Your recent Business Section article, “Nurses on front lines as hospitals restructure” (Feb. 12) offered information devoid of any analysis of the forces behind or the consequences of registered nurse replacement. The public needs complete information to understand that the “changes” are not just a sign of the times but part of a harmful trend. A trend that marks rising hospital costs and unprecedented increase in health-industry profits while hospitals are cutting their nursing staffs. As one industry journal recently described it, “hospitals, as well as other health-care services, are getting ready to cash in on new investment opportunities unshackled by federal health reform.”
The fundamental question that must be raised when “restructuring” is debated is: Do we want a health-care system that creates profits for those in the business of health care, or do we want a system that provides care for sick people. In the world of corporate health care, sick people and the people that care for the sick are seen as a drain on the system. In this profit-driven scenario, decreasing the costs of providing care to the sick translates into increased profits. We are not, through restructuring, decreasing the total costs of health care; we are simply diverting money from patient care to consultants’ and corporations’ profits.
