Becker's Hospital Review

40 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Nurses raise patient safety concerns at U of Chicago Medical Center By Mackenzie Bean N urses at University of Chicago Medical Center claim the hospital is violating several laws linked to staffing and overtime, which poses a threat to patient safety. e National Nurses United Organizing Committee/National Nurses United rep- resents the hospital nurses, who filed complaints with the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. e nurses allege UCMC is forcing them to work mandatory overtime hours — sometimes up to six extra hours aer a shi — which the clinicians say is illegal under Illinois law and contributes to patient care issues. However, UCMC told Becker's it does not have mandato- ry overtime for nurses and has "a grievance process for any issues with overtime" as part of a previous collective bargaining agreement with the union. Nurses are claiming the hospital fails to follow an Illinois law requiring facilities to post a staffing plan in each unit that aligns with patient care needs. ey also contend that UCMC is improperly recording workplace injuries, which prevents the facility from identifying injury trends and possible solutions. "UCMC takes issues of nurse staffing and workplace safety very seriously and is consistent- ly adapting and finding solutions that best serve our nurses and patients," the hospital said in a written statement to Becker's. "We are very proud that leading independent watchdog groups like Leapfrog have consistently given us an A grade in hospital safety. … is is in large part due to the exceptional work of our nurses." UCMC said it's been in negotiations with National Nurses United for several months to create a new labor contract for nurses. n 'Injuries are pretty common here' — Oregon hospital employees see spike in work- related injuries By Anne-Marie Kommers E mployee injuries from pa- tient-related incidents in 2018 rose to a five-year high at Or- egon State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Salem, amid ongoing con- cerns about staffing levels, according to the Statesman Journal. Employees filed 307 workers' com- pensation claims for injuries from patient-related incidents, nearly a twofold increase since 2017, accord- ing to the Statesman Journal's analy- sis. State data also show the hospital needs 102 more full-time employees to achieve optimal conditions in all units for a 24-hour period. Staff have worked overtime and double shifts to fill the gap. The hospital is facing pressure to admit more "aid and assist" pa- tients sent to the facility under court order to improve their mental health before facing criminal trial. A bed shortage has made it difficult to ad- mit enough patients by the court-or- dered deadline, but the hospital's number of "aid and assist" patients still rose dramatically in mid-2018. "Unfortunately, injuries are pretty common here," Kimberly Thoma, a mental health technician at the hos- pital, told the Statesman Journal. Employees and administrators partly blame the rise in "aid and assist" pa- tients for the increased violence. The hospital is taking steps to com- bat the problems, but the authoriza- tion for increased staffing lies with state policymakers. The hospital has pushed for increased funding for staff positions in the past, but the proposals have not made it into the state's budget. n Patients may have worse outcomes when surgeons act unprofessionally By Mackenzie Bean P atients of surgeons who act unprofessionally in the operating room are more likely to experience surgical complications, according to a study published in JAMA Surgery. For the study, researchers examined data from two geographically diverse academic medical centers participating in the National Surgical Quality Im- provement Program. Data included information on 13,653 adult patients who underwent surgeries performed by 202 surgeons between January 2012 and December 2016. Researchers also reviewed post-operative reports to assess whether colleagues reported unprofessional behaviors among surgeons, such as disrespectful communication or unsafe care, according to NPR. Patients who had a surgeon with at least one report of unprofessional behavior in the past three years were up to 14 percent more likely to experience a com- plication within 30 days of surgery. These findings suggest that surgeons' unprofessional behavior can hinder the surgical team's performance and threaten patient outcomes. n

• Cover