I have to say I am glad to be getting out because medicine is losing its human side. The focus of hospital administration's these days is money, staying in business. In order to stay in business all attention is focused on meeting criteria. JCAHO pretty much controls hospitals . They decide how things should be and threaten loss of accreditation and therefore, loss of government money which would close most hospitals. Administrators live in fear of their visits.
Then there are the certifications. All hospitals are in competition with each other so there is a rush to rush to be a certified chest pain center, stroke center, trauma center, magnet status, etc, etc, etc. Banners are hung proclaiming the hospitals achievements but no one talks about the millions spent to be able to put up those banners.
Hospitals are paid based on patient satisfaction. Companies are hired to measure that satisfaction and improve it. Millions are spent.
As we know only too well, shit flows downhill. At the bottom of the hill sit the nurses. More time is spent scrutinizing whether or not we are filling in all the blanks than anything else. We are called to task if not enough, or, the right blanks aren't filled in. We get email after email about JCAHO current focus, the chest pain certifiers possible questions.
In between all of this, we squeeze in patient care.
