Hartsell and Associates National Legal Nurse Consultants Newsletter

Hartsell And Associates National
Legal Nurse Consultants

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Federal suit, seeking $340M, claims six hospital systems aimed to suppress wages. A federal lawsuit alleges Detroit-area hospitals conspired to suppress wages paid to nurses.

But a spokeswoman for one of the defendants, the eight-hospital Detroit Medical Center, said nurses' wages rose 6 percent this year and will rise about the same percentage next year.

The lawsuit, which has yet to be certified as class-action, seeks about $340 million in damages from the six area hospital systems named as defendants, Daniel Small, a Washington, D.C. lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said Tuesday.

The suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleges the hospitals shared non-public information about the wages they paid to nurses as a way of keeping wages down despite a nursing shortage.

Named as defendants: Detroit Medical Center; Henry Ford Health System; St. John Health Partners; Oakwood Healthcare Inc.; Mount Clemens Regional Medical Center; and Bon Secours Cottage Health Services.

"We do have indications already that additional hospitals may have been involved, but in an abundance of caution we have not named them yet," Small said.

Bridget Hurd, a spokeswoman for Detroit Medical Center, said nurses at DMC hospitals received a 6 percent pay increase this year, compared to 2 percent for managers. The same type of increase is expected next year, she said.

"This is pretty bizarre to us," Hurd said.

Small said Detroit-area nurses are paid about $51,000 a year on average -- about $5,000 less than he said they would be paid if the market was working the way it should. He said the nurse
plaintiffs will allege hospital human resources officials regularly telephoned each other to share wage information and conspired to keep wages down.

The Detroit area has the equivalent of about 16,000 full-time nurses, he said.

Similar lawsuits have been filed in Albany, Chicago, Memphis and San Antonio.

Several hospitals declined comment, saying they had not yet reviewed the complaint.

Source: Detroit News

(Click Here For Full Article:)
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061220/METRO/612200385&SearchID
=73266638512742

Nurse Staffing Bill
Is Critical

January 31, 2007

Anyone who has spent any amount of time in a hospital knows how critical good nurses are to a patient's care and recovery. A bill before the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee today would require hospitals to develop and implement nurse-to-patient staffing plans for each patient care unit and make them available to the public as part of the new Hospital Report Card.

It is an important bill that we hope the legislature approves. The bill does not require hospitals to have a specific number of nurses in each unit, only that they develop staffing plans, disclose them to the public and "make a good faith effort" to stick to them. With such information available, patients can determine for themselves which hospital will best serve their needs.

The Colorado Hospital Association opposes the measure, worrying that it will drive up costs. Spokesperson Marty Arizumi said the bill "won't do anything to ensure access to care; in fact it may impair access to care." A lobbyist for Exempla Healthcare, Debbie Welle-Powell, says it will make hospitals less flexible. We believe such arguments are a red herring - after all, the hospitals already develop precise staffing plans. This process will allow patients to see how nursing staff levels differ from facility to facility.

Supporters cite many things that can go wrong when hospitals skimp on qualified nurses. Medical instruments might not be properly sterilized; inexperienced nurses get shifted to the intensive care unit, risking mistakes that could jeopardize the patients' care.

Understaffing also places good nurses in highly stressful conditions and in the end drives many of them to leave hospitals, where they are badly needed, and into more attractive nursing jobs. A 2005 study by the Colorado Board of Nursing found that the majority of nurses in Colorado, including 63 percent in the metro area, believed their hospitals were inadequately staffed. Bill supporters believe that if hospitals were to increase their nursing ratios, more qualified nurses would return.

Patients have a right to know what their hospital's staffing levels are, and disclosure will act as a deterrent to staffing plans that fall beneath the industry standards. SB 10 will enable patients to get access to that vital information. Moreover, we believe it will improve patient care in Colorado hospitals.

Source: Denver Post

(Click Here For Full Article:)http://www.denverpost.com/
termsofuse/ci_5128278

Intra-Arterial Thrombolysis Prompts "Lazarus" Phenomenon

February 12, 2007 (San Francisco) — A new study shows almost 25% of patients with acute ischemic stroke experience significant and immediate improvement following intra-arterial (IA) thrombolytic therapy.

Presented here at the American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference 2007, investigators from the Ohio State
University College of Medicine, in Columbus, looked at factors influencing the so-called "Lazarus phenomenon" (LP), in which ischemic stroke patients experience a decrease in National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score by at least 50% within 24 hours following treatment.

        Time to Treatment
               Still Critical

According to the study, the average time to treatment was 208 minutes in patients showing rapid recovery vs 306 minutes in those who did not.

Even though IA thrombolytic therapy can be administered up to 6 hours — vs the standard 3-hour treatment window for IV tPA — it is still important that patients be treated as early as possible to achieve good outcomes, said Dr. Christoforidis.

In addition to time to treatment, patients who experienced immediate and significant improvement following IA thrombolytic treatment were those whose reperfusion was 50% or more and who had good pial collaterals to the ischemic territory.

          Greatest Response
             Within 24 Hours

The study included 108 consecutive patients who underwent IA thrombolysis within 6 hours of symptom onset. However, patients receiving treatment for basilar artery thrombosis were treated up to 24 hours.

"It is not enough just to embed a microcatheter inside a clot. There are different ways of manipulating the catheter so it distributes the [thrombolytic] agent more evenly, and we are investigating this," he said.

International Stroke Conference 2007: Abstract P99.

(Click Here For Full Article) http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle
/552046print

RotaTeq and Intussusception

FDA issued a Public Health Notification to inform health care providers and consumers about
28 post-marketing reports of intussusception following
administration of Rotavirus, Live, Oral, Pentavalent vaccine
(RotaTeq). Intussusception is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that occurs
when the intestine gets blocked or twisted.

Because vaccine adverse events are not always reported to FDA, there may be additional cases of
intussusception following vaccination of which we are
unaware. This information is important in helping FDA and CDC
assess whether RotaTeq may be associated with an increased risk
of intussusception and, if so, to
what degree. Healthcare professionals and others are
encouraged to report any cases of intussusception or other serious
events that may be associated with the use of RotaTeq to the Vaccine
Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Parents should contact
their child's doctor immediately

if the child has stomach pain,
vomiting, diarrhea, blood in their stool or change in their bowel
movements, as these may be signs of intussusception.

Read complete article at:

http://www.fda.gov/cber/safety/
phnrota021307.htm

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interest or comments,
please call or email:

Phone: 423-587-2545
Fax: 423-587-2547
Email: hartsell@hartsellmedconsulting.com

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Or If You Would Like To See A Particular Subject In The Newsletter, Please Contact:

Telephone:
423-587-2545

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hartsell@hartsellmedconsulting.com

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