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Sunday, July 28, 2013

PRMC Takes Away Two Vacation Days From Entire Staff

It isn't about growing pains. PRMC is in deep trouble financially. Top Brass explains to Staff they lost $4,000,000.00 last month and have already lost more than $1,000,000.00 this month and something has to give.

The choice, either they have a major layoff OR each employee has to give up TWO vacation days. The employees, (of course) chose to give up the vacation days. 

It's been reported that PRMC is so understaffed they have been shutting down beds in the Emergency Room at night, have allegedly closed two wings in the older portion of the Hospital and they are NOT hiring people to help out with being understaffed. We're told IF you happen to go to the Emergency Room at night you'll have to wait up to 5 to 6 hours. 

Salisbury News learned many long term employees have simply had enough with all the additional pressure and work that they are leaving and going elsewhere. 

Now would be the perfect time to add the following link about PRMC Executive Bonuses: 

A Letter To The Editor By Steven Rumney 6-19-13

41 comments:

Bush'man said...

as a "non-Profit" institution.. follow the money.
Steven Rumney's referenced letter to the editor is a must read!
As a self employed small business person, wish I had "any" vacation days.
But it is my choice to be self employed so I am responsible for my decisions.
It really keeps my head clear as to the difference between needs and desires.

Anonymous said...

PRMC isn't broke they could Afford to buy an entire neighborhood to demolish it for parking lots and look at all the additions that have been added when they were clearly not needed.......Give me a break anything that happens to that place in a negative way is a good thing..... As far as going to an ER I go to AGH yet live 4 blocks from PRMC. And for what PRMC charges for care they should be ashamed of themselves they are not Johns Hopkins no matter how much paint and terrible additions they make. Oh did I mention wiping out an entire neighborhood... clowns

Anonymous said...

I hate to break it to everyone.. but this mis-management is not the only cause here---it's called sequester.. and Obamacare upcoming. Also the way Maryland HSCRC tells hospital what to charge(the only state in the USA still using this antiquated socialist model)... go figure

These issues are only going to get worse... people who voted for this President and Obamacare are getting what they voted for... good luck

JoeAlbero said...

Bush'man, My thoughts on your comments is as follows.

While you are correct, you made the choice to be self employed and I completely understand and respect the feeling of not being able to get away for a vacation.

However, many of us who have been self employed have enjoyed financial rewards for taking the risks and managing our money properly.

The majority of Americans are not self employed and when they are hired they have a CONTRACT with their employer guaranteeing them certain benefits. Vacation days are one of them. Those vacation days are earned and it's a way to keep excellent/good employees from seeking jobs elsewhere.

I also agree with you, I encourage all of you to click on the link I have provided in this article and follow the money. While a select few are making millions off PRMC, the hard working and very dedicated employees are being worked to death, (a figure of speech) and being forced to give back what they have rightfully earned.

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine who works there told me they went from 400 beds down to 285 beds because they are so short on employees.

Anonymous said...

Employees Were Not Given A Choice In RegarDs To Taking Away Vacation Days

Anonymous said...

There is certainly an illusion here - as I tend to agree with 9:44Posting.

Look - PRMC bought The Daily Times site, virtually every habitable dwelling around it. It is currently building new structures, being remodeled, the heliport was re-built as the original heliport had a design was flaw that created winds.

Now I can tell you what the problem is - there are no jobs in and around Salisbury. All of the businesses have left - and the only ones that remain are low paying unskilled - (many restaurants & food establishments). Add to that, no immigration policy - and bingo - cash flow problems. Add OBAMACARE - and we have an economic crisis. It is happening everywhere and the only one that seems to cover these local events is SBYnews. KUDOS to SBYNEWS!

Anonymous said...

There are no decent employers left in Salisbury. The hospitals financial dilemna is a reflection on our hostile business environment.

Anonymous said...

Once Obama care kicks in there won't be enough doctors on staff to put Band-Aids on boo-boo's.

Anonymous said...

