Gina Palandri writes, "I was just wondering if anyone else on forum has a loved one in one of our local Mpls nursing homes and may have noticed the Mpls nursing home market is "down" and so they are slimming the staff down in wards? Slimmed down to an 11 resident to 1 aide...Love to hear if anyone else is experiencing this-" I suspect that one of the reasons for the Minneapolis nursing home market being down is the high "turnover" of residents. The life expectancy of nursing home residents, from time of admission, has decreased considerably since the 1980s. And that has something to do with declining quality of nursing and medical care.
In 1985 the Minnesota legislature rescinded minimum staffing requirements and created incentives for nursing homes to downsize the nursing staff. Based on my experience as a nurse, I suspect that staffing levels for nursing assistants are less than half of the old legal minimum in a large majority of nursing homes in Minneapolis. Another reason for high resident turnover is changes in medical practices. In the mid 1990s, doctors working for at least one of the HMOs stopped prescribing antibiotics to patients with restrictive airflow disorders (e.g., chronic bronchitis, emphysema) without an X-ray showing consolidated pneumonia. Under circumstances where nurses had been able to get the doctor to order an antibiotic, we had to watch and wait for the inevitable progression of a respiratory infection. The docs often ordered large doses of morphine to help my residents deal with the discomfort of oxygen starvation. How compassionate! I figure that this change in medical practice is helping HMOs with their bottom line. -Doug Mann, LPN, King Field candidate for city council, ward 8 http://educationright.com/blog REMINDERS: 1. Be civil! Please read the NEW RULES at http://www.e-democracy.org/rules. If you think a member is in violation, contact the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
