How to save those hospital jobs

With the rising baby boom population and the new health care reform it only makes sense for hospitals to shift their focus from inpatient care to outpatient. The part that does not make sense is cutting jobs. One of the biggest problems that this country faces is health care, and there should only be more job openings in this field.

The idea that Bruce Crowther, CEO of Northwest Community Healthcare, has is good. The focus should definitely be changed and updated. The way I would change it would be to shift these 150 possible job layoffs to training. I think that if outpatient care is a main focus of a hospital, then there should be more employees working for that purpose. The possible nurses and assistants whose jobs will be cut should be trained to focus their knowledge on outpatient care. These workers already have hospital knowledge and experience, so why not use that to the hospital’s benefit.

As a current health systems management major, I believe that job cuts in this field are not an option because there are nurses currently working 15- to 18-hour shifts. Why not split that between two people? I think that Crowther has the right idea, but it is just being executed wrong.

Lauren Korosa

Chicago