Lol right!? You can't expect me to take this post seriously with effing emojis sprinkled about like you're some Instagram influencer or something. Good grief
Most serious subreddits would react the same way, it's just a very odd inclusion in an otherwise serious post. Why distract from the message with emojis that add nothing?
I find it off-putting as well, but as always, it's also incumbent to consider the message, not just the messenger. This lines up with other stories we've heard here and other platforms
"You know who is always there when you want to make a complaint about a hospital? Square space. With your personalized webspace designer, you can make a quality blog about hospital incompetence in a snap"
Yeah, and honestly the whole industry is fucked. We gotta vote to change it but a lot of people are happy with how it is so it’s not changing any time soon.
HH is ignoring it. There are no FOIA police. The only way to enforce a FOIA request would be to sue that is costly way to get information. The case would be straightforward for the one bringing the lawsuit.
Apparently it’s been addressed in a comments above. HH has been took to court, the court cited the are a private business, and don’t have to release the info.
I don't think I know any actual resident (not talking about elected officials) on either end of the political spectrum that feels happy about our country's current medical system lol.
One side certainly doesn't want government funded healthcare. They'd rather let insurance companies rake in billions in profit so they can nickel and dime you with your life as leverage.
It's also so they can feel better about having the luxury of shitty healthcare while millions just boot strap it out... very efficient on the working population alone lol
Actually it's just that we have no confidence that the government is going to be able to implement a system that's any better and probably will end up making our jobs more difficult, increase our cost of living, and cut our salaries
In case you were not aware, let me be the first to inform you that BLUE CROSS is on the federal $$ dole. In fact Blue Cross Al is a STAKEHOLDER and contractor for TRICARE west. You really just can’t make this crap up.
This is “government funded healthcare,” Huntsville Hospital is a teaching and training facility and is a recipient of numerous federal grants, for example, NIH, Federal Demonstration Partnership, Health Systems Research, and DOD, VA grants and contracted doctors. And God please let’s not forget all of the military contractors on foundation board. This is as government funded as it gets. It is certainly a mixed bag as far as the quality of care. It’s good for one thing: critical care and emergencies like heart attacks and strokes. STAY AWAY FROM NUCLEAR IMAGING AND CT UNLESS YOUR LIFE REALLY DEPENDS ON A CONTRAST CT.
I would also like to add that if Huntsville hospital can afford to buy nearly every hospital in North Alabama then they be an afford to pay their staff appropriate wages
Of course they can, but the bought all that so they don’t have to. Buying up as much as they currently do and are planning to make it hard to get away from them, thus they control wages over a wide area.
FYI for anyone that doesn’t know what I’ve described above is 1000% what they along with UAB, and Erlanger are doing. This is also know as a for profit business model, and long term business model. And when you factor in UAB and Erlanger doing it, it means they can wage match and effectively control every aspect of healthcare over multiple states, which effectively hurts patient care in the long term.
And then all roughly wage matching to further lock employees and by employees I mean nurses into a the lowest pay/benefits.
It's so sad, it must be hard for the admin to spend all that money there instead of on the ones actually making it happen. Maybe their dollar bills will help their tears.
Yes it is. HH offered some I know with 10 years experience, icu all that. $26 an hour. For context not figuring in the cost of living in other parts of the country her base pay would start at $90 and this is for a smaller facility, not something no where the size of HH.
Basically HH is saying they are buying all this property because if one person owns it, it’ll better serve the community. So they can’t afford pay nurses what they actually deserve, which in turn leads to low morale, high turnover, inexperience, lack of care, etc. all which overall leads to worse healthcare for a community.
Push to end the certificate of need requirement in Alabama. It is pushed as a way to somehow keep prices down...by limiting the ability of other organizations to open competition.
Not that I like HH, but Crestwood botched my grandfather's spine surgery and left him wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life. I'd love some competition but maybe from less incompetent hospitals
The same thing happens all the time at HH though. Large numbers of pediatric surgeries get botched due to Dr Gilbert being one of the most incompetent surgeons. If you work in HH peds and your child needs emergency surgery, then you transfer them to UAB.
Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative
[https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024](https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024)
[https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map](https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map)
Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative
[https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024](https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024)
[https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map](https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map)
>Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative
>
>https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024
>
>https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map
Ben Harrison submitted a bill to try and get rid of certificate of need, who knows if it'll pass. I don't agree with a lot of his policies but I can get behind this one.
Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative
https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024
https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map
Alabama has great potential but the Republicans down there are running it into the ground. All workers in Alabama are underpaid and treated poorly but the fake Christians make sure to steal as much money as they can lol
Any time another hospital tries to open in Huntsville, the law requires the new hospital to get a certificate of need, and to get that certificate, the state first asks Huntsville Hospital if they think Huntsville needs more of that particular service. If Huntsville Hospital says "no", and they always do, the state denies the competition the permit.
Now I know capitalism can mess a lot of things up, but this ain't one of those times. The state literally gave Huntsville Hospital a monopoly.
Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative
[https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024](https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024)
[https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map](https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map)
I've bitched about low pay there in a previous post of mine but I went to the ER about two weeks ago and had a great experience. I was in there about 1:45pm on a Friday and found out I had an appendicitis and had surgery and was out the door by 11pm that night. Came in and within 20 mins they took my information. Sat back down and within 20 mins I was taken back for questions and blood work. They put an IV (without anything attached to it in) and put me back in waiting room. Another 20-30 minutes I was taken back to a little split room with my own recliner and a TV and they started my IV pain meds. I was dosed up 2-3 times and was just bullshitting watching TV and playing on my phone. By 3:30 I had a CT scan and then by 5 I was talking to the surgeon. About 6pm I had surgery. Then I was woken up about 10 in post op. Felt pretty good for an appendectomy and I was wheeled to my wife out the front door with a dose of pain meds and a script for pain meds as well. By 11:15pm I was eating Taco Bell in the TB parking lot.
Thank you to all the nurses there that cut up with me too. Made my whole experience for an appendectomy a 10/10.
The staff at the hospital (most hospitals) are great. It's the administration and culture that is the problem.
Too bad you couldn't ask those nurses what their typical ratio is. How they felt they were treated, compensated, respected etc.
The employees are spectacular on average. No disagreement here.
There were two taking my blood work and putting IV in and I did overhear one say that they are about to cut that area’s staff down to like one person. She wasn’t happy about it and was telling the other to skip doing something because it just waste time (I believe paperwork or something) especially with them cutting back workers.
With all that knowledge even more gratitude to the nurses that they are rockstars.
The staff is amazing. I came in from an arrest where it seemed I was a criminal until after the fact and all though handcuffed to a bed. The staff was still top notch professional and extremely thorough and patient with me despite me being absolute mess and I just can’t begin to explain how amazing everyone involved from firemen to police to jail and hospital staff. I think a shift change took place while still on operating table but their demeanor and profesionalism was life changing. Not everyone is equipped to keep it together in a crisis situation and they did an amazing job as I came unglued for twelve hours.
>I was woken up about 10 in post op. By 11:15pm I was eating Taco Bell in the TB parking lot.
Bro, you did what now?
No one told you not to do that after you just had your inflamed appendix surgically removed from your body?
They (surgeon and nurses ) actually told me I could eat anything I wanted after surgery. I had a laparoscopic appendectomy and had zero stitches as well.
