Los Angeles and San Francisco were the most expensive U.S. cities for the construction of general hospitals in the fourth quarter of 2021, a recent Statista report revealed.
Top 12 Cities Include Los Angeles Costs at Over $772 Per Square Foot, San Francisco is $707+
Building costs vary based on such factors as site conditions, climatic conditions and market conditions.
Below are the dozen most expensive cities in the U.S. for the construction of general hospitals and the average cost per square foot. A tie at No. 6 results in a numerical listing of 11:
Hundreds of nurses in several states are threatening to strike over hospital conditions and pandemic concerns.
CALIFORNIA
Over 800 nurses who work in San Joaquin County’s health system in California have agreed to delay a strike that was set to start on Feb. 27.
The nurses, who work at San Joaquin General Hospital in French Camp, Calif., and in public health and county jails and clinics, were set to from Feb. 27 to March 2 at the hospital and county administration building.
However, the San Joaquin County board of supervisors has authorized county administrators to offer nurses represented by the California Nurses Association a one-time payment of $1.2 million as a sign of good faith to avoid a possible strike, Tom Patti, chair of the board of supervisors, said in a Feb. 22 statement.
Patti said this strike delay allows for a 45-day cooling-off period to give both sides time to negotiate.
“The county board and administrators have tremendous respect and appreciation for the work our nurses perform every day. We also acknowledge their work has been made even more challenging as a result of the pandemic,” Patti said.
“We nurses are pleased to get back to the bargaining table,” Kelly Mertz, a registered nurse at San Joaquin General Hospital, said in a Feb. 22 news release. “It is unconscionable that we nurses have been without a contract for two years. We cannot recruit and retain experienced nurses without a fair contract. We have had 160 nurses leave San Joaquin County’s health system since the pandemic began.”
The county and union have agreed to return to the bargaining table this week, according to the California Nurses Association.
OREGON
The Oregon Federation of Nurses representing 156 technical employees at St. Charles Health System’s St. Charles Bend hospital campus filed a strike notice Feb. 22, according to a hospital news release.
The strike of indefinite duration is set to begin March 4 unless an agreement is reached.
Hospital management and the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals have been in negotiations for more than a year but have not been able to fully resolve issues, including wage structure and cost-of-living increases, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“We were driven to do this by the hospital,” labor organizer Sam Potter told the publication. “Our members have been waiting for and fighting for fair pay and a fair contract. We’ve waited long enough.”
Aaron Adams, president of the St. Charles Bend and Redmond (Ore.) campuses, said: “St. Charles and all of our caregivers have been at the forefront of treating our community members with COVID-19. Our organization is also deeply involved in running large-scale community vaccination clinics for three counties alongside our Deschutes County partners. While this strike notice cannot slow our efforts to meet these critical community needs, it just adds new — and unnecessary — challenges when our community needs us most.”
The hospital said both sides had already agreed to meet March 10 with a federal mediator, and earlier bargaining dates of March 3, 4 or 5, were also under consideration when the strike notice was delivered.
However, St. Charles “will now be required to direct its time to strike preparation rather than negotiations and will be unable to meet during the notice period,” the hospital said.
St. Charles said its leaders also plan to file an unfair labor practice charge against the union with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the union of bad faith bargaining.
PENNSYLVANIA
Heritage Valley Health System, which owns and operates a hospital in Beaver, Pa., must arbitrate its dispute with a union over whether the hospital breached their collective bargaining agreement by assigning registered nurses to work as patient care assistants, a federal appeals court said.
Heritage Valley and the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Pennsylvania entered into an agreement effective from July 1, 2016 until June 30, 2019.
In 2018, the union filed a grievance under the agreement alleging that the hospital assigned registered nurses to work as patient care assistants multiple times, in violation of mandatory nurse-to-patient staffing ratios that were bargained for between both sides, according to court documents.
The union and hospital disagree on whether the contract requires arbitration of the alleged breach.
Heritage Valley contends its actions were allowed and excluded from the contract arbitration clause, while the union sued the hospital in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, claiming its grievance was an arbitrable violation.
The district court sided with the union, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit backed that decision.
Another State Reports Coronavirus in People After Vaccinations
Four more people in Oregon who received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine tested positive for the virus.
The cases come from Yamhill and Lane counties, with both counties reporting two cases.
The cases were referred to as “breakthrough cases” by the state’s health authority because they all occurred at least 14 days after receiving the last dose.
“We are working with our local and federal public health partners to investigate and determine case origin,” Oregon’s Health Authority said. “Genome sequencing is underway, and we expect results next week.”
More Americans Say No to Vaccines
Despite Mainstream Media and CDC reporting the pros, more Americans are learning the cons and are trending against taking still the coronavirus vaccine.
In January, 19% of Americans said they were definitely not going to receive the two series injections. This week over 22% said no way. Even more surprising are an increasing number of doctors and healthcare workers are against the shots as more data is available. Now, 31% of U.S. adults say they plan to “wait and see” the results of being vaccinated on other people before coming to a decision for themselves.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows about 10% of Americans have received at least the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Currently, 9.8 million Americans have been fully vaccinated against the virus.
More Recoveries Than Originally Reported
Here are the latest COVID-19 numbers, provided by researchers at Johns Hopkins University:
Confirmed cases: 108,267,654
Fatalities: 2,384,922
Recoveries: 60,661,022
Arizona Citizens Mistrust Media and Officials
Arizona has reported more than 790,000 total cases and nearly 14,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 through the course of the pandemic. However citizens are learning that many of the initial Covid related deaths were mislabeled, because the deaths were vehicle accidents, heart attacks, cancer, etc.
The recent election fraud and slanted reporting has caused many Arizonians to mistrust government officials and Media.
Jobless Rates Soar Under Biden
Before the coronavirus erupted in the United States, weekly jobless claims had never topped 700,000 before. Last week, unemployment benefits were at 793,000 which continues to show evidence that Joe Biden’s job cuts remain high. Through the summer, the job market was recovering nicely under President Trump but quickly stalled in the fall when the Democrats “won” elections with their voter and election frauds.
December and January saw employers cut 178,000 jobs, according to The Associated Press. In the week ending Jan. 23, about 20.4 million received unemployment benefits which is a sharp incline from the 17.8 million just one week prior.
The jobless rate fell from 6.7% to 6.3% but while some are finding jobs, the rate also dropped due to people who stopped looking for jobs.
Clever Journeys 