Portable cameras aiding in Saint Vincent's strike security

Photo | Grant Welker Nurses picketing outside Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester

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By Grant Welker

Saint Vincent Hospital normally has hundreds of cameras throughout its Worcester campus, including its parking garage and along its exterior. But during what's become a weeks-long strike, the hospital has set up portable cameras in various locations to aid security.

Saint Vincent has installed portable cameras across from its staff entrance on Bridge Street, where picketing nurses have often gathered to express their disapproval to staff coming and going for shifts. They're also set up at loading docks on the other side of a raised rail line that passes over Bridge Street, where the hospital has a loading dock and where shuttle buses pick up and drop off visiting nurses who've replaced hundreds of striking nurses.

The new cameras, detailed in a staff memo, are supplemented by similar nearby cameras set up on Summer Street, along where picketing nurses also regularly gather around a parking garage entrance for patients and visitors.

"Our top priority remains your safety and that of our patients, and these cameras are in place to ensure that everyone entering and exiting the hospital can do so safely and without incident," Saint Vincent CEO Carolyn Jackson said in the memo. "These cameras make it easy to review occurrences that are reported, so that we can ensure appropriate follow-up and actions are taken."

The 800-member unit of the Massachusetts Nurses Association at Saint Vincent began striking March 8, with accusations that the for-profit hospital hasn't used its financial ability to increase staffing levels. The hospital maintains its staffing levels are safe and in line with others in the industry. The two sides haven't negotiated since March 3 and have traded barbs in the week since.

The striking nurses were visited on Sunday by two members of the Massachusetts delegation in Congress: U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Jim McGovern. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey visited on March 24.