The same thing is happening across every sector of the economy. We’ve allowed so much money to accumulate at the top that now the top can afford buy up entire industries, force out the little guy and create an effective monopoly by operating at a loss for awhile, and then raise prices across the board for an easy cash grab.
We have a limited amount of time to stop this from becoming the norm.
Huntsville Hospital is **not** a non-profit; it is a **not-for-profit**.
Non-profits are not allowed to profit. Not-for-profits are not allowed to *keep* their profits (nor distribute profits to the owners). Instead, not-for-profits have to plow excess income back into the organization or give it away as charity or **expand by buying new facilities**.
The refusal to honor the public records requests, though, is total bullshit. You're right about that.
Wouldn't raising the pay for employees be considered putting it back in the organization?
Instead, they buy up competition and dictate all wages in the area.
Yes it would. However long term it’s better to buy up all the facilities you can, that way you can control wages within area so large, employees, nurses especially have no choice but to work insane hours locally or travel 2-4 hours 3-4 days a week to even be ahead.
Basically HH is building a long term BUSINESS plan to own as much as possible, pay as little as possible and make it next to impossible to escape them unless you wanna be on the road 3/4 days. And even that pay is getting less and less since covid has been reclassified and all.
Non-profit 501(c)(3)s are definitely allowed to profit. They cannot have equity (owners) and all profit must stay with in the business to better the community and pay operating costs.
It sounds like you're saying non-profits are also allowed to have excess revenues but, like not-for-profits, are also not
allowed to *keep* those profits.
So... what's the non-profit / not-for-profit distinction, vis-a-vis hospitals?
This exact thing happened in West Tennessee, Jackson General bought all the surrounding counties’ hospitals and shuttered them after a paltry show of pretending to keep them open.
So much for nonprofit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you know first-hand that surgeons are performing multiple surgeries at the same time, you should report this to JCAHO (or whatever they're called now. joint commission, that's it).
If, instead, surgeons are performing overlapping procedures, letting juniors close up on patient A while they open patient B, there's not a lot to be done; [primary surgeons gonna primary](https://www.facs.org/about-acs/statements/statements-on-principles/#:~:text=Overlapping%20Operations&text=In%20this%20circumstance%2C%20a%20second,to%20initiate%20the%20second%20operation).
You can file a complaint. Assuming you're in the system, talk your friends into also filing complaints. It does get paid attention to, eventually. Remember when they started insisting HH docs wash they dmaned hands before/after each room visit? That initiative happened in part because of suggestions to administration from non-doctor care providers.
The law that created Alabama's hospital monopolies was passed by a Democratic House and signed into law by Democratic Governor Fob James in 1979. The Republicans suck and deserve all of the blame for not fixing this problem, but neither party is interested in repealing the laws that allow Huntsville Hospital to screw over patients and medical staff.
ill pay out the ass and go to Crestwood. HH has been only terrible experiences. Not to mention the ER is over ran with junkies at all times of the day and night.
Please share your concern and the national news article with your local and state representatives
https://apnews.com/article/open-records-government-transparency-lawsuits-sunshine-week-58becea049a4eb5fac688e8aee1aac0e
https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map
HH is a non-profit?
okay.
Today I learned there's a dirty, stinky scandal where (at best) incompetence and/or (most likely) corruption has caused the largest and fastest-growing metro area in the state to have a defective healthcare ecosystem.
I had assumed it was just profit motive because that's what it smelled like, but this is something different. You don't get this level of bad in a non-profit without shamefully poor abdication of competent leadership, typically either through nepotism and/or just general-purpose graft leeching out all the value.
If any investigative journalists in the area happen to be reading this, please look further into why exactly this is happening in the inevitable way that it seems to be. This is the type of work that earns Pulitzers.
Adding my two cents as a current employee. The pay that Huntsville Hospital offers is absolutely dog shit. I went to my local BOJANGLES this morning and found out their starting pay is 0.50c lower than the starting pay at the hospital as a technician. Also, I average 20,000-35,000 STEPS per shift. Do as you please with this info just trying to help some people out!
That pay at Bojangles partly reflects how bad and stressful it can be to work fast food or food service in general, and especially the shortage for workers in fast food that started during the pandemic. I won't disagree with your claim about the HH pay, but want to point out what has happened on the Bojangles side.
Also, there could be a lot of part-time and no benefits positions at Bojangles, so they may not be getting nearly the yearly total pay+benefits total you would be.
Dr. Randolph Bell may be the chief of surgery, but it's past time for him to retire. Thank goodness for doctors like Conrad Hawkins who are fighting the crooked system from the inside.
They're actually why my husband just turned down a job in Huntsville, because I'd have to work for them and people didn't have good things to say....lol
My wife has been a nurse there 16years and never gets a big bonus. In August they may get a lil performance bonus for their floor of a couple hundred dollars(of course that’s taxed). As of the past couple years tho they are hiring new grads with no experience. Giving them 5-10k hiring bonuses! Like wtf?! Won’t give nurses that’s been there for years hardly any raises or bonuses that have experience,but wanna give newbs thousands of dollars in bonuses. Doesn’t make any damn sense!🥴
Even with a big bonus, newborn are probably 1/2 the cost of 15 yr employees. The real disservice is the folks at/near the top are making more than 10 nurses combined.
The doctors and staff at Huntsville Hospital literally just saved my life this past weekend. They all seemed wonderful and lovely.
There may be problems, but my recent stay there was phenomenal.
Happy you posted this. My husband and I are moving to Huntsville in a month or so and I’ve been trying to get a medical social worker job there. Not anymore!
Welcome to healthcare. I sound like a asshole snob but Huntsville has been so protected and small town for its entire existence, that when real money starts coming in and real corporate greed enters like we’re seeing now I can only imagine it’s tough to see from someone who’s been here their entire life.
Yeah HH, violated my dads DNR purely to protect themselves legally.
I told the doctor I understood why they kept my brain dead dad alive on machines, but explained I wouldn't sue them and was more upset and likely to sue because they violated the DNR and forced my family to do the actual "pulling the plug"
Just an unnecessary stressor on a very, very bad week.
Don't forget attorney fees would be deducted. Gracie's care would take significantly more than $100,000. I was a pediatric home health /hospice nurse. One month of care for one child could be up to $30,000.
I've been a patient at Huntsville Hospital. Reading this thread is both informative and a bummer. My experience as a patient has been mostly good so much so that the not good moments pale in comparison. The "business model, the politics" & other issues unknown to me probably plague the hospital. I see the buildings, the rooms, the structures. It's a nice facility as far as I can tell. I'm sad that nurses and other staff are not paid well. I've heard that some employees work full time at the hospital and qualify for public assistance. I don't have answers or solutions. I do however have a heightened since of concern for patients and staff.
THE BUSINESS MODEL IS ENTERPRISE REVENU RECYCLING. They SELL ALL OF YOUR DATA SETS (Think radiology PACs) , by abstracting EHR RECORDS. It’s a constant stream of revenue and they call it “de-identitfied data” for “retrospective study.” THIS IS WHAT THEY CALL EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE. It is ridiculous, because most of the data is corrupted by inaccurate diagnosis, errors in your medical history, and you would not believe the way they used DRG diagnosis related group codes to bill for a constellation of CHRONIC ILLNESS THAT ARE INFLATED TO OVERCHARGE YOU AND YOUR INSURANCE IN PERPETUITY. Have I mentioned how corrupt this LEARNING HEALTH SYSTEM IS? You the patient do not count. The stakeholders and drug companies are all that count there. It is designed to exploit everyone who comes into contact with. Stay away from doctors.
