Saint Vincent nurses picket hospital

PHOTO/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Write a Comment

By Emily Micucci

Nurses employed at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester are picketing today in what they say is a call for a fair contract and safe staffing at the hospital, according to the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), the union representing the nurses.

According to the MNA, nurses have been in contract negotiations with Tenet Healthcare-owned Saint Vincent Hospital for 10 months. The sticking points, according to the union, are staffing ratios, along with proposed wage increases and a health insurance cost-sharing proposal.

Saint Vincent is offering a 1-percent raise to nurses for each of the three years covered by the proposed contract, according to the MNA.

Meanwhile, the union said that nurses are pushing for what it called safer staffing ratios in key hospital departments, including the emergency room, medical-surgical floors, maternity ward, and the intensive care unit, which, beginning Oct. 1, is subject to a new state law limiting the number of patients an ICU nurse may be assigned at a given time.

“Nurses want to ensure their patients get the care they deserve, that the hospital can meet the standards of care under the new ICU law, and that nurses are recognized for the contribution they make to the hospital’s success and to the safety of patients,” the MNA statement read.

The picket will take place between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on Thursday outside the Foster Street entrance to Saint Vincent Hospital. A convention of the MNA will be held across the street at the DCU Center, the union said, and nurses from across the state are expected to join the picket.

Teresa Prego, a spokeswoman for the hospital, issued an e-mail statement on the planned picket Wednesday.

“We have tremendous respect for the work that our nurses do, and are proud of the many accolades that Saint Vincent Hospital has received for superior patient care and service. We remain committed to reaching an agreement with the union representing our nurses and are confident that an agreement can be reached,” Prego wrote.

In the MNA statement, the union highlighted what it called the “healthy profit,” Saint Vincent Hospital is reaping. Financial data reported to the state Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) shows that the hospital posted an operating surplus of $50.3 million in fiscal 2013, which ended June 30 of that year.

In the first quarter of 2014, Saint Vincent posted an operating surplus of $12.8 million.

Dallas-based Tenet sold Saint Vincent to Vanguard Health Systems of Nashville, Tenn., but acquired it again in 2013. Tenet posted an operating loss of $158 million in 2013, a sharp reversal from 2012 when the system, which owns 49 hospitals in 11 states, posted income of $334 million.

A Tenet spokesman could not be reached immediately Thursday morning.

“Patients and nurses shouldn’t be shortchanged when this hospital is turning such a healthy profit, and we don’t care about their corporate troubles. Worcester patients and nurses shouldn’t pay the price for their bad corporate performance in other parts of the country,” David Schildmeier, a spokesman for the MNA, wrote in an e-mail.

According to Schildmeier, this is the first picket by Saint Vincent nurses in years. The nurses held a 49-day strike in 2000 when they were at an impasse with Tenet-owned Saint Vincent over staffing, according to Schildmeier.

Schildmeier noted that nurses today are “nowhere near” striking, but the picket is meant to send a message to Tenet that nurses want what to see what they consider safe staffing ratios.