Updated on: 11/6/2019
Seattle area hospitals are the best in the Pacific Northwest. However, if you read posts on social media websites dedicated to nursing professionals and nursing association message boards, you may find dozens of stories written by area nurses that claim that western Washington hospitals are far more concerned with profits than with patient care.
These nurses report that hospital management is trying to get the more work out of their nursing staff by giving them longer shifts and trying to increase hospital ROI by using younger, less experienced nurses that cost less rather than seasoned nursing professionals.
But often times new nursing school graduates don't fully understand hospital procedures, aren't properly trained and just can't meet the huge demands placed on them. The nurses posting on these websites say that they are burning out within just a few years. They are complaining that hospital administrators don't care, and that rather than changing working conditions, which will in turn increase the quality of patient care, hospital management allows nurses burn out, quit, and then replace them less experienced staff.
But with no training, little guidance and a total lack of mentorship, younger nurses are left to figure things out for themselves. The result is patient neglect, poor chart notes and documentation, medical mistakes or serious medication errors.
It has been reported that until they start to lose business to other area medical facilities, hospital administrators and management in Seattle hospitals do not give any focus on improving working conditions for nurses or on improving patient experience.
One nurse recently posted that she felt that doctors are done with patients as soon as the incision is closed, and that hospital management checks in with staff daily just to figure out when the patients can vacate the beds so another patient may be admitted. She stated that, in Seattle, hospitals are just another business trying to make money.
Medical Malpractice Attorneys In Seattle
Surgical mistakes, medication errors and medical malpractice are a problem in western Washington. It is an issue that rarely gets discussed until there is a serious medical error that costs someone their life. Typically hospital administration sweeps issues under the rug as quickly as they can and tries to avoid having to deal with patient's medical malpractice lawyers or the media.
Medical mistakes at Northwest Hospital, surgical errors at Overlake Hospital, and medication errors at UW Medical Center happen every day. If you or a loved one has been the victim of a medical mistake in the Seattle area contact medical malpractice attorney Chris Davis at Davis Law Group, P.S., to schedule a free legal consultation. Call 206-727-4000. The call is free. The information may be priceless.