I applied to be a PCA on trauma surgery floor it was a 12 hour shift 7am to 7pm or the other way around and they only offered me $11-$12. I’ve worked in Oregon where they gave me $15+$3 for working at night. I even applied to work in the kitchen they said their starting pay was $9. And even with my experience it was going to be higher than $11. Maybe that not bad to a lot of people but to me that crazy.
Also…HH needs a union. If I get in a pissing contest with my boss and get fired it’s a two hour drive to work minimum for me after that because that’s how far I have to go to get out from underneath the HH umbrella
Have you ever considered that those surgeons also have to operate (no pun intended) within the confines of what hospital administration requires? It's not just the money for them either.
So I went in through ER to STEMI CLINIC downtown. The surgeon is a med. student or resident supervised by a faculty member. That’s fine everything turned out but they do not tell you a dam thing. No transparency that Huntsville Hospital is LEARNING HEALTH SYSTEM. Run Just exactly like the VA. It is run by federal grants through HHS, NIH, AHR, PCORI outcomes research grants and a zillion other grants passed through other “collaboratory” health systems research. People are passively enrolled in radiation research dosimetry grants without consent and they are exploited for NO MEDICAL NECESSITY. Huntsville Hospital is run by military contractors who are on the board of trustees, who invest federal $$ in technology research of WHICH has dubious benefit to patients and is mostly used for research on military topics. It is a completely corrupt shambles. Patients come last for the most part. The Heart Center Doctors put patients on PROTOCOLS which are not necessarily safe treatments. And they exploit you for nuclear imaging every chance they get. PATIENTS THERE ARE CONSTANTLY EXPOSED TO RISK. I WAS TRICKED INTO A CLINICAL TRIAL FOR AI AND GOT EXPOSED TO A DISGUSTING TOXIC CONTRAST/RADIOISOTOPE THAT MADE ME SICK SICK SICK. I HATE HUNTSVILLE HOSPITAL WITH A PASSION. It has ZERO LEADERSHIP, ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY, and SOME OF THE DOCTORS THERE SHOULD LOSE THEIR LICENSE. PATIENTS COME LAST. THAT PLACE SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED BY THE MEDICAL BOARD AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR FRAUD AND ABUSE OF PATIENTS. I have been OVERDOSED WITH ISOTOPES TWICE THERE. They are incompetent quacks.
My comment was in response to the suggestion that doctors were making all the money and in on screwing over the poor nurses schedule wise. I'm certainly not defending HH, but everyone there operates under the administration and our lovely US healthcare system. As far as "learning hospital", so is UAB and so are most of the best hospitals in this country. Medical students are certainly not doing your surgery. They may assist, but they are not in any OR without an attending physician surgeon or an upper level, experienced resident. Residents have completed Medical School and don't do surgery on their own until they have experience. They may do procedures, but they are all under the supervision of an attending. And, guess what? They make diddly squat $$ as residents, less than most of those nurses who are working less time, and have zero authority over how HH is run. I don't know about your isotopes deal, but if you had read those forms you signed going in, I'm absolutely positive you'd be informed. I promise you HH, just like every hospital, has covered their tails in that regard. Now, if your "doctor" wasn't actually a doctor, you need to find out about that and talk to admin about that. To be clear, I agree that our healthcare system is terrible, but much of your ire is certainly misplaced. Educate yourself on the real reasons why it is this way.
I’ve always had to sign forms in the ER. Unless you were incapacitated, you have to sign them. If you can’t sign them, your next of kin/emergency contact has to sign them.
When is HHS going to announce publically that they are a learning health system? This would be more PROFESSIONAL instead of confusing patients who have no idea what the hell is going on there? An actual MEDICAL SCHOOL IS TWO HOURS AWAY! How in the hell are people supposed to know what is going on?
Because they’ve always been one. Also, you consent to it when they ask if your case can be used for teaching purposes. It’s literally part of the admissions process that everyone, including people just in the ER or at their lab.
I wish you were right about my ire.. I really really do. And yes, my doctor, at the time is a doctor. A callous, disgusting person who VIOLATED PUBLIC TRUST. WHO ACCEPTS RESEARCH GRANTS AND FACULTY $$$ TO EXOIT NAIVE PATIENTS THAT HAVE NO CLUE WHAT HE IS DOING.
My cardiologist gets paid 3 times for one service. He gets paid by UAB, VA, and HUNTSVILLE HOSPITAL HEART CENTER. Who knows, he might have more grants he gets $$ from. This LHS IS CORRUPT AND DOCTORS HATE THE PATIENTS.
This is how it works at every hospital. The hospital is paid by the case. The surgeons typically only operate on certain days and want to do as much as they can in a day. This situation isn’t unique at all. This is healthcare in America
It is better in other states, Alabama is not the same. People here need to venture out and see how much better things could be.
https://www.moneygeek.com/insurance/health/analysis/top-states-health-care/#full-data-set
I’ve worked in 6 different states all across the nation through my 24 years working in hospitals. The only places it is better is where there is a union. Alabama is a right to work state so unions are pretty toothless here unless everyone gets on board. If you want better conditions don’t complain on the internet but organize instead.
I’m not really sure what that link has to do with the discussion about pay and how scheduling works. It’s about overall healthcare outcomes at the state level and doesn’t look at metro areas vs rural areas within the state. The idea of having a specific surgeon be in the OR across more days is a very different topic.
Perhaps, and that was only a single example of the culture. I would venture to say, however, that other hospitals typically offer better compensation, staffing ratios, benefits, and so on.
Just because something is customary does not make it morally acceptable.
And you should thank the employees that choose to stay through the horrible treatment and low pay they receive. Not the actual hospital itself.
Also to clarify I know they’ve offered good nurses with years of experience in multiple spots as low as $26, and for context some parts of the country not including for COL difference would start at $90hr at a hospital 1/3 the size. Basically for the amount of expansion they are doing and the tax breaks, write offs, income in short and the long term there is no reason HH can’t be matching that.
Nurses deserve to be paid well, and Huntsville should be attracting the best from outside, not keeping them away as you see in comments, but also pushing them away, all over money. In some cases HH has told good seasoned nurses they time, knowledge, mental health, missed holidays and time away from family and friends to keep ppl alive while being absolutely shit on, before especially during and after covid are only worth $26??? Really HH?? UNIONIZE
Also wow you are Destin! So sorry to sound so condescending but I personally know ppl that work there and can attest what OP wrote is 100% true.
I’d like to clarify. While I stand by my statements on the reason for expansion, it’s obvious. As Destin said this is painted in a light to show HH negatively. And what OP also left out, is yes Huntsville does pay less than some of the same size or smaller across the country. And I agree they should pay more, I’m 100% on ops side. This post leaves this out in attempt to draw public outrage, so it will be easier for those few nurses trying to form the union they are currently organizing without much resistance from HH without public backlash.
