St. Vincent Staffing Strike For Patient Safety Improvements Continues

On Monday, St. Vincent Hospital nurses and Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare held the first round of negotiations since the nurses launched their strike on March 8. However, Tenet did not address the nurses’ call for staffing improvements that they say would improve patient safety.

The only change Tenet made to its pre-strike proposal was the creation of a committee to review staffing levels quarterly. Tenet made no promise to change staffing conditions after a federal mediator communicated such requests to Tenet officials on Friday.

St. Vincent nurses reviewed the hospital's proposal with the membership via Zoom after the session. The nurses expressed that they do not need another committee; instead, they said they need safe patient assignment limits on medical surgical floors as well as additional staff on a variety of units. The strike will go on.

Moving forward, the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) union will be in contact with the mediator and the strike, which began on March 8, will continue.

Over the last two years, the nurses have been making efforts to convince Tenet to make what they said would be improvements to the hospital’s care conditions. According to the nurses, conditions have only gotten worse since COVID-19 began.

The nurses' strike has garnered support from a variety of public officials, faith-based organizations, and community advocates, including the Worcester City Council, the Worcester state legislative delegation, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Edward Markey, Congressman Jim McGovern, and Attorney General Maura Healy, who have all visited the nurses strike line. 

Warren, Markey, and McGovern also sent their own letter to Tenet's CEO urging the healthcare company to negotiate with the nurses.

Recently, Tenet reported over $97 million in profits and revenues in excess of $4.7 billion for the first quarter, following $400 million in profits for 2020. 

Tenet is estimated to have invested more than $45 million to prolong the strike. This figure is based on the healthcare organization’s public disclosure at the start of the strike that the cost of replacement nurses was $5.4 million for the first week (multiplied by the 8 weeks of the strike), as well as the city of Worcester’s confirmation that the weekly cost for police details for the strike is $210,000 (multiplied by six weeks).

In the last year, St. Vincent nurses have filed over 600 official "unsafe staffing" reports in which nurses informed management that patient care conditions threatened patient safety.  The nurses also report that the Worcester hospital has experienced an uptick in patient falls, preventable bed sores, and potentially dangerous delays in necessary treatment due to a lack of appropriate staffing.

Specifically, the nurses’ proposed staffing changes include limits on the number of patients nurses are assigned on many units, and a commitment to provide support staff positions across all units.

The nurses’ are also calling for the creation of a pool of nurses who are experts in caring for critically ill patients. This group of nurses would provide support for ED nurses who must take care of five or six patients while also caring for patients in need of ICU level care who are waiting for a bed to open in the ICU. The safe standard of care for ICU and trauma patients is one nurse per one to two patients, MNA said.  

Additionally, the nurses on strike are requesting "STAT and Rapid Response" nurses, who would be available to respond to critical situations when a patient is suffering a decline in her condition on medical/surgical floors.

These nurses assist in stabilizing and caring for patients until they can be transferred to the ICU, and they are especially necessary to support newly graduated nurses who most often work on shifts where there are fewer experienced nurses on staff.