Potential Sick Time Payout

The Union and the Administration are in negotiations to develop a program to pay RNs for a portion of their accrued sick time. The criteria to participate are being developed. Therefore, we strongly urge all NYPNU RNs to utilize their sick time only when absolutely necessary in order to qualify for this program.

Questionnaire on Breaks

The staff/management committee is developing recommendations to ensure that nurses are able to take their breaks. As a first step, they are conducting a survey. The short questionnaire is located in the 2nd floor nursing office. Please take a moment to fill it out. There is a box in the nursing office for the completed surveys.

Service Excellence

The Administration plans to implement hourly rounding throughout the hospital in August. Phyllis Yezzo gave a presentation to the NYPNU delegates about rounding on July 18th. Rounding is intended to serve the following purposes: decrease patient anxiety, decrease falls, decrease pressure ulcers, improve the patients’ perception of care, and, most importantly, give nurses more time for patient care by reducing patient utilization of call lights. As is the case with AIDET, the Hospital recognizes that some adaptation of the rounding template will be necessary to make it work on particular floors. The Hospital’s ultimate goal is to have an overall patient satisfaction score that is in the 75th percentile by the fourth quarter of 2007. In the first half of the year, we went from the 4th percentile to the 24th.

Attendance Excellence Incentive Program

In the last contract, the Union and Management agreed to a pilot program in which all full-time RNs who meet the contractual criteria—no more than 2 sick or absent days within six months for RNs on alternate shifts and no more than 3 sick or absent days for RNs on 7.5 hour shifts—would be eligible for a $2,500 cash award. There is one $2,500 cash award for each increment of 50 eligible employees. Since the number of eligible employees is 271, there will be 5 cash awards. The list of eligible employees is in the Pink Sheet. The date for the drawing will be set shortly.

Staffing

The administration has been making every effort to fill RN vacancies. As of now, there are no med/surg vacancies, and all Case Management positions have been filled. The current overall vacancy rate is 5%.

See “Sicko”

Michael Moore’s latest film “Sicko” explores the failures of private, for-profit health insurance. Moore opens the film with profiles of several ordinary Americans whose lives have been shattered by health care catastrophes. In so doing, he demonstrates that it is not only the 45 million uninsured who are at risk. Those of us who think we have health care coverage often find out differently when we file a claim. Using humor instead of a heavy hand, Moore details how we got into this mess and then takes us to four countries that provide free medical benefits to all citizens: Canada, Great Britain, France and Cuba. Grab a friend, see the film, then go to http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/ to learn more and take action.