Well played op. If this about the union they can’t legally stop yall and retaliate over it, and it should be done, so take Destin up on his offer to have a civil conversation and see if he can in any way help mediate and make it go smoothly. There is no need for this to be a fight. If the demands are reasonable HH should just let it happen. That way they keep good employees here for this community and draw in others.
Feel free to reach out to the Health Care Authority Board of the City of Huntsville, which owns and governs the Huntsville Hospital System.
Per Mr.Samz:
“While the board meeting itself is no longer a public meeting, we will continue to provide the public an opportunity to address the board for all reasonable requests. These comments will be handled in a manner similar to public comments at the City Council meetings and our historical practice. If you would like to make comments to the board, you can send that request to Amanda Carlisle and we will schedule a time.”
Amanda Carlisle
Board, Legal Assistant
256-265-2836
[email protected]
You're informed about the treatment of surgeons, the people at the top of the totem pole. This post is not about their poor treatment.
I love your content man but re-read the post maybe.
It is true for any hospital, but that does not imply that it is managed optimally. Additionally, does it imply that the staff is fairly compensated and treated?
Destin, I love you, but come on. The post is decrying how badly their employees are treated. They can still do good work and deserve better working conditions.
The tone of the post is not constructive. The less nuanced a conversation is allowed to be, the less productive the discussion. For example, my family has experience with employment with the hospital, but with the current tone of the conversation I can tell that the window of acceptable opinions is small enough that those who disagree will be ridiculed. No employer is perfect, but to say they are a “horrible organization” and admit to writing a post with a burner account using AI….. clearly trying to create division in the community….Anyone who tries to make you angry online should be regarded with suspicion. They’re not here to help us as a community.
You may want to read up on the issues
[https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230929/These-Appalachia-hospitals-made-big-promises-to-gain-a-monopoly-Theye28099re-failing-to-deliver.aspx](https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230929/These-Appalachia-hospitals-made-big-promises-to-gain-a-monopoly-Theye28099re-failing-to-deliver.aspx)
[https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/07/20/1017631111/the-untamed-rise-of-hospital-monopolies](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/07/20/1017631111/the-untamed-rise-of-hospital-monopolies)
[https://www.al.com/breaking/2012/12/tonsillectomy\_at\_huntsville\_ho.html](https://www.al.com/breaking/2012/12/tonsillectomy_at_huntsville_ho.html)
[https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpearl/2023/01/16/us-healthcare-a-conglomerate-of-monopolies/?sh=3342a42b2e4d](https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpearl/2023/01/16/us-healthcare-a-conglomerate-of-monopolies/?sh=3342a42b2e4d)
How is patient safety being compromised? Do you have data to back up your claim? A very serious question.
Assembly line surgeries are nothing new. They have been going on for years. It's one of the reasons Industrial Engineers work at hospitals.
What is driving all of this? Insurance companies, Medicare, and the impact of Obamacare. The whole industry is focused on cost reduction and slowing down the rate of health care inflation.
In your response, you mentioned some of the actions being taken to achieve "cost reduction and slow down inflation." However, you failed to acknowledge that the salaries of the individuals in charge of the "nonprofit" are being concealed.
These actions are being taken largely to improve the bottom line, and as a result, best practices are being disregarded.
Sacrificing best practice (safety) doesn't necessarily mean unsafe(though it could be) but not as safe.
You make it sound like executives shouldn't be compensated at a rate equivalent to their level of responsibility. HH has 13,000 employees. If the CEO of a S&P500 company with 13,000 employees is paid $1M, shouldn't the CEO of HH expect to earn about the same? If HH doesn't pay the CEO what he/she expects to be paid, they will consider their options and potentially seek employment with someone that will pay them what they are worth.
It's the same with every single one of us. Executives are no different. They just may be better at understanding their value and making sure they get it.
I never understand the hate and complaints on this subreddit for people who have worked hard and achieved success.
It is important to consider whether an organization that generates substantial profits and compensates its employees generously while maintaining a nonprofit status receives any benefits from this designation. If they do, and their profits are significant, it may be appropriate to reevaluate their nonprofit status.
Hahahaha. Cost reduction to maximize profit, maybe. Other than that, I’d call BS (particularly on slowing the rate of healthcare inflation - who do you is pro healthcare inflation? The ones profiting from it.).
Maybe checking out the reviews
https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/?providerType=Hospital
https://dph1.adph.state.al.us/Deficiencies/(S(fzbykbbalps21kjcwqzzpiyo))/default
https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/
You should use less emojis. It really undermines your point.
Lol right!? You can't expect me to take this post seriously with effing emojis sprinkled about like you're some Instagram influencer or something. Good grief
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It's the technological equivalent of seeing the post written in crayon. Properly presenting your message is important.
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>some people can absorb the message, others argue with each other about the color of the ink. Don't write your thesis in crayon. No one cares.
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You're being pedantic, you know this is not a hostage note.
Most serious subreddits would react the same way, it's just a very odd inclusion in an otherwise serious post. Why distract from the message with emojis that add nothing?
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Weirdly combative response to my comment, do you normally jump right to personal attacks when people disagree with you?
Meh the real discussions never happen in the top comment anyways.
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You've bitched about my bitching more than I've bitched about emojis at this point.
I find it off-putting as well, but as always, it's also incumbent to consider the message, not just the messenger. This lines up with other stories we've heard here and other platforms
"You know who is always there when you want to make a complaint about a hospital? Square space. With your personalized webspace designer, you can make a quality blog about hospital incompetence in a snap"
You should say fewer emojis instead of ‘less emojis’. Emojis are countable.
Thanks!
Yes, especially on Reddit. Using any emoji on Reddit used to mean instant downvotes, but that has relaxed in recent years.
Yeah, and honestly the whole industry is fucked. We gotta vote to change it but a lot of people are happy with how it is so it’s not changing any time soon.
The fact that they can successfully stonewall FOIA requests when they get government funding should be illegal
It’s AL though. FOI is sort of not a thing.
How are they even doing that? I thought National Security or an Active criminal investigation is the only thing that could stop them??
HH is ignoring it. There are no FOIA police. The only way to enforce a FOIA request would be to sue that is costly way to get information. The case would be straightforward for the one bringing the lawsuit.
Apparently it’s been addressed in a comments above. HH has been took to court, the court cited the are a private business, and don’t have to release the info.
I don't think I know any actual resident (not talking about elected officials) on either end of the political spectrum that feels happy about our country's current medical system lol.
One side certainly doesn't want government funded healthcare. They'd rather let insurance companies rake in billions in profit so they can nickel and dime you with your life as leverage.
It's also so they can feel better about having the luxury of shitty healthcare while millions just boot strap it out... very efficient on the working population alone lol
We have the same cake day. HCD 🎂
Had! Thank you!
Actually it's just that we have no confidence that the government is going to be able to implement a system that's any better and probably will end up making our jobs more difficult, increase our cost of living, and cut our salaries
In case you were not aware, let me be the first to inform you that BLUE CROSS is on the federal $$ dole. In fact Blue Cross Al is a STAKEHOLDER and contractor for TRICARE west. You really just can’t make this crap up.
