NOTES ON NURSING
NY Bill Would Mandate Hospital Nurse Staffing Advocates say required staffing of one nurse for every two intensive-care patients and 1-to-4 ratios in regular medical-surgical units will improve patient care, reduce deaths, complaints and readmissions and leave hospitals financially intact.
MA Nurses Ratify Contract with Assignment Limits Highlights of the agreement include contractually guaranteed limits on nurses’ patient assignments for nurses working on the medical surgical units, including no more than five patients on days, an average of five patients on evenings and a mix of five and six patient assignments for nurses on nights.
Nurses Say High Sick and Overtime Costs Related to Nursing Shortages Fewer, more stressed staff caring for sick patients means more workers get sick, she said, adding others work overtime to pick up the slack, causing more sickness — so the cycle continues.
HEALTH CARE
Top Health Insurance Bosses Earn Millions The highest-paid executive at each of the “Big Five” health insurers — UnitedHealth Group, Aetna Inc., WellPoint Inc., Humana Inc. and Cigna Corp. — made more than $8 million each in 2012, according to filings this spring with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
LABOR UPDATES
U.S. Job Market Still Worse Than at Any Point During the Last Downturn Right now, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, there’s approximately one job opening for every 3.1 unemployed persons who are looking for work. That ratio of jobs to jobless has improved an enormous amount since 2009. But to put things in perspective, it’s still worse than it was at any point during the last downturn, which started in 2001.