Yesterday, Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross provided readers with more information and insight into the nurses’ one-day strike on September 22 at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley. The columnists explained that the nurses blame the hospital executives for the cuts in patient services while the hospitals claimed that nurses’ salaries are the reason for it. In comparison to executives’ salaries and other expenditures, nurses’ paychecks only account for a small portion of the total budget. I found it very frustrating that the hospital executives responded by blaming the nurses rather than reevaluating the budget in the times of economic difficulties to maintain the hospital's quality of care.
As a public health student at UC Berkeley, I propose that Sutter Health executives need to allocate more funding to patient care. Sutter Health only invests $750 million to community benefit and patient care while it disproportionately invests $6.5 billion into accelerating technology and construction (sutterhealth.org). It’s unethical and unreasonable to invest this much money on technology and construction at the expense of patient care. The rising costs of health care for Alta Bates’ patients could be solved if executives at Sutter Health can better allocate and prioritize its budget.
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ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Tuyen's arguing in that executives should make it a point to seek the best for patient's health above all things...not their checks. I can understand that Health executives might be extremely educated and good at their jobs, but yet no amount of work that they do could possibly justify them getting paid $1-4 million dollars a year. According to Transplant Living, the average total cost of a single heart transplant in 2007 was $658,800. Why should someone's paycheck cost more than a heart that provides health and life? That's right, it shouldn't. Why not invest that money in patient care and allow someone out there who needs, say a heart, continue to live?
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