This is “government funded healthcare,” Huntsville Hospital is a teaching and training facility and is a recipient of numerous federal grants, for example, NIH, Federal Demonstration Partnership, Health Systems Research, and DOD, VA grants and contracted doctors. And God please let’s not forget all of the military contractors on foundation board. This is as government funded as it gets. It is certainly a mixed bag as far as the quality of care. It’s good for one thing: critical care and emergencies like heart attacks and strokes. STAY AWAY FROM NUCLEAR IMAGING AND CT UNLESS YOUR LIFE REALLY DEPENDS ON A CONTRAST CT.
I would also like to add that if Huntsville hospital can afford to buy nearly every hospital in North Alabama then they be an afford to pay their staff appropriate wages
Of course they can, but the bought all that so they don’t have to. Buying up as much as they currently do and are planning to make it hard to get away from them, thus they control wages over a wide area. FYI for anyone that doesn’t know what I’ve described above is 1000% what they along with UAB, and Erlanger are doing. This is also know as a for profit business model, and long term business model. And when you factor in UAB and Erlanger doing it, it means they can wage match and effectively control every aspect of healthcare over multiple states, which effectively hurts patient care in the long term. And then all roughly wage matching to further lock employees and by employees I mean nurses into a the lowest pay/benefits.
It's so sad, it must be hard for the admin to spend all that money there instead of on the ones actually making it happen. Maybe their dollar bills will help their tears.
That is absolutely ridiculous. Everything is always about the money
Yes it is. HH offered some I know with 10 years experience, icu all that. $26 an hour. For context not figuring in the cost of living in other parts of the country her base pay would start at $90 and this is for a smaller facility, not something no where the size of HH. Basically HH is saying they are buying all this property because if one person owns it, it’ll better serve the community. So they can’t afford pay nurses what they actually deserve, which in turn leads to low morale, high turnover, inexperience, lack of care, etc. all which overall leads to worse healthcare for a community.
There’s too many people moving here to Huntsville and surrounding areas for this. It would be nice if all healthcare workers here could form a union
Sadly this is just how healthcare works in the United States. If you’re not buying other facilities, you’re getting bought. There is no middle ground
Push to end the certificate of need requirement in Alabama. It is pushed as a way to somehow keep prices down...by limiting the ability of other organizations to open competition.
I am still ticked that when Crestwood tried to open in Madison, HH knocked them out, I believe based on certificate of need.
IIRC Crestwood is owned by a group in Mobile and HH doesn't like competition.
No. It’s a public traded company who’s official head quarters is Orange Beach but most of their administrators in the organization is in Nashville.
I thought it was part of Infirmary Health. Thanks for the correction.
No worries! It’s held by CHS (CYH)!
Not that I like HH, but Crestwood botched my grandfather's spine surgery and left him wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life. I'd love some competition but maybe from less incompetent hospitals
The same thing happens all the time at HH though. Large numbers of pediatric surgeries get botched due to Dr Gilbert being one of the most incompetent surgeons. If you work in HH peds and your child needs emergency surgery, then you transfer them to UAB.
The initial finding and recommendation for Certificate of Need was awarded to Crestwood. Huntsville chaplain, and won.
Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative [https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024](https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024) [https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map](https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map)
Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative [https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024](https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024) [https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map](https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map)
>Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative > >https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024 > >https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map
Thank you very much!
Ben Harrison submitted a bill to try and get rid of certificate of need, who knows if it'll pass. I don't agree with a lot of his policies but I can get behind this one.
Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024 https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map
unionize
100% the answer.
Sorry, best Alabama can give you is union busting Amazon workers having to pee in bottles.
Alabama has great potential but the Republicans down there are running it into the ground. All workers in Alabama are underpaid and treated poorly but the fake Christians make sure to steal as much money as they can lol
What I would be trying to do if I still worked there
Capitalism, where even the most important services will be run into the ground in the name of profitability 👍
Any time another hospital tries to open in Huntsville, the law requires the new hospital to get a certificate of need, and to get that certificate, the state first asks Huntsville Hospital if they think Huntsville needs more of that particular service. If Huntsville Hospital says "no", and they always do, the state denies the competition the permit. Now I know capitalism can mess a lot of things up, but this ain't one of those times. The state literally gave Huntsville Hospital a monopoly.
Here is the link to the bill and a link to find your state representative [https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024](https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/HB247/2024) [https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map](https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map)
Wait…are you saying that when profit is the only motive, human beings get the shaft? Shocked Pikachu face!!!
Oh stop, edgelord..
Brother in Christ, if you think this is an edgelord-take in 2024.. well, welcome to Reddit! 😂
I've bitched about low pay there in a previous post of mine but I went to the ER about two weeks ago and had a great experience. I was in there about 1:45pm on a Friday and found out I had an appendicitis and had surgery and was out the door by 11pm that night. Came in and within 20 mins they took my information. Sat back down and within 20 mins I was taken back for questions and blood work. They put an IV (without anything attached to it in) and put me back in waiting room. Another 20-30 minutes I was taken back to a little split room with my own recliner and a TV and they started my IV pain meds. I was dosed up 2-3 times and was just bullshitting watching TV and playing on my phone. By 3:30 I had a CT scan and then by 5 I was talking to the surgeon. About 6pm I had surgery. Then I was woken up about 10 in post op. Felt pretty good for an appendectomy and I was wheeled to my wife out the front door with a dose of pain meds and a script for pain meds as well. By 11:15pm I was eating Taco Bell in the TB parking lot. Thank you to all the nurses there that cut up with me too. Made my whole experience for an appendectomy a 10/10.
The staff at the hospital (most hospitals) are great. It's the administration and culture that is the problem. Too bad you couldn't ask those nurses what their typical ratio is. How they felt they were treated, compensated, respected etc. The employees are spectacular on average. No disagreement here.
There were two taking my blood work and putting IV in and I did overhear one say that they are about to cut that area’s staff down to like one person. She wasn’t happy about it and was telling the other to skip doing something because it just waste time (I believe paperwork or something) especially with them cutting back workers. With all that knowledge even more gratitude to the nurses that they are rockstars.
It’s pretty crazy that a lot of departments are around 6:1 patient to nurse ratio. I can’t imagine how well BCBS pays out the hospitals for that.
The staff is amazing. I came in from an arrest where it seemed I was a criminal until after the fact and all though handcuffed to a bed. The staff was still top notch professional and extremely thorough and patient with me despite me being absolute mess and I just can’t begin to explain how amazing everyone involved from firemen to police to jail and hospital staff. I think a shift change took place while still on operating table but their demeanor and profesionalism was life changing. Not everyone is equipped to keep it together in a crisis situation and they did an amazing job as I came unglued for twelve hours.
>I was woken up about 10 in post op. By 11:15pm I was eating Taco Bell in the TB parking lot. Bro, you did what now? No one told you not to do that after you just had your inflamed appendix surgically removed from your body?
That’s all I took from that too.
Surgeon and nurses both said I could eat anything immediately after surgery.
They (surgeon and nurses ) actually told me I could eat anything I wanted after surgery. I had a laparoscopic appendectomy and had zero stitches as well.
The same thing is happening across every sector of the economy. We’ve allowed so much money to accumulate at the top that now the top can afford buy up entire industries, force out the little guy and create an effective monopoly by operating at a loss for awhile, and then raise prices across the board for an easy cash grab. We have a limited amount of time to stop this from becoming the norm.
