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Advocacy on Private Duty Nursing Cuts
 

 Advocacy on Private Duty Nursing Cuts

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is making some cuts for respiratory care private duty nursing. They include no pay for case managers, reduced pay after 8 hours of work, and RN wages reduced to LPN wages whenever appropriate. These changes make an incentive for nurses to not be private duty nurses. This threatens the care of many people with disabilities on ventilator life support.

Any cuts to private duty nursing threatens people with disabilities.  It threatens ability to live in the community and not in the institution.  There is a Federal act called The Community Choice Act that will be part of any new big Federal Medical bill that passes.  So I believe these cuts actually go against The Community Choice Act.  Read more about it in the following link to it.

The Community Choice Act

Please check out the articles to the right of this page and also other information..

I encourage everyone who cares about this issue to make a comment below and even discussed this there.

 
Comments
 
 
Private duty nurses, 5/6/2010 
Reviewer: Gail Bibeau
(Dresser, WI msbibeau@yahoo.com )
I have a personal interest in this issue. My boyfriend has A.L.S. and is currently on a vent and is literally STUCK in a facility due to the lack of private duty nurses. It is sad when cuts are being made to such an important part of healthcare. Tonight I get to go and visit him and explain why I still can't bring him home. I wish the State would bring him this news and see the hurt in his eyes and watch him cry.
 RN/RCS, 12/28/2009 
Reviewer: Sandr Kay Seck
(Racine, Wisconsin nurseseck@yahoo.com )
Longterm care facilities are bombarded with many different types of patients often many times the facilities are short staffed for what ever reason. The pts. suffer it take longer answer call lights; this means for the vented pt. and alarms going offf they could die of something simple. Ties less likely to be changed. Chances no respiratory team so nurse stuck with 40 plus patients and these ones on life support. They would be more depressed and withdrawn. More potential for bed sores. The staff intents are very well. They want to serve every client on individual bases but time just don't allow. private duty nursing allows individual care- time and space to promote independence- less depressive states- and many times more family involvement
RN, BSN, Vice President of PHP, 12/14/2009 
Reviewer: Carolyn Casper
(Sussex, WI ccsvcs@sbcglobal.net )
The Department of Health Services (DHS) made these cuts without any input from the patients or independent nurses. Information about the meeting was not publicized well and no one was aware that these cuts were being made until the DHS had already made their decisions.

Independent nurses are RNs and LPNs. All LPNs must be supervised by RNs. There are a number of cases that have a RN Case Coodinator and only LPNs staff the case. If the RN quits because the pay has been eliminated (effective 12/1/09), the LPNs cannot work on the case. Also if pay cuts are made for staffing, many nurses (both RNs & LPNs) will not be able to afford to stay on the cases. Many nurses have spouses that are laid off or the nurses are the head of single parent families.

New nurses that want to get into this field also have problems. It sometimes takes months before they get their first paycheck due to the paperwork involved. This discourages a lot of nurses and they find another job before the paperwork is approved. Pay cuts would cause nurses not to even consider Independent Nursing.

Vent dependent patients may have a lot of difficulty finding alternative care if they cannot keep enough nurses. There are very few facilities that will take vent dependent patients and those that do, charge much more than Medicaid is now paying for their care. Many of them would have to go to ICUs or hospital units that charge higher rates because the nurses are qualified to take care of patients with these special needs. This certainly would be much more expensive.

Those that are not on ventilators would also have problems. If they were accepted in a nursing home, the quality of care would definitely be inferior to what they have now. The patient's quality of life would be negatively impacted in either case. Hopefully the DHS will look at other options to save money.

 Owner/Administrator-Preferred Home Health Care, 12/8/2009 
Reviewer: Wendy M Schaefers, RN-BSN
(Menasha, WI wschaefers@phhcare.com )
I have a number of concerns regarding cuts for Private Duty Nursing, especially ventilator-dependent individuals requiring 24 hour care. If any cuts are made in this program, i.e. reduced wages, benefits, etc. this could cause drastic problems for the entire system because it would be impossible to find qualified individuals at a reduced rate. Let's assume this occurs, what are the consequences? It sounds like these individuals would be forced into institutions at the cost of one on one, 24 hour care, which is the same as they currently need. Just because an individual is in a facility, does not mean that they don't require the same care. Of course, there is only a handful of facilities that are vent certified and they certainly could not accomodate all the people that would require this care. So...now what?? The reality is that the individuals requiring this type of care will no longer have the care they currently have and no place to get it. The only option for some would be to go to the hospital and stay there until a placement could be made. Imagine the cost? Hopefully, the "powers that be" understand the futility of this.
Retired RN Home Care Supervisor for 23 years., 11/11/2009 
Reviewer: Charlayne Kiesling
(Neenah, WI charbabyrn@yahoo.com )
It is already very difficult and at times impossible to hire qualified RN private duty staff at the present wage and this most recent outlandish idea certainly isn't even close to rational thinking or being made by those qualified in knowing what is needed for these individuals. It certainly isn't coming from any true authority in home care or the private duty sector. The client's care will most certainly suffer and their quality of life, being outside their home if long-term care facilities is the next option, will make life for these individuals not only physically life- threatening, but emotionally unbearable. Nursing home facilities can't cope now with the elderly population without adding young and vital individuals hooked up to a ventilator needing at times constant monitoring. RNs already carry the brunt of these recent and continued health care cut-backs in all fields. This would be the straw that would break the back of conscienteous nurses where there is already a shortage of kind and qualified nurses everywhere. Signed, HOPEFUL
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