I don't see how two days vacation loss will help the situation. Sounds like a "Watch my Right hand, not my Left hand" deal to me. Ob' does it all the time.

Anonymous said...

I thought they just paid big bonuses to the ceo

Anonymous said...

In the past 15 years, PRMC has been doing major construction around the original structure. Were these really need? Renovation is one thing, completely new construction, one wonders. At least two of the head honcho's received bonues that are way above the household incomes on the peninsula; that money should go back in the hospital coffers. Down from 400 beds to 265? I'm thinking people must be living with the pain rather than having to pay large sums of money for ?? care. I have never used PRMC; a frien of mine was disgnosed with breast cancer through a Baltimore hospital after PRMC had given her a clean report. How, pray tell, does this happen. She was smart enough to know something wasn't right and looked for a second opinion. I hope and pray that I will not need to used PRMC for medical care at any time in my life.

Anonymous said...

they took 2 vacation days from all the employees and then gave a 4% raise to the nursing staff

Anonymous said...

Nurses were just issued raises tho. I think about two weeks ago.

Anonymous said...

You should also ask your sources about the employee "engagement" survey: ask them how the scores turned out (I'm betting they didn't even get 80%) and ask them who got raises and who didn't.

Anonymous said...

Who cares, this is not a public owned business. You people should mind your own business.

Anonymous said...

Some employees received 4%, some 2%, and some 0. Either way, it is no where near what it should have been. If the upper echelon are making MILLIONS, they could do better for their peons!

Anonymous said...

The Corporate Compliance Officer threatened the employees of one department. He said that they WOULD find out who the person/persons are that are making complaints. Hmmmm....... I thought this was an anonymous way to voice concerns? Why have the hotline if you are threatened against using it?

Anonymous said...

With the CEO's recently published pay for the recent past - they might find employees hard to keep around and hard to recruit.

One of the other major employers here in the SBY area is having a hard time finding a specialty director in one of their technical departments - nobody wants to come to Salisbury and end up pigeon-holed in a location with no diversity in employment prospects....sure they do a half-a$$ed job in the recruitment portion.....but retention is easier if done correctly.

Anonymous said...

I will only add to the list that during this sequester, my understanding is that Medicare is paying 2% less for reimbursement. Mathematically I am sure this has made a dent in profits, but there is a difference between actually losing 4 million or stating they lost money because they did not make what they expected their earnings to be, and many corps use that as if it was a loss, when in fact it is not. Either way, its always the low man on the pole that gets screwed, never the big wigs.

Anonymous said...

The gentleman conducting the meeting laid the blame at the feet of O'Malley, not Obama. One is as bad as the other, no difference really.

Anonymous said...

My sister-in-law told me 10 days ago they had to close down a portion of the hospital due to lack of help. I was sure it was due to money issues. Anyway, I would have never given up those 2 days. It would hurt the hospital more if they had said "NO"! Ever heard of scare tactics? I doubt they will lay off anyone. They just aren't hiring when people either retire or quit. Just wait until we hear that our doctors are not accepting new patients. That is coming next if not already. We are getting very few new docs in the area. Only one I have heard about is at TLC and that is a pediatrician. Wonder how long they will stay? We need allergists and dermatologists and ear, nose and throat docs. Sure would not want to undergo any surgery anytime soon.

Anonymous said...

Some of this is slightly skewed..

We (as employees) were NOT given the choice about the vacation days. Though I would agree it's the correct choice given the choice between losing 2 days or layoffs.

Wings have closed because we just don't have the patients to fill those beds. Why spread 250 pts across 10 units (just random numbers) when they can be given more attention by more hands if consolidated into 8 units?

As far as the ER at night, beds in the ER always close at night because the ER is traditionally "slower" at night. There is not a 5-6 hour wait EVERY night, though admittedly it does happen from time to time. You can chalk this up to the shootings, stabbings, and drunk driving accidents that seem to show up at our door EVERY night.

Anonymous said...

Heard the CEO of PRMC will be a lecturer at SU teaching Management and Marketing. Is this true?