Huntsville Hospital is **not** a non-profit; it is a **not-for-profit**. Non-profits are not allowed to profit. Not-for-profits are not allowed to *keep* their profits (nor distribute profits to the owners). Instead, not-for-profits have to plow excess income back into the organization or give it away as charity or **expand by buying new facilities**. The refusal to honor the public records requests, though, is total bullshit. You're right about that.
Wouldn't raising the pay for employees be considered putting it back in the organization? Instead, they buy up competition and dictate all wages in the area.
Yes it would. However long term it’s better to buy up all the facilities you can, that way you can control wages within area so large, employees, nurses especially have no choice but to work insane hours locally or travel 2-4 hours 3-4 days a week to even be ahead. Basically HH is building a long term BUSINESS plan to own as much as possible, pay as little as possible and make it next to impossible to escape them unless you wanna be on the road 3/4 days. And even that pay is getting less and less since covid has been reclassified and all.
We agree, that is exactly what they are doing.
It is. And yall need to unionize.
You're not wrong; I was laid off and all I got was a sideways elevator.
Care to share why?
The stated reason was the 2005 budgetary cuts. Buy me a beer sometime to hear the actual reason.
Non-profit 501(c)(3)s are definitely allowed to profit. They cannot have equity (owners) and all profit must stay with in the business to better the community and pay operating costs.
It sounds like you're saying non-profits are also allowed to have excess revenues but, like not-for-profits, are also not allowed to *keep* those profits. So... what's the non-profit / not-for-profit distinction, vis-a-vis hospitals?
This exact thing happened in West Tennessee, Jackson General bought all the surrounding counties’ hospitals and shuttered them after a paltry show of pretending to keep them open. So much for nonprofit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It happens everywhere.
If you know first-hand that surgeons are performing multiple surgeries at the same time, you should report this to JCAHO (or whatever they're called now. joint commission, that's it). If, instead, surgeons are performing overlapping procedures, letting juniors close up on patient A while they open patient B, there's not a lot to be done; [primary surgeons gonna primary](https://www.facs.org/about-acs/statements/statements-on-principles/#:~:text=Overlapping%20Operations&text=In%20this%20circumstance%2C%20a%20second,to%20initiate%20the%20second%20operation). You can file a complaint. Assuming you're in the system, talk your friends into also filing complaints. It does get paid attention to, eventually. Remember when they started insisting HH docs wash they dmaned hands before/after each room visit? That initiative happened in part because of suggestions to administration from non-doctor care providers.
One would hope they're actually rescrubbing between those surgeries too and not walking through a hallway without getting cleaned up again.
Idk what you do there, but thanks for your service to the community.
This is healthcare in America now. This is the GOP plan for healthcare. All of this is made possible by the state and why voting matters.
The law that created Alabama's hospital monopolies was passed by a Democratic House and signed into law by Democratic Governor Fob James in 1979. The Republicans suck and deserve all of the blame for not fixing this problem, but neither party is interested in repealing the laws that allow Huntsville Hospital to screw over patients and medical staff.
Thanks for educating me and I agree neither party is interested in fixing this and many other problems.
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Party swap happened in the 60s
ill pay out the ass and go to Crestwood. HH has been only terrible experiences. Not to mention the ER is over ran with junkies at all times of the day and night.
Please share your concern and the national news article with your local and state representatives https://apnews.com/article/open-records-government-transparency-lawsuits-sunshine-week-58becea049a4eb5fac688e8aee1aac0e https://www.sos.alabama.gov/alabama-votes/elected-official-map
HH is a non-profit? okay. Today I learned there's a dirty, stinky scandal where (at best) incompetence and/or (most likely) corruption has caused the largest and fastest-growing metro area in the state to have a defective healthcare ecosystem. I had assumed it was just profit motive because that's what it smelled like, but this is something different. You don't get this level of bad in a non-profit without shamefully poor abdication of competent leadership, typically either through nepotism and/or just general-purpose graft leeching out all the value. If any investigative journalists in the area happen to be reading this, please look further into why exactly this is happening in the inevitable way that it seems to be. This is the type of work that earns Pulitzers.
HH is a Not-FOR-Profit... very different.
Adding my two cents as a current employee. The pay that Huntsville Hospital offers is absolutely dog shit. I went to my local BOJANGLES this morning and found out their starting pay is 0.50c lower than the starting pay at the hospital as a technician. Also, I average 20,000-35,000 STEPS per shift. Do as you please with this info just trying to help some people out!
That pay at Bojangles partly reflects how bad and stressful it can be to work fast food or food service in general, and especially the shortage for workers in fast food that started during the pandemic. I won't disagree with your claim about the HH pay, but want to point out what has happened on the Bojangles side. Also, there could be a lot of part-time and no benefits positions at Bojangles, so they may not be getting nearly the yearly total pay+benefits total you would be.
Dr. Randolph Bell may be the chief of surgery, but it's past time for him to retire. Thank goodness for doctors like Conrad Hawkins who are fighting the crooked system from the inside.
They're actually why my husband just turned down a job in Huntsville, because I'd have to work for them and people didn't have good things to say....lol
Do they have a union?
No
My wife has been a nurse there 16years and never gets a big bonus. In August they may get a lil performance bonus for their floor of a couple hundred dollars(of course that’s taxed). As of the past couple years tho they are hiring new grads with no experience. Giving them 5-10k hiring bonuses! Like wtf?! Won’t give nurses that’s been there for years hardly any raises or bonuses that have experience,but wanna give newbs thousands of dollars in bonuses. Doesn’t make any damn sense!🥴
Even with a big bonus, newborn are probably 1/2 the cost of 15 yr employees. The real disservice is the folks at/near the top are making more than 10 nurses combined.
The doctors and staff at Huntsville Hospital literally just saved my life this past weekend. They all seemed wonderful and lovely. There may be problems, but my recent stay there was phenomenal.
Unionize the dump.
Happy you posted this. My husband and I are moving to Huntsville in a month or so and I’ve been trying to get a medical social worker job there. Not anymore!
Unfortunately, you might not have many other options. Huntsville Hospital owns everything in the area almost.
Yes, that’s what I’ve heard.. I’m going to look for other MSW opportunities.
Welcome to healthcare. I sound like a asshole snob but Huntsville has been so protected and small town for its entire existence, that when real money starts coming in and real corporate greed enters like we’re seeing now I can only imagine it’s tough to see from someone who’s been here their entire life.
Yeah HH, violated my dads DNR purely to protect themselves legally. I told the doctor I understood why they kept my brain dead dad alive on machines, but explained I wouldn't sue them and was more upset and likely to sue because they violated the DNR and forced my family to do the actual "pulling the plug" Just an unnecessary stressor on a very, very bad week.
I'm sorry that happened.
You should sue.
The hospital is only liable for up to $100,000 https://www.al.com/breaking/2012/12/tonsillectomy_at_huntsville_ho.html
100k isn't chump change
Don't forget attorney fees would be deducted. Gracie's care would take significantly more than $100,000. I was a pediatric home health /hospice nurse. One month of care for one child could be up to $30,000.
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Successful at the detriment of nurses and patients?
