Seems to me.....
Guest
PostPosted: Thu Jul 27, 2006 12:41 pm Post subject: DaVitaland
Careful my clinic is shifting to reuse from single-use. I thought the Gambro buyout and exclusive supply use with Gambro would stop the penny pinching. Obviously not. :roll:
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plugger
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 226
PostPosted: Fri Jul 28, 2006 7:08 am Post subject:
I don't believe they can force you to do reuse if you don't want it. You might try emailing Arlene ( arlene@dialysisethics.org ) and her lawyer friends. I can tell you I did get my daughter off of it after seeing a lot of studies -
http://www.dialysisethics.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=488 . I also recall Arlene mentioning how reuse can make it more difficult to hang on to a transplant - and I can tell you my daughter has had her transplant for almost six years and is still going strong.
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Guest
PostPosted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 7:50 am Post subject:
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/storyPreview.cms?articleId=40855&archive=NAccording to an article from Modern Healthcare. Davita CEO Kent Thiry's total compensation for 2005 was $25,123,863.
That - in very round numbers - means that he made $250 per patient. Did you get $250 worth of value from the CEO? Immagine how great he must feel when he walks through a unit and knows that he gets about $1.60 on every treatment.
I thought the Networks had a great per treatment deal at fifty cents but man they can't touch Thiry's buck and half.
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plugger
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 226
PostPosted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 4:25 pm Post subject: zippty do dah, zippty day
Now, now you must realize the well-to-do have greater needs than the rest of us - they need that Swiss chalet and that yacht. I'm sure all the benefit of making this Thiry fellow rich will start trickling down to staff and patients annnny minute now! The least of which might be being able to imagine yourself in his place enjoying living large. I feel like singing zippity do dah right now! Who needs better treatments and a well-paid staff!
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Guest
PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 9:37 am Post subject: Re: zippty do dah, zippty day
[quote:b434ebacfa="plugger"]Now, now you must realize the well-to-do have greater needs than the rest of us - they need that Swiss chalet and that yacht. I'm sure all the benefit of making this Thiry fellow rich will start trickling down to staff and patients annnny minute now! The least of which might be being able to imagine yourself in his place enjoying living large. I feel like singing zippity do dah right now! Who needs better treatments and a well-paid staff![/quote:b434ebacfa]
Do you guys suggest that this guy turn down the money or better yet, take a vow of poverty and go live under a bridge or something? Being a CEO is like being a professional athlete. It takes special skills and drive that only about 1% of the population possess. Now I know you l*b***l s*c**l***s (I'm not allowed to make political desiginations here) feel that no one person should rise above any other in our society and that we should all scrape the bottom of the barrel together, but guess what....you're outnumbered and outmanuevered. Why do you people constantly begrudge the "haves" just because they are not "have-nots". What this guy makes is irrelevant to the patients and the staff, period.
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plugger
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 226
PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 11:04 am Post subject: You can do it!
I don't begrudge anybody making a nice pile of money - when they earn it. But I'll tell you what I've been seeing over my six years of watching this: I see a field of medicine with the highest mortality rate in the industrialized world, a field of medicine that had a big move by the corporations to take over the independents back in the '90s and early part of this decade - a move that seemed to have resulted in more deaths, worse care, and even more money paid out than before for the privilege (all this from the good folks at
www.usrds.org and their ADRs - even they seem to have had a problem trying to put a positive spin on what has happened). I've seen story after story here from people here about what has been happening when these fine corporations come marching in - put this together with the stats and it does make a formidable argument that what has been going on has been a bad thing.
Then I take a look at the testimonials and videos from places like Lynchburg Virginia and wonder why those sorts of clinics aren't spreading like wildfire (
http://www.lynchburgnephrology.com/index.php?pmenu=NHHD&header=NHHD&info=/index.php&tmenu=Left ). I've got a guess and it has a lot to do with money.
Then I try to keep an open mind and listen to arguments from people who seem to have your point of view of things and the best I get is possibly the obesity and diabetes argument, which my logic tells me might increase the number of patients, but not the stats for mortality and septicemia (something else that went up). I've also seen at least one study that backs me up. Add to that the fact that those of your opinion of things seem to take more time in trying to attack and slander the folks at DEO and other posters than actually building a credible argument, you then to seem only to hurt your cause and any credibility you might have.
But hey, take a moment from telling us folks at DE what terrible people we all are and tell us how Mr. Thiry deserves that big pile of money - maybe we will see the light, I would think there must be something really great he must have done.
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Guest
PostPosted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 12:46 pm Post subject: Re: You can do it!
[quote:87b802a718="plugger"]I don't begrudge anybody making a nice pile of money - when they earn it. But I'll tell you what I've been seeing over my six years of watching this: I see a field of medicine with the highest mortality rate in the industrialized world, a field of medicine that had a big move by the corporations to take over the independents back in the '90s and early part of this decade - a move that seemed to have resulted in more deaths, worse care, and even more money paid out than before for the privilege (all this from the good folks at
www.usrds.org and their ADRs - even they seem to have had a problem trying to put a positive spin on what has happened). I've seen story after story here from people here about what has been happening when these fine corporations come marching in - put this together with the stats and it does make a formidable argument that what has been going on has been a bad thing.
Then I take a look at the testimonials and videos from places like Lynchburg Virginia and wonder why those sorts of clinics aren't spreading like wildfire (
http://www.lynchburgnephrology.com/index.php?pmenu=NHHD&header=NHHD&info=/index.php&tmenu=Left ). I've got a guess and it has a lot to do with money.