Anonymous said...

Funny they could have 300 people (managers) attend a seminar at UMES to learn the "Toyota Way" of management. A year ago Naleppa wanted everyone to learn the "Disney Way" of management. I guess she has no management skills. If she did, she wouldn't need to use everyone elses style. How in the hell can Toyota know anything about a hospital?

Anonymous said...

One of the departments that has seen a mass exodus is the Electrophsiology Lab. They recently lost an R.N. of almost 20 years. Why? They have a doctor that treats them like slaves. He refuses to let them take a lunch break on most days. Some nights he makes them stay late to acccomodate his office schedule, after they have been there all day.

This department is suffering from exhaustion and low morale, which in turn will affect patient care. They have one nurse left. When they need more than one nurse, they pull nurses from the Cardiac Cath Lab. One of those nurses suffers from an extrememly bad attitude. He openly states that he gets paid the same whether his patients live or die. He also says he wishes that his boss would just fire him. This behavior has been reported to his superiors, but he is still employed.

The Cath Lab has their own set of issues as well. They have four Radiology Techs, one of which must be on call at all times. This becomes tiresome for them. Call consists of Monday-Friday from 5p.m. through 7 a.m., and all day on Saturday and Sunday (48 hours). While the Electrophysiology Lab has four techs also, they are not helping out with the call in the Cath Lab. Cath Lab staff have requested from their Directors that the EP staff help with call, but to no avail. When on call, they must be able to be at the hospital within 30 minutes. These are the folks helping to save victims of heart attacks.

Seeems to me that both of these departments need more help.

Anonymous said...

Those consultants ( whoo-wee paid a lot of $$$$) that came in last week will straighten ALL of this out! You just wait and see. Just bring in more people to tell us how to do it right and then just ignore their expensive advice. It ALL makes perfect sense. Thats what Toyota does - they've never had recalls..

Anonymous said...

Look at the make up of the board, thats's were your trouble is.

Anonymous said...

Naleppa, et al, needs to go. The hospital is a comedy of errors...bad attitudes, bickering nurses, no teamwork, sex on the job, inflated bills, uncaring bunch of employees from the top down...I could go on and on. Salisbury should (and most people are) be ashamed of PRMC.

Anonymous said...

This place is a joke. Naleppa and Lunsford tell us we are losing 2 vacation days to help improve the income of the hospital only to find out the truth is that our 2 days were taken from us to pay for the hige raise for the nurses.. You know, because the nurses, Dr's, V.P.'s and directors are all better than the rest of us.

Anonymous said...

They also told us we were losing the 2 days vacation in order to avoid layoffs. I heard today that the layoffs are coming next month. Either the board gets rid of these goofballs in senior leadership or we need to organize.

Anonymous said...

Maybe I am offbase here but I keep hearing about all the things the execs are taking from the employees...so what are they taking from themselves? I've heard they don't pay for health care. I've heard they have their own retirement. I've heard they get large annual bonuses. I've heard they get memberships to Green Hill. I have yet to hear any of those things they are giving up as part of these reductions. Is it all supposed to come from us? Something doesn't feel right about that. How does the board make sense of this? Isn't this the communities hospital?

Anonymous said...

The compliance officer is a joke. Other than napping in his office, what it his purpose? Easy, he gives the appearance of increased regulation while doing nothing more than drawing a paycheck,

Anonymous said...

We need a union.

Anonymous said...

How does it make sense to take every leader offsite for the day to learn the "Toyota Way" (what a waste of time) when we are losing over 1 millions dollars a month? PRMC is a ship floundering in the storm and NO ONE is at the helm. We are in a crisis and all the exec's want to do is add more work to us. This place is NUTS!!!!

Anonymous said...

