse staff to submit Ebola compliance documents, but it has largely fallen out of practice in the past two years. That could change if hospitals decide to take a more proactive approach in the wake of this outbreak. Staying on top of compliance is already a major hurdle for travel nurses, so adding Ebola compliance requirements will throw another wrench in the works. There’s also the issue of the disease itself, which is highly dangerous because of its ability to spread rapidly through short contact with bodily fluids and its hard-to-detect early stages. You can learn more about EVD diagnoses, preparedness and prevention information on the CDC website.
Nurses at San Francisco hospital protest Zuckerberg name after Facebook scandal
Nurses at one of San Francisco’s largest hospitals took the ‘Zuckerberg’ out of Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center on the heels of Facebook’s privacy scandal. Protesting nurses taped over the sign last Saturday, saying the name makes patients uncomfortable, according to a New York Times report. “We are in charge of keeping our most vulnerable people private and protected,” nursing administration employee Heather Ali told the Times. “Now people wonder, ‘How much is my privacy protected at a hospital with that name on it?’” The hospital added Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan to the hospital’s full name as a result of a $75 million donation to the facility in 2015. You can read the full New York Times report here.
Kaiser proposes change to national labor partnership amid nursing union fractures, continued protests
Negotiations between healthcare company Kaiser Permanente and members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (CKPU) remain tense as nurses across the state continue the third and final week of planned protests at Kaiser-owned California facilities. Members of both parties met on May 7 to discuss details of the Coalition’s Labor Management Partnership, which was established between Kaiser and CKPU in 1997. Kaiser presented their new potential blueprints for this partnership, which would focus on individual bargaining with local union contracts expiring in 2018 or those who are entitled to wage reopeners, according to a company press release. The company plans to maintain provisions of existing agreements while bargaining new contracts, according to the release. “We asked union leadership to review our proposed improvements to the partnership agreement and provide feedback,” the company said in the press release. “The next step is to work in partnership with labor to have a final version of a new partnership agreement in the coming weeks.” CKPU fired back against the new bargaining format, saying the proposal represents a “top-down, unilateral” move that limits the coalition’s ability to negotiate under unified terms. “The unions of the Coalition are completely committed to Partnership and the great work we’ve done together, but any changes to the Partnership need to be discussed in national bargaining,” said Walter Allen, executive director of Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 30 in a press release. Healthcare workers at Kaiser Antelope Valley say, “Get your priorities straight, Kaiser! You made a 22% increase in profits from 2016-2017 — but you’re still trying to outsource jobs and lower wage scales.” #HealthcareJustice @BernardJTyson @RamonfBaez @DrRichardIsaacs pic.twitter.com/nAtauqza5D — SEIU-UHW (@seiu_uhw) May 10, 2018 In the meantime, California Kaiser workers will continue to picket healthcare facilities regarding claims of job outsourcing and layoffs until the end of the week. “I am confident our members will take unified action to say enough is enough,” said Ron Ruggiero, president of SEIU Local 105 in a release. “We deserve a great new contract and any partnership worth its name must be on equal terms. Our union, and our Coalition, are clear that this is what we are fighting for.” Union disputes delay contract negotiations The longstanding terms of the partnership, as well as the original dates for the National Bargaining, were thrown into disarray in March after more than half of the local nursing unions split from the CKPU one day before negotiations were scheduled to occur. Twenty one local unions with about 45,000 members split from CKPU, forming a new union called the Alliance of Health Care Unions (AHCU), according to a report from nwLaborPress. The remaining 13 unions in the CKPU still retain more than 80,000 members, most of which are based out of California. During a union meeting in 2017, SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), the largest union in CKPU, pushed for more influence over CKPU decisions making. Additionally, SEIU-UHW made aggressive moves against Kaiser without overall CKPU approval, negotiating in private meetings and threatening to push contract issues to voters with a ballot initiative. Members of the newly formed AHCU said they had good partnerships with Kaiser and wanted to continue those relationships while still maintaining a unified voice–outside of the influence of unions still a part of the CKPU. The new union’s executive director Peter diCicco, founder and executive director of the original CKPU from 1997 to 2006, said joining AHCU feels like coming home. “But we’ve got our work cut out for us,” diCicco said in a press release. “We’re working to establish a new structure that builds on what worked best with the prior coalition, while addressing internal coalition issues that became obvious in recent years and ultimately drove the creation of this new Alliance.” The AHCU has not announced their plans for negotiating with Kaiser, but the potential is there for a compromise that satisfies both parties. The California Nurses Association, a union with National Nurses United that’s separate from the CKPU, successfully negotiated a tentative contract with Kaiser in April with provisions targeting staffing enhancements, wage increases and employee benefits.