Minnesota Nurses

What is this? The MNA Daily NewsScan is a round up the day’s biggest nursing, health care and organized labor stories.  As news unfolds in real-time, we update the NewsScan with new links and info, so check back often!

Stories we’re scanning:

Health Care

U.S. Health Care Spending “Dwarfs” That of Other Countries   The U.S. spent nearly $8,000 per person for health care services in 2009, the  study found, confirming that “health care spending in the U.S. dwarfs that found  in any other industrialized country.”

Notes on Nursing

Debate on Who Administers Anesthesia Moves to Courts   The debate pits nurse anesthetists, who specialize in administering anesthesia and maintain that they are well equipped to treat patients on their own, against anesthesiologists, who are physicians and say nurses lack the necessary training.

Labor Updates

40 Years of Workers Left Behind    Particularly striking is the fact that for years leading up to the 1970s, productivity gains were broadly shared, as theory predicts. Then the linkage abruptly broke. What explains the shift?

ALERT:  Rally for Jobs

The clock is ticking on the 2012 Legislative session. Despite being in session for months, the Legislature has failed to act on real job creation projects like a large infrastructure bill and a Vikings stadium.  These projects would create thousands of family sustaining, union jobs to help Minnesota’s economy recover.  Let’s tell Legislators to act now and create jobs!      RSVP Here

WHERE: State Capitol Steps (75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, St. Paul)
WHEN: Thursday, May 3, 11:00 AM

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Health Care

“The System Really is Not Failing – Failure IS the System”   At a recent Association of Health Care Journalists meeting, Dr. Otis Brawley, Executive Vice President of the American Cancer Society, slammed everyone in the health care system for overuse of under-proven treatments.

Hospitals Sue Patients For Nominal Amounts   Mount Carmel Health System in Ohio referred Lori Duff to a collections agency for an $1,800 bill related to prenatal services, even though her $25,000 annual income from managing an auto parts store likely made her eligible for charity care.

Labor

Retirement Slipping Farther and Farther Away  Over the last decade and a half, Americans’ expected retirement age has slowly risen to 67 from 60, according to a new Gallup survey.

It’s The Inequality, Stupid   A huge share of the nation’s economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244.

Nursing

Health Care Laws Leave Hospitals Overwhelmed by “Permanent Patients”  When asked about Latasiewicz’s more than two year stay at the hospital he oversees, Carroll said, “That’s really a function of how our health care system is working right now, which is it’s not working very well at all, particularly in cases like this.”