It is appalling to me that the executive staff had meetings with the employees to explain why they are taking our vacation time. They said it was to save jobs. They said it was because the hospital was loosing money. One reason being because Medicare was cutting back on reimbursement for treatment.
They never mentioned anything about giving the nurses a 4% pay increase. They did not know this at the time of the meetings? They can implement a decision like that in that short amount of time? They stood there up there and looked at us, and the whole time they knew they were going to take our vacation time and use the money to give the nurses a raise? Some nurses just got a raise between $3.00 and $5.00 per hour, now additional 4% top of that?
How unfair, it takes more than nurses to make PRMC function. What about the clerical staff, techs, food & nutrition, lab workers just to mention a few?
Is our experience and expertise not worth paying for? Is it because we don't have a union to threaten PRMC with?

Bruce Ritchie explained to us that Medicare is cutting it percentage but the cost of living is going up. Like we don't know the price of living is going up? We have been getting no or 1% pay increase for how many years? Our insurance goes up every year? combine cost of living and insurance going up and pay increase......we are making less money every year. And you want to explain what it is like to try to make it with less money coming in? Shame on you for being so deceitful to your employees.

Anonymous said...

I have been around PRMC for a long time and I can tell you that EVERY year they start this SAME sad story! We have no money and we don't want to lay you off so we aren't able to give you a raise only this time it's gone a little further and they actually are taking away what you work for and earn - your PTO (vacation) days. What an absolute disgrace!! Maybe they could pay the useless "executives" less and give the staff a raise and not take their days. I can guarantee you that hospital could run without any of those high paid administrators but bet you butt it couldn't run without the staff in all departments! We need union representation and we need it quick.

Anonymous said...

"The Toyoto Way" is a type of management which apparently Peggy hasn't read yet. It states that employees should be hired within and taught the job - not bought as were several of them including her and Lundsford! So if we are gonna do this, maybe we should get rid of them and promote from within! It also is about Team Work which is something the exec's know NOTHING about. They are requiring all managers to read this god awful boring books times 4 or five, sum them up, tell them how it relates to PRMC and then go to a one day class to discuss it! This is done on your off times when you should not have to be thinking about this BS. Its a joke because first of all it will never happen, and secondly the very ones who are requiring this are in the classes and NO ONE will be honest because if you are.....start looking for another job cause that's how it goes.

Anonymous said...

Ask Yourselves if any of this sounds familiar:

"Intimidating and disruptive behaviors can foster medical errors,(1,2,3) contribute to poor patient satisfaction and to preventable
adverse outcomes,(1,4,5) increase the cost of care,(4,5) and cause qualified clinicians, administrators and managers to seek
new positions in more professional environments. (1,6) Safety and quality of patient care is dependent on teamwork,
communication, and a collaborative work environment. To assure quality and to promote a culture of safety, health care
organizations must address the problem of behaviors that threaten the performance of the health care team.
Intimidating and disruptive behaviors include overt actions such as verbal outbursts and physical threats, as well as passive
activities such as refusing to perform assigned tasks or quietly exhibiting uncooperative attitudes during routine activities.
Intimidating and disruptive behaviors are often manifested by health care professionals in positions of power. Such behaviors
include reluctance or refusal to answer questions, return phone calls or pages; condescending language or voice intonation; and
impatience with questions.(2) Overt and passive behaviors undermine team effectiveness and can compromise the safety of
patients.(7, 8, 11) All intimidating and disruptive behaviors are unprofessional and should not be tolerated."

That is from the Joint Commission. But frankly, it describes Lunsford and Naleppa to a tee. The question is, why aren't they being held to the standard that this reflects? Lunsford is the biggest organizational bully since Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner. When will the board do something?

Anonymous said...

We need to unionize, has anyone started the ball rolling? I will be looking online to see if I can figure this all out and get a union rep to meet with us.
The morale in the Operating Room is at dirt level. We are constantly being sent home early or being told to stay home for entire shifts. Then, depending on the manager's mood at the time, your vacation is either taken away from you, or you are made to take it without pay.

Anonymous said...

the enviromental department is racist and the supervisors make the white people do all the work and the director of enviromental Cj has sexual relations with employees and was arrested in the medical center november 2012 and has since been promoted. way to go prmc! hire criminals to manage the cleanliness of the hospital.