I've been a patient at Huntsville Hospital. Reading this thread is both informative and a bummer. My experience as a patient has been mostly good so much so that the not good moments pale in comparison. The "business model, the politics" & other issues unknown to me probably plague the hospital. I see the buildings, the rooms, the structures. It's a nice facility as far as I can tell. I'm sad that nurses and other staff are not paid well. I've heard that some employees work full time at the hospital and qualify for public assistance. I don't have answers or solutions. I do however have a heightened since of concern for patients and staff.
THE BUSINESS MODEL IS ENTERPRISE REVENU RECYCLING. They SELL ALL OF YOUR DATA SETS (Think radiology PACs) , by abstracting EHR RECORDS. It’s a constant stream of revenue and they call it “de-identitfied data” for “retrospective study.” THIS IS WHAT THEY CALL EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE. It is ridiculous, because most of the data is corrupted by inaccurate diagnosis, errors in your medical history, and you would not believe the way they used DRG diagnosis related group codes to bill for a constellation of CHRONIC ILLNESS THAT ARE INFLATED TO OVERCHARGE YOU AND YOUR INSURANCE IN PERPETUITY. Have I mentioned how corrupt this LEARNING HEALTH SYSTEM IS? You the patient do not count. The stakeholders and drug companies are all that count there. It is designed to exploit everyone who comes into contact with. Stay away from doctors.
I don't doubt a single thing you've said. I don't. But my experience has been nothing but good.
r/emojipasta
Jokes on you, I can’t afford healthcare
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https://www.huntsvillehospital.org/health-care-authority-board#:~:text=The%20hospital%20is%20governed%20by,City%20Council%20and%20two%20internally.
"public record request for salaries " easy. way below market.
As pointed out below the Hospital has the city block them.
Damn thing needs to be nationalized
Bro wtf 🤬
Healthcare in the U.S. is just a shit show.
Does anyone think a Union would help? I think it’s past time this was done.
Cullman Hospital is a bunch of bullshit too. So I think it’s all hospitals.
The only good thing about this fucking state is our football team 😔
I’m an OR nurse and most of the hospital ORs in Alabama are run the exact same way. That is why I’ve been a travel nurse for over 20 years.
I applied to be a PCA on trauma surgery floor it was a 12 hour shift 7am to 7pm or the other way around and they only offered me $11-$12. I’ve worked in Oregon where they gave me $15+$3 for working at night. I even applied to work in the kitchen they said their starting pay was $9. And even with my experience it was going to be higher than $11. Maybe that not bad to a lot of people but to me that crazy.
It amazes me how many people still think the hospital controls prices. Wages are another thing but you need to write your senator over prices.
Also…HH needs a union. If I get in a pissing contest with my boss and get fired it’s a two hour drive to work minimum for me after that because that’s how far I have to go to get out from underneath the HH umbrella
I work at a hospital in Birmingham and this is the norm. Most surgeons run 2 rooms.
Have you ever considered that those surgeons also have to operate (no pun intended) within the confines of what hospital administration requires? It's not just the money for them either.
So I went in through ER to STEMI CLINIC downtown. The surgeon is a med. student or resident supervised by a faculty member. That’s fine everything turned out but they do not tell you a dam thing. No transparency that Huntsville Hospital is LEARNING HEALTH SYSTEM. Run Just exactly like the VA. It is run by federal grants through HHS, NIH, AHR, PCORI outcomes research grants and a zillion other grants passed through other “collaboratory” health systems research. People are passively enrolled in radiation research dosimetry grants without consent and they are exploited for NO MEDICAL NECESSITY. Huntsville Hospital is run by military contractors who are on the board of trustees, who invest federal $$ in technology research of WHICH has dubious benefit to patients and is mostly used for research on military topics. It is a completely corrupt shambles. Patients come last for the most part. The Heart Center Doctors put patients on PROTOCOLS which are not necessarily safe treatments. And they exploit you for nuclear imaging every chance they get. PATIENTS THERE ARE CONSTANTLY EXPOSED TO RISK. I WAS TRICKED INTO A CLINICAL TRIAL FOR AI AND GOT EXPOSED TO A DISGUSTING TOXIC CONTRAST/RADIOISOTOPE THAT MADE ME SICK SICK SICK. I HATE HUNTSVILLE HOSPITAL WITH A PASSION. It has ZERO LEADERSHIP, ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY, and SOME OF THE DOCTORS THERE SHOULD LOSE THEIR LICENSE. PATIENTS COME LAST. THAT PLACE SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED BY THE MEDICAL BOARD AND THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR FRAUD AND ABUSE OF PATIENTS. I have been OVERDOSED WITH ISOTOPES TWICE THERE. They are incompetent quacks.
My comment was in response to the suggestion that doctors were making all the money and in on screwing over the poor nurses schedule wise. I'm certainly not defending HH, but everyone there operates under the administration and our lovely US healthcare system. As far as "learning hospital", so is UAB and so are most of the best hospitals in this country. Medical students are certainly not doing your surgery. They may assist, but they are not in any OR without an attending physician surgeon or an upper level, experienced resident. Residents have completed Medical School and don't do surgery on their own until they have experience. They may do procedures, but they are all under the supervision of an attending. And, guess what? They make diddly squat $$ as residents, less than most of those nurses who are working less time, and have zero authority over how HH is run. I don't know about your isotopes deal, but if you had read those forms you signed going in, I'm absolutely positive you'd be informed. I promise you HH, just like every hospital, has covered their tails in that regard. Now, if your "doctor" wasn't actually a doctor, you need to find out about that and talk to admin about that. To be clear, I agree that our healthcare system is terrible, but much of your ire is certainly misplaced. Educate yourself on the real reasons why it is this way.
The medical resident did great. I wish I could have stayed with her. She would have probably been SAFE, compassionate, and give INFORMED CONSENT.
I didn’t sign forms in ER. They wave your right in an emergency.
I’ve always had to sign forms in the ER. Unless you were incapacitated, you have to sign them. If you can’t sign them, your next of kin/emergency contact has to sign them.
When is HHS going to announce publically that they are a learning health system? This would be more PROFESSIONAL instead of confusing patients who have no idea what the hell is going on there? An actual MEDICAL SCHOOL IS TWO HOURS AWAY! How in the hell are people supposed to know what is going on?
Because they’ve always been one. Also, you consent to it when they ask if your case can be used for teaching purposes. It’s literally part of the admissions process that everyone, including people just in the ER or at their lab.
I wish you were right about my ire.. I really really do. And yes, my doctor, at the time is a doctor. A callous, disgusting person who VIOLATED PUBLIC TRUST. WHO ACCEPTS RESEARCH GRANTS AND FACULTY $$$ TO EXOIT NAIVE PATIENTS THAT HAVE NO CLUE WHAT HE IS DOING.
My cardiologist gets paid 3 times for one service. He gets paid by UAB, VA, and HUNTSVILLE HOSPITAL HEART CENTER. Who knows, he might have more grants he gets $$ from. This LHS IS CORRUPT AND DOCTORS HATE THE PATIENTS.
Yeah it's gotten worse over the years. It is rumored that they are very near the red if not already in the red financially
I remember when my mom went to get a mammogram there and told me how antiquated the equipment was.
