The Cook County Health and Hospitals System’s board of directors is seeking to shift $4.9 million to Provident Hospital in an effort to shore up the nursing staff there.
Provident began cutting beds last month because it had exhausted its available funding for temporary nurses.
The board today voted to request approval from the Cook County Board of Commissioners to pay for more temporary nurses at Provident with money that had been budgeted to fill open positions across the system.
“We have the money; it’s in our budget,” Chairman Warren Batts said. “We want to keep the beds open. We want good people taking care of our patients.”
Because of a nursing shortage, Provident has filled many vacancies with temporary nurses, which are more expensive than in-house employees.
Provident COO Sidney Thomas said last month the hospital is short 25 nurses. Nurses are less likely to apply for jobs at Provident, he said, because of media attention on the possibility of the hospital closing due to county budget cuts.
The $4.9 million would allow Provident to go back to its normal 119-bed capacity, says Thomas.
Many more details about today's meeting can be found HERE.
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment