BURLINGTON – Dr. John Brumsted announced today a “bold new plan” to reduce the number of positions that the University of Vermont Medical Center has been unable to fill due to low wages. Staffing shortages and low wages are at the core of the differences between the medical center and the Vermont Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals in their negotiations for a new contract. The union maintains that unfilled positions for nurses and nurse practitioners are leading to overworked personnel and unsafe staffing levels at the medical center. Stagnant wages are the reason that UVMMC cannot attract sufficient prospects to fill these positions says union representatives.
Dr. Brumsted admits that many positions have remained unfilled for extended times but asserts that other priorities have his attention. He lists building better, more opulent, and more expensive administration offices as one of the core priorities he is currently tackling. High profile construction projects that don’t increase the number of actual beds available is another cornerstone of his plan. He mentions that maintaining competitive salaries for administration personnel and managers is also a focus of the healthcare system.
“Our new plan meets many of our concerns for staffing, unfilled positions and nursing dissatisfaction. Our first step is to simply eliminate those positions that are not being filled. Problem one, solved!” Explained Dr. Brumstead. “Second, we need to address the concerns about staffing levels. This is a more difficult problem but I think if we just hire more managers to better oversee our current staff we can better convince our patients of our commitment to quality. Of course we will have to insure that mangers salaries are high enough to attract the best people, but I think it is worth it. When patients see how thoroughly we manage our nurses I think they won’t mind waiting for assistance to the restrooms, position changes, and, in some cases, timely medications. All without having to increase wages or continue to have unfilled positions in patient care positions.”
Image Credits: VTDigger.
What are you smoking? Staff are yourface of your institution, your patients are not being serviced in a timely fashion. This reflects poorly upon staffing morals and values of their employer. Your staff deserves to be paid a living wage, not at expense of patient care!!
Totally inappropriate way to handle the problem.
He needs to be a patient that is in pain and has to wait an hour or more to get his pain medication, or be in a bed unable to move himself and be very uncomfortable while waiting a long time for assistance to move.
It is required to turn patiences every 2 hrs to prevent bed sores.
Greed is truly at the heart of the matter- nurses and others, DO NOT LET him do what he purposed, it would lead to a cascade of all kinds of problems for patients and staff but have no effect on upper management.
I know you have a no strike contract but you can organize a “call out” day for all involved with the union.
Exactly!!!!
Dr Brumstead… if you think adding administrative
Staff will meet patient needs… I don’t know where you were educated! Nursing staff providing good patient care
Will do more for the reputation of the hospital than
Raising the pay of managers who don’t know anything
about REAL patient care. Get real!!!
You are correct, nurses take care of the patients not the administration staff.
Removing nurses and NP positions will negatively affect the hospitals reputation, scores will decrease and we will go to other hospitals. I went to Dartmouth for my last surgery 7 months ago.
Do you really think the hospital cares about its reputation!? Would it pay a CEO two mil if it did?
The hospital is, and has been for decades, a Dartmouth want-a-be. Nothing else matters.
Many Vermonters go to Dartmouth for care; I have myself.
John, if these are really your views then I have just lost all respect for you. More managers does not make for a better or more satisfied staff which then leads to dissatisfied patients. The heart of this organization is at the bottom, not the top. It’s the staff NOT the managers caring for the patients. Get a grip
To be clear, while the issues presented are real, this is a satirical site.
Union members please get the word out to the public- can you use some union dues money to put an article in the Burlington Free press so the public knows what the hospitals leaders think about letting the patient care units be under staffed and also other positions. I have talked with people in the community and a lot do not understand what is going on.
OMG KNOCK THIS SHIT OFF. RAISE WAGES YOU KNUCKLE HEADS. HIGHER WAGES ARE BETTER FOR THE ECONOMY. HOW ABOUT WE CUT CEO PAY BY 15%
This is satirical people! I’m a nurse at UVMMC, and this is total bull&$?!. Don’t believe everything you read. Check your sources first!
We tried to tell them.
Haha LOVE THIS!!
It was a valiant effort!
John did you recently receive some head trauma before you thought of this??
It’s sad that after all these years this hospital administration still thinks this way. This is why there is a union!
I dont think hiring more managers is going to solve your problem. You are doing a huge disservice to not only your staff but your patients. You should be ashamed of yourself for thinking of such a crazy idea.
I am an employee of UVMMC, and while this is SATIRE, it’s not hard to think this is not far from the truth.
This reads like an article from a joke news site
Why yes, it does…
Because it is?
Um, folks? As the masthead of The Winooski states, this is “Home-grown Vermont Satire”. SATIRE! Didn’t you study satire in high school English lit classes? No? That’s pretty sad. Maybe the problem is that the news these days is so close to satire that we’ve come to confound it with reality? True, good satire flirts with reality, but what makes it satire is that satire decidedly twists possible truths in a way that makes one smirk knowingly. At least that’s the idea.
Wow I thought a satire was a gemstone! I kept looking for little sparkly things but now I will look for articles which look real enough but are written tongue in cheek, which I thought was a French cooking recipe…
Langue aux joues !
C’est si bon !!
Keep it up and there will be no nurses to manage!
NOT TOO FAR FROM THE TRUTH. Well done.
Was just introduced to The Winooski by a relative and am loving the SATIRE that this little organic, home grown news source provides to those who enjoy SATIRE. Thank you.