Today's standard of care has morphed from comprehensive to catastrophic care. As the number of uninsured Americans has increased,
so has the percentage of emergency room cases that aren't emergencies. As many as one-half of ER patients are there for routine
treatment because they have nowhere else to go.
Smaller staffs and increased care load are dramatically reducing the quality of care. The current system is said to force
such caregivers to make decisions they should never have to make. As a result, more are leaving the profession. Only 55% of
acute care nurses plan to stay in a hospital setting until they retire. By the year 2020, when baby boomers will be in greatest
need of care, experts project that there will be a nationwide shortage of 400,000 nurses.
These providers are not just struggling to keep up with the care needs of others, they are also finding their own health benefits
decreasing or disappearing. Too many are joining the ranks of the 45 million uninsured people in this country, 35 million
of whom are working. Meanwhile, employers face the choice of making painful cuts in benefits or absorbing enormous new costs.
By 2008, the average Fortune 500 company will spend as much on healthcare as it makes in profit, while overseas competitors
in countries with guaranteed universal care plans spend little or nothing on healthcare for their employees. In the last five
years alone, the percentage of U.S. businesses offering health benefits has plummeted to 60% from 69%. From institutional providers to frontline caregivers to employers to uninsured and underinsured patients, no one in the health
care community is benefiting from the status quo.
As a result, the Service Employees International Union addressing leaders in business, government, and the institutional provider
setting, and recently launched SEIU Healthcare/. The latter's 1 million members are working to unite healthcare workers, raise standards, and transform the U.S. healthcare
system into one that puts patients and quality care first, provides affordable care to all, and ensures quality long-term
care for the aging population.
By adopting industrywide standards for best practices and emphasizing preventive care, we can improve consistency of quality
care while reducing costs and infection risk or complication from lengthy hospital stays. By improving working conditions
and training for frontline care providers, and by giving providers the freedom to form a union to advocate for themselves
and patients, hospitals can reduce turnover and burnout – and save millions of dollars. By increasing availability of home-
and community-based care for patients with chronic illness or disabilities, we'll save billions and vastly improve quality
of life for patients and their families.
It's time to improve the quality of patient care, strengthen hospitals' competitive performance, and ensure the fundamental
right to healthcare for all.
Mary Kay Henry serves as an Executive Vice President of the Service Employees International Union, the nation's largest health
care union, where she has been an organizer and leader for over 25 years.
