This report is the reason why I won’t work for any HCA hospital. They have quite the poor reputation amongst nurses. Patients should avoid them, they place profit above all else.
I’m a capitalist at heart, but I believe that if you concentrate on delivering a good product, profits will follow. Worrying about profits over all else will eventually come to haunt you.
4 Comments
grumpy51 · February 16, 2023 at 8:28 am
The last HCA facility I worked at (N TX), I ran the OccHealth Dept, which also included Employee Health. HR requested that I put employee health records in their employee files. Nope!! Violation of OSHA (at that time). Things progressed to the point of Nashville coming down and meeting. Corporate asked what was going on, HR stated their request, Corp asked me my response, I told them no……Corporate stated I had done the right thing, excused me, and I understand they had a VERY LONG meeting with HR. (good on them)
But then, hospital risk Mgmt had a meeting with us (can’t remember what for). Anyways, the head of Risk Mgmt made a comment, I stated that violated OSHA (quoting the exact ruling), only to hear her state quote “I don’t care what OSHA says”….. my manager’s mouth hit the floor.
I left soon after and haven’t worked for a HCA (or any other Columbia spinoff) since.
dirtroad · February 16, 2023 at 10:03 am
The article does a decent job of exposing this corporation’s “business model”, but unless you have been in the shit with them it is difficult to understand just how vile it can be.
My experiences mirror some of what was relayed in the article. When blindly following sepsis protocols based solely on algorithms we noted that multiple people were being pushed into acute heart failure due to following the protocol based solely
on numbers, not patient history and exams. So, in a meeting with cabal from the c-suite we addressed the iatrogenic harm of a flawed policy. The answer was “just dialyze them”. So, follow a flawed policy, then place the patient at further risk with placement of a dialysis cath and the subsequent dialysis? You see, the algorithm driven care was more about maximizing revenue, and if we had to escalate subsequent care because of it, well, that is more revenue.
When the hospital was beyond capacity and the physicians (and nurses) were clearly carrying a wildly unsafe patient load I let them know we could could no longer take inpatients until discharges occurred. I was supported in that decision…for about 4 hours. The CEO came back and said sorry, nothing I can do, higher ups in HCA informed him there would be no diversions. Fine, discussed with team, gave and completed my notice, left and never looked back. This was simply the culmination of many other examples.
HCA is at its most basic, a MASSIVE data mining operation. People paid all day to dissect the operation and figure out how to squeeze the nickel until the buffalo shits (even to the point of relying on questionable research so long as it advances the profit margin) . Their primary “duty” is ROI to shareholders, and it hard to tell how far down the priority list patient care is comparatively.
The compensation of those in the c-suite in predominantly based on how the bottom line for each hospital looks, not on guaranteed salary. Those same people must tow to the corporate line completely or they will be pushed out. Those same people dictate the policy for all the worker bees. It is heavy handed and they care not a whit about ending careers of doctors and nurses that don’t follow the narrative.
While they may be the biggest gorilla on the block, they have a filter down affect in the medical industrial complex. Plenty more just like them out there, albeit on a smaller scale.
Kentucky Headhunter · February 16, 2023 at 12:54 pm
People have no idea how seriously effed-up the healthcare industry is these days. And that’s all it is, an industry.
Jonathan · February 16, 2023 at 11:31 pm
Hospitals like this make me wonder if there should be a requirement that all hospitals be non profit.
It wouldn’t fix everything, but removing the profit motive would make a difference in some areas.
I’m surprised their insurance carrier doesn’t have problems with this, or are they big enough they self insure?
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