In 1999, he said, Ben Taub Hospital administrators called one after a boiler blew up and four workers suffered minor burns and injuries. In a prepared statement, hospital district officials said they will make every effort to ensure that appropriate staffing levels are met in the future. Hospital officials decided to stop accepting patients after the number of nurses in the emergency-care center dipped from five to four, McLeod said. McLeod said LBJ now has 12 nurses working in the emergency-care center, seven are temporary nurses. The chronic nursing shortage effecting Houston is part of an international problem that is plaguing hospitals and nursing homes from London, Texas, to London, England.
Fewer people are willing to go into nursing because of wage and quality of life issues.
Hospitals are having trouble keeping nurses, especially those who work in high-stress emergency and intensive care centers. A recently released University of Pennsylvania study of hospital nurses found widespread concern about the quality of patient care because of staff shortages. More than 43,000 registered nurses in 711 hospitals in five countries participated in the study. The hospital district has had continuing financial problems. McLeod said Ben Taub has been unable to reopen the unit or the beds.