This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA.
When lives are at stake, every second counts as hospital staff reach for supplies they need to provide patient care. Nurses and other staff depend on supply rooms being well-stocked so they can focus on their patients, instead of wasting time hunting down supplies. So what could possibly be management’s excuse for leaving our supply rooms full of empty bins?
Managers tell us they have to keep our stock levels low, or even hide supplies locked in their offices, because they claim physicians and staff from other departments “steal” our supplies. Each floor has its own budget for even basic supplies like pillows, and management doesn’t want us sharing our resources with other floors.
But who is left without due to this hoarding and artificial scarcity? Our same patients, just on different floors! Patients are left in need, and staff are left scrambling to find a pillow to put under their patient’s head.
Once again management fails to meet even their most basic responsibility to keep the supplies we need accessible so that we can do our jobs.
Click here to read the article printed in the 08-14-24 Healthcare Newsletter