Then I try to keep an open mind and listen to arguments from people who seem to have your point of view of things and the best I get is possibly the obesity and diabetes argument, which my logic tells me might increase the number of patients, but not the stats for mortality and septicemia (something else that went up). I've also seen at least one study that backs me up. Add to that the fact that those of your opinion of things seem to take more time in trying to attack and slander the folks at DEO and other posters than actually building a credible argument, you then to seem only to hurt your cause and any credibility you might have.
But hey, take a moment from telling us folks at DE what terrible people we all are and tell us how Mr. Thiry deserves that big pile of money - maybe we will see the light, I would think there must be something really great he must have done.[/quote:87b802a718]
I don't have a "cause" sir. You folks here portray things one way and I portray it 180 degrees the other way (often, only as a response to the doom and gloom crowd here because I know how it aggravates you so...I don't always believe my own spin) and the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. At least I have the integrity to admit I'm jaded toward staff and the industry. You either don't realize how jaded you are, or you simply cannot admit it. Again plugger...all criticism and no suggestion other than to throw more money at it....someone elses money of course.
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plugger
/>
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 226
PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 7:29 am Post subject: Come on! You can do it!
[quote:e84a9d5ba0="Anonymous"] At least I have the integrity to admit I'm jaded toward staff and the industry. You either don't realize how jaded you are, or you simply cannot admit it. Again plugger...all criticism and no suggestion other than to throw more money at it....someone elses money of course.
[/quote:e84a9d5ba0]
What staff are you so trying to help? How about a few favorites in upper management and that is about it. I asked you a question and of course you were unable to answer it and once again resorted to your usual mud-slinging which is about all seem to have in your arsenal. I was hoping for something that would enlighten us all, but you seem devoid of any reasonable argument, stats, studies, or much of anything ? so you of course make attempts to disparage me - yes, that will make me change my mind. Sure, I?m this that or the other thing ? whatever.
And unlike you, I can answer your remark about ?all criticism and no suggestion?. There is one bill in congress that I strongly believe would not only help dialysis, but healthcare in general. It is HR676: it would convert the for-profits to non-profits, provide universal healthcare coverage, and would also get rid of the HMOs unless they were providing a service. The other of course is HR3096 which would provide for more frequent dialysis. I sincerely believe both bills would save money in the long run ? the problem has been getting the powers-that-be to accept it.
So here is your chance again, can you avoid talking trash about me or DEO and come up and post something that actually might be worthwhile?
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Guest
PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:00 am Post subject:
HR676 sounds right up your alley plugger. Entitlements, entitlements, entitlements provided with someone elses hard-earned dollar. Anyway, it's such a great day that even plugger cannot bring me down. Minimum wage fails and estate tax cut lives. The socialist attempt to compensate people in an amount greater than their skill and education would command has failed for now. Common sense reigns and for now, the horrific notion that one educates himself to a loftier income has prevailed. How shocking and unfair the concept of supply and demand must be to a guy like plugger who seems to believe that our system is unfair because it leaves the deadbeats and losers behind.
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plugger
Joined: 11 Jan 2003
Posts: 226
PostPosted: Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:03 am Post subject:
So we have heard from someone who claims to be representing staff; how about we hear from someone else - I thought this might be worth a rerun:
?I have worked for both for-profit and non-profit. My experience has been that the non-profits staff better and appear to give their techs better training than the for-profits. In fact, the reason I left the last for-profit that I worked at was because of the RN to patient ratio. I felt that my license as an RN was in jeopardy when I was the lone RN with 16-22 patients. The techs worked at a 4:1 ratio and took turns dong the reuse on top of their patient load. Add in all the paperwork, care plans, meds, emergencies, anemia management, etc., all for 1 lone RN to do and it is no wonder that no one wants to work like a horse for next to nothing.
The PCT's do put on cath patients, but RN's must do dressing changes, the cath off packs and check all machine settings, baths, etc against the treatment RX.
The state I work in also requires that the pct's be state certified.
In my area, the for profit companies are having a very difficult time attracting and retaining adequate staff ( as in actual bodies) as word has gotten around about the working conditions. Those who do stay in dialysis usually go to a staffing agency and work through them for much higher wages and can pick and choose their own work schedule.
Dialysis is such a specialty that I doubt that any RN just off the street would even know much about it, what they learn all depends on the education they are given by the for-profit companies and from what I have seen, it is poor at best. As for the patients and their families, this is where education comes in, something the for-profits don't seem to want to pay for. Much easier to label someone as non-compliant than to educate them about their disease and treatment options.
I don't see the nursing shortage as creating an atmosphere of arrogance for RN's. Instead I see the
nursing shortage as finally giving RN's the ability to pick and choose where they want to work. They are no longer so desperate for jobs that they have to take what they can get. Some Administrations are treating RN's with more respect and thinking very hard as to what they can do to retain the RN's they have. Something the dialysis companies are not willing to do because they have such a big obligation to their stockholders. That obligation outweighs their obligation to the very patients who are the ones generating all the $$$$$ for the stockholders.
Yes it is frustrating. But until you and the staff make a stand, it will continue to be that way. These companies only understand when it hits them in the pocket book. And as long as you and the others are willing to put up with the current conditions, then as far as the administration is concerned and the money keeps rolling in, everything is just fine. It is after all your license.?
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