Another hospital goes all RN, laying off LPN’s and CNA’s…

REDSTONE TWP. – Registered nurses make up 100 percent of the nursing staff at Tara Hospital at Brownsville today in what the hospital’s board of directors is calling a commitment to enhance the quality of patient care.

As of Wednesday, all of the licensed practical nurses and certified nursing assistants at the hospital had been laid off. There were 24 LPN’s laid off Wednesday. The CNA’s were laid off earlier in the month, as the hospital’s board of directors and administration said they were “gravely concerned about the financial future of the hospital.”

Lori Spina, the communications director at the hospital, said going to an all-RN staff this week was a smooth transition. “The hourly wage is greater for an RN, but the efficiency is greater,” Spina said.

Spina said there are certain tasks and levels of medical care that cannot be carried out by CNA’s or LPN’s, so when the doctors would call in an order, a registered nurse would have to be called to the phone. “We’re setting a new standard for health care,” Spina said.

According to Spina, the change came about after consultation with the nursing director and nursing supervisors. Spina said 25 RN’s have been hired at the hospital since March. She was unable to provide information on the increase in the number of RN’s on staff since March, however, or how the current RN staffing compares to the total nursing staffing when LPN’s and CNA’s were utilized for patient care.

Spina said the decision to switch to a nursing staff entirely of RN’s came about during the review of deficiencies found at the hospital by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, though the nursing assistants and LPN’s were not mentioned in the report.

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