If a hospital is unionized, might care be better? (One study says yes)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/oct/10/if-hospital-unionized-might-care-be-better/


DAILY MEMO: HEALTH CARE:
If a hospital is unionized, might care be better?
One study says yes, and suggests higher wages and pushes for nurse-to-patient ratios are key reasons

By Megan McCloskey

Fri, Oct 10, 2008 (2 a.m.)

When labor contract negotiations with hospitals progress slowly — much like the current stalemate at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals — nurses and their unions often launch public relations campaigns.

This classic union tactic is designed to try to tip the balance of power at the bargaining table. But union ploys aside (last month there was a candlelight vigil), the public might have a reason to pay attention to organized workforces in health care. New studies show that unions in hospitals make a difference in the quality of care.

One recent study found that hospitals with unionized registered nurses have 5.5 percent fewer deaths from heart attacks than nonunion hospitals. That mortality rate is a key statistic used to evaluate a hospital’s performance.

The study, conducted independently and without union funding, was by an economics and public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a community health professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Published in Cornell University’s “Industrial and Labor Relations Review,” the study looked at many variables that could affect quality, including how better wages might increase productivity. It concluded that the presence of unionized workers meant higher quality of care.

Health care is one of the few sectors showing signs of growth in union membership, but only about 12 percent of the industry is unionized, according to Ariel Avgar, an associate professor at the University of Illinois who studies labor issues in the health care industry.

Hospitals argue they don’t need union workforces because they have a built-in motivation for taking good care of patients: In this fiercely competitive industry, a hospital that does a poor job will lose customers to better hospitals. (In fast-growing Southern Nevada, a shortage of available beds weakens that argument.)

FULL story at link.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. That would seem an obvious conclusion to me....