AHRQ Report Provides High Performance Work Practices to Maximize Quality

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has released a report describing how healthcare entities can attract, hire, develop, and retain staff members who can contribute to higher healthcare quality. The report, titled Using Workforce Practices to Drive Quality Improvement, provides four high-performance work practice (HPWP) models that can be implemented in a facility.

The HPWPs focus on practices such as rewarding performance, providing career development opportunities, aligned decision-making, and ensuring that leaders are developed to carry out an organization's goals and mission.

The report can be found here:
http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/workforceguide.htm


Source: AHRQ

Minnesota Nurses Announce Plans for New Strike

The Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) has filed a 10-day notice for a strike to begin on July 6 and last indefinitely. 10,000 of the MNA's nurses already held a one-day strike on June 21. The strike notice was filed as the union continues to negotiate a new labor and pension agreement with Twin Cities Hospital system, which serves the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

Some observers believe that the 10-day strike notice is a tactic by the MNA to pressure the hospital system into an agreement before the July 6 deadline.

Hospitals were able to maintain care during the June strike by bringing in over 2,000 temporary staff members for a single day. The threat of an open-ended strike is a bigger concern for potentially affected hospitals, which must figure out how to remain open and maintain continuity in patient care should its nursing staff go on strike.


Source: StarTribune.com
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/97166854.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUvckD_V_jEyhD:UiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

12,000 Minnesota Nurses Go on Strike

12,000 nurses in Minnesota went on strike today in what has been reported as the largest nursing strike in US history. The Minnesota Nurses Association voted to approve the one-day strike last month after the union failed to reach a staffing agreement with Twin Cities Hospitals, a 14-hospital system located in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

The staffing plan proposed by Twin Cities Hospitals would allow hospitals to float nurses between departments to meet staffing needs. The MNA argued that this plan would lead to inconsistency in patient care and would burden an already stretched nursing staff. Twin Cities Hospitals argued that the staffing model proposed by the MNA was too costly in a time where hospitals are being asked to implement new technology while facing funding cuts.

Twin Cities hired temporary nurses to ensure that its facilities could remain open during the strike. The striking nurses are scheduled to return to work at 7 AM on June 11.

The Minnesota strike occurred as California nurses agreed to comply with a judge's temporary order stopping a strike against the University of California hospital system. The California strike was expected involve 12,000 nurses.

Source: ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/thousands-nurses-strike-minnesota/story?id=10875712

Minnesota Preparing for Largest Nursing Strike in US History

Last Wednesday, the members of the Minnesota Nurses Association voted to approve a one-day strike that will affect hospitals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The nurses are protesting proposed labor contracts that would set wage increases over the next three years at zero to two percent and proposed pension plans. The nurses are also protesting proposed staffing plans that would allow hospitals to send nurses home on slow days, or float nurses to other departments with higher need. The MNA argues that this staffing plan will overburden staff, leading to potential patient safety risks. The hospitals argue that these changes would allow them to maintain quality care without having to hire a larger volume of nurses, which would raise the cost of care to the patient.

12,000 nurses who are members of the MNA are currently contracted with hospitals in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. The MNA provided the hospitals with notice of the planned strike. Hospital representatives are disappointed with the decision to strike, stating that there is still time to negotiate.

Several articles have raised questions on how the strike may affect patient safety. Some are worried that bringing in temporary nurses will cost hospitals millions of dollars. Others are worried that the strike will disrupt patient care, creating a higher safety risk to the patient.

Members of the MNA hope that an agreement with hospitals is reached prior to the June 1 contract expiration; however, they stated that they are ready to strike if a deal is not reached.


Sources: Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal, Pioneer Press
http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2010/05/17/daily32.html
http://www.twincities.com/business/ci_15122286