A new blog, www.examinebarnabas.org, was launched last week to help the Bronx community get the full story about St. Barnabas Hospital, a 461-bed acute care hospital and Level I Trauma Center that thousands of patients depend on for critical care.

Given St. Barnabas's declining revenue, the resident physicians at the hospital are concerned certain members of the staff are being paid excessively high salaries--for example, the top 5 executives at St. Barnabas Hospital received aggregate pay increases of 35% between 2002 and 2007. So if St. Barnabas executives got raises, it must mean they deserved it because they improved the hospital's financial performance, right? Not quite.

A quick look at the hospital's financial statements over the past four years suggests that financial performance is getting worse, not better. In 2008 alone, St. Barnabas posted a loss of $10 million on hospital operations and additional $30 million loss on investments.

Between 2005 and 2007, St. Barnabas ex-CEO Ronald Gade's post-retirement yearly salary of $1.2 million per year would have made him one of the highest-paid hospital employees in New York City. Yet this was the salary Gade received when he was no longer even employed with the hospital--rather, this was the yearly payment he received as a consultant in 2005, 2006, and 2007.

So who pays the price for executive raises? While St. Barnabas executives have been receiving increases, they have used the hospital's declining financial performance as a reason to cut back on benefits and health coverage offered to hard-working health care professionals at St. Barnabas. (Here are copies of memos to employees announcing benefits cuts.)

In a letter sent last week to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, CIR President Dr. Nailah Thompson asked for an investigation of executive pay at the struggling Bronx hospital. Hospitals like St. Barnabas are essential to the health of the communities they serve--and the hospital's revenue is largely thanks to the public, as this is the type of funding most of the hospital's revenue is derived from. The question is, how much of American taxpayers' dollars are executives keeping for themselves? "With so much of our economy in flux, now more than ever, the people of New York need to be reassured that the institutions we rely on are worthy of the trust that we put into them," said Dr. L. Toni Lewis, president of the Committee of Interns and Residents.

"Examining St. Barnabas" will provide information and commentary about the hospital's fiscal health, executive salaries and patient satisfaction. The blog will also follow the hospital's efforts to expand to new areas of the Bronx, as well as seek input from site visitors. What do you think about millionaire "non-profit" CEOs in the Bronx? Visit www.examinebarnabas.org and share your thoughts.

Beginning today -- July 1st, 2009 -- mandatory overtime is a thing of the past for any healthcare worker in Pennsylvania providing direct patient care. This victory is the culmination of a 7-year struggle by nurses and other healthcare workers who repeatedly marched, called, emailed and lobbied their legislators to support this important patient safety legislation.

With the exception of true emergencies and unforseen events, the law protects all nurses and health care providers from discipline by their employers for refusing to work overtime. Nurses and other caregivers will no longer have to worry about making mistakes or falling asleep while driving home because we had to work over our regularly scheduled shift. This is a monumental day for patient safety in Pennsylvania.

SEIU Healthcare PA has been working to educate caregivers on the legislation and how to implement it at their facilities. Now it's up to our hospitals, nursing homes, State facilities and other health care employers to begin adhering to the new law. If you have questions about how the law is being followed at your facility, you can fill out this form on the SEIU Healthcare PA website. Read more about what is covered in the legislation and how it applies to your facility by downloading Your Guide to Act 102.

Two new TV dramas about registered nurses - Nurse Jackie on Showtime and Hawthorne on TNT - premiere during the month of June. They join a host of TV programs that are set in hospitals, such as Grey's Anatomy, House and Scrubs.

The portrayal of the medical profession on TV: I've heard this topic discussed on more than one occasion by people going through residency themselves, or that work in a hospital. They've all said that Scrubs--unlike many other medical TV shows--does capture the training process, the profession, and the essence of a hospital setting with surprising accuracy. On the surface, Scrubs may seem like 30 straight minutes of slapstick comedy, absurd fantasy sequences, and slightly inappropriate jokes. However, the show is also about what happens at hospitals between life-and-death crises--the thought processes and insecurities of being a young doctor in training, the way doctors and nurses handle ordinary cases and never knowing what kind of case will come through the doors.

Tell us what you think: Do any of the programs accurately depict the lives of healthcare workers, and is your situation reflected in any of these programs? Share your opinion in the comments section (below).

Yesterday, workers at Boston's Caritas Carney Hospital, part of Caritas Christi Health Care and the largest community-based hospital system in Massachusetts, voted overwhelmingly to join 1199SEIU. This election comes on the heels of an April vote in which more than 800 healthcare workers at Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston also voted to unite together with thousands of healthcare workers in 1199SEIU.

The successful vote was hailed by community leaders as a win not just for caregivers, but also for patients and the community. "Carney is so much more than just a community hospital - it's a real part of the community," said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino in a statement. "Generations of Dorchester families have turned to Carney for quality care, good jobs and a ray of hope...Why can't every hospital in the city of Boston have 1199?" (Our thoughts exactly!) Since 2006, 1199SEIU has more than tripled in size in Massachusetts.

1199SEIU's bargaining unit will represent respiratory therapists, radiology technicians, LPNs, nurse assistants, dietary and clerical workers, and housekeepers at the 159-bed hospital. Read more about the election at the Boston Herald, Boston Globe, and CNBC.

Nurses in the Detroit area are celebrating a $13.6 million settlement reached with St. John's Health System in a class action lawsuit brought to expose attempts by area hospitals to hold down wages for nurses despite an ongoing shortage of RNs willing to work in acute care hospitals. "This [is] good news for everyone in Detroit who looks to these hospitals to provide quality care. Patients get better care when nurses have the staffing we need to meet their needs," said RN Cathy Glasson of the Nurse Alliance of SEIU.

According to a report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research commissioned by the Nurse Alliance of SEIU, over 1.2 million nursing positions will need to be filled nationally over the next five years. The report shows that the shortage may be due in part to artificially low wages caused by collusion among hospital employers. This settlement is an important step towards ensuring fair compensation for the nursing profession and helping to solve the nurse shortage crisis.

"By helping to ensure competitive methods for setting RN wages, we can attract more new nurses to the profession, bring non-practicing nurses back to the bedside, and improve patient outcomes," said Anne Jacobs-Moultrie, a registered nurse and VP of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers. Ensuring competitive wages for nurses would also benefit hospitals in the long-term by allowing facilities to meet their staffing needs without resorting to mandatory overtime or expensive temporary nurse agencies.