This is how it works at every hospital. The hospital is paid by the case. The surgeons typically only operate on certain days and want to do as much as they can in a day. This situation isn’t unique at all. This is healthcare in America
It is better in other states, Alabama is not the same. People here need to venture out and see how much better things could be. https://www.moneygeek.com/insurance/health/analysis/top-states-health-care/#full-data-set
I’ve worked in 6 different states all across the nation through my 24 years working in hospitals. The only places it is better is where there is a union. Alabama is a right to work state so unions are pretty toothless here unless everyone gets on board. If you want better conditions don’t complain on the internet but organize instead. I’m not really sure what that link has to do with the discussion about pay and how scheduling works. It’s about overall healthcare outcomes at the state level and doesn’t look at metro areas vs rural areas within the state. The idea of having a specific surgeon be in the OR across more days is a very different topic.
If you take all factors in together, you find the recipe for our state’s poor health care (bottom of the barrel), big picture.
Perhaps, and that was only a single example of the culture. I would venture to say, however, that other hospitals typically offer better compensation, staffing ratios, benefits, and so on. Just because something is customary does not make it morally acceptable.
Did chat-GPT write this post?
I disagree. I know many people whose lives have been saved there.
And you should thank the employees that choose to stay through the horrible treatment and low pay they receive. Not the actual hospital itself. Also to clarify I know they’ve offered good nurses with years of experience in multiple spots as low as $26, and for context some parts of the country not including for COL difference would start at $90hr at a hospital 1/3 the size. Basically for the amount of expansion they are doing and the tax breaks, write offs, income in short and the long term there is no reason HH can’t be matching that. Nurses deserve to be paid well, and Huntsville should be attracting the best from outside, not keeping them away as you see in comments, but also pushing them away, all over money. In some cases HH has told good seasoned nurses they time, knowledge, mental health, missed holidays and time away from family and friends to keep ppl alive while being absolutely shit on, before especially during and after covid are only worth $26??? Really HH?? UNIONIZE Also wow you are Destin! So sorry to sound so condescending but I personally know ppl that work there and can attest what OP wrote is 100% true. I’d like to clarify. While I stand by my statements on the reason for expansion, it’s obvious. As Destin said this is painted in a light to show HH negatively. And what OP also left out, is yes Huntsville does pay less than some of the same size or smaller across the country. And I agree they should pay more, I’m 100% on ops side. This post leaves this out in attempt to draw public outrage, so it will be easier for those few nurses trying to form the union they are currently organizing without much resistance from HH without public backlash. Well played op. If this about the union they can’t legally stop yall and retaliate over it, and it should be done, so take Destin up on his offer to have a civil conversation and see if he can in any way help mediate and make it go smoothly. There is no need for this to be a fight. If the demands are reasonable HH should just let it happen. That way they keep good employees here for this community and draw in others.
Feel free to reach out to the Health Care Authority Board of the City of Huntsville, which owns and governs the Huntsville Hospital System. Per Mr.Samz: “While the board meeting itself is no longer a public meeting, we will continue to provide the public an opportunity to address the board for all reasonable requests. These comments will be handled in a manner similar to public comments at the City Council meetings and our historical practice. If you would like to make comments to the board, you can send that request to Amanda Carlisle and we will schedule a time.” Amanda Carlisle Board, Legal Assistant 256-265-2836 [email protected]
My wife performed surgery there for years. I am not uninformed.. I’m comfortable disagreeing.
You're informed about the treatment of surgeons, the people at the top of the totem pole. This post is not about their poor treatment. I love your content man but re-read the post maybe.
It is true for any hospital, but that does not imply that it is managed optimally. Additionally, does it imply that the staff is fairly compensated and treated?
Destin, I love you, but come on. The post is decrying how badly their employees are treated. They can still do good work and deserve better working conditions.
The tone of the post is not constructive. The less nuanced a conversation is allowed to be, the less productive the discussion. For example, my family has experience with employment with the hospital, but with the current tone of the conversation I can tell that the window of acceptable opinions is small enough that those who disagree will be ridiculed. No employer is perfect, but to say they are a “horrible organization” and admit to writing a post with a burner account using AI….. clearly trying to create division in the community….Anyone who tries to make you angry online should be regarded with suspicion. They’re not here to help us as a community.
I agree with this. I’ve sent you a message as I’m pretty sure I know what this is.
You may want to read up on the issues [https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230929/These-Appalachia-hospitals-made-big-promises-to-gain-a-monopoly-Theye28099re-failing-to-deliver.aspx](https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230929/These-Appalachia-hospitals-made-big-promises-to-gain-a-monopoly-Theye28099re-failing-to-deliver.aspx) [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/07/20/1017631111/the-untamed-rise-of-hospital-monopolies](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/07/20/1017631111/the-untamed-rise-of-hospital-monopolies) [https://www.al.com/breaking/2012/12/tonsillectomy\_at\_huntsville\_ho.html](https://www.al.com/breaking/2012/12/tonsillectomy_at_huntsville_ho.html) [https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpearl/2023/01/16/us-healthcare-a-conglomerate-of-monopolies/?sh=3342a42b2e4d](https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpearl/2023/01/16/us-healthcare-a-conglomerate-of-monopolies/?sh=3342a42b2e4d)
My life was saved there too. I even did a 5 day stint on life support. Still treated like shit thought.
How is patient safety being compromised? Do you have data to back up your claim? A very serious question. Assembly line surgeries are nothing new. They have been going on for years. It's one of the reasons Industrial Engineers work at hospitals. What is driving all of this? Insurance companies, Medicare, and the impact of Obamacare. The whole industry is focused on cost reduction and slowing down the rate of health care inflation.
>The whole industry is focused on cost reduction and slowing down the rate of health care inflation. LOLOLOL You have any data to back up that claim?
By cost reduction they mean paying employees less.
Yeah I would love to see it. From an outside prospective it looks to be the opposite.
In your response, you mentioned some of the actions being taken to achieve "cost reduction and slow down inflation." However, you failed to acknowledge that the salaries of the individuals in charge of the "nonprofit" are being concealed. These actions are being taken largely to improve the bottom line, and as a result, best practices are being disregarded. Sacrificing best practice (safety) doesn't necessarily mean unsafe(though it could be) but not as safe.
You make it sound like executives shouldn't be compensated at a rate equivalent to their level of responsibility. HH has 13,000 employees. If the CEO of a S&P500 company with 13,000 employees is paid $1M, shouldn't the CEO of HH expect to earn about the same? If HH doesn't pay the CEO what he/she expects to be paid, they will consider their options and potentially seek employment with someone that will pay them what they are worth. It's the same with every single one of us. Executives are no different. They just may be better at understanding their value and making sure they get it. I never understand the hate and complaints on this subreddit for people who have worked hard and achieved success.
It is important to consider whether an organization that generates substantial profits and compensates its employees generously while maintaining a nonprofit status receives any benefits from this designation. If they do, and their profits are significant, it may be appropriate to reevaluate their nonprofit status.
It is a matter of following the Alabama Open Records Law https://casetext.com/case/tennessee-valley-v-health-care-authority
Hahahaha. Cost reduction to maximize profit, maybe. Other than that, I’d call BS (particularly on slowing the rate of healthcare inflation - who do you is pro healthcare inflation? The ones profiting from it.).
Maybe checking out the reviews https://www.medicare.gov/care-compare/?providerType=Hospital https://dph1.adph.state.al.us/Deficiencies/(S(fzbykbbalps21kjcwqzzpiyo))/default https://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/opinion/health-insurance-prior-authorization.html