Slice and Dice:4
5/29/09
12:27 AM
Page 12
Hospitals are using the recession as a
W
hen transplant patients,
geriatric patients, or those with
serious wounds are discharged from
University of California Los Angeles
Medical Center, registered nurses
from the hospital's home health
department are dispatched to follow
up on their care. These RNs change
their dressings, make sure they are
taking their proper medications,
and teach them how to take care of
themselves. Perhaps even more importantly, home health RNs are continually
assessing patients to determine whether they are healing, or backsliding in their
recovery.
"If you don't pick up on a rejection in a transplant patient, they can go in two
days," says one experienced home health RN. "If you don't sense their blood pressure going up, their temperature going up, that their wound looks red, they could
go that fast."
Despite its value, the UCLA home health department has run a deficit for
years. Yet the 30 RNs working in that unit were stunned to learn that management had decided to completely shut down home health by the fall and instead
refer patients to private home health agencies – agencies they believe are ill-prepared to handle the complex and acute cases the UCLA nurses regularly treat.
"They said it was 'financially not feasible,'" said the same home health RN,
who asked that her name not be used because she is still depending on UCLA to
By Lucia Hwang
12
REGISTERED NURSE
W W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G
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