UMass Memorial nurses protest cuts

Photo/Michael Novinson Registered nurses read off a press statement put out by UMass Memorial Health Care after delivering a letter to administrators Thursday protesting staffing and service cuts.

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Registered nurses (RNs) across the UMass Memorial Health Care system delivered a letter Thursday to CEO Eric Dickson objecting to staffing and service cuts.

“As a physician and caregiver who has worked alongside many of our members, we are appealing to your personally and professionally to … stop the incredible harm your policies are causing our patients, your employees and the communities we serve,” a portion of the three-page letter read.

Nurses at UMass Memorial Medical Center (UMMMC) in Worcester, Marlborough Hospital and Health Alliance Hospital in Leominster said system-wide cuts enacted over the past nine months will result in longer hospital stays, an increase in preventable patient readmissions and poorer patient outcomes.

“Morale has never been lower,” Ellen Smith, an RN at the UMMMC University Campus, told about three dozen workers and supporters gathered Thursday outside UMass Memorial’s administrative headquarters. “Nurses feel disrespected on every level.”

Local nurses’ union leaders, backed by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the union representing the nurses, accused Dickson of reorganizing patient care services based on a manufacturing model borrowed from the auto industry.

“Do not let patient safety and quality care be a casualty on the road to solvency,” said Colleen Wolfe, an RN at the Memorial and Hahnemann campuses.

In a statement, the health care system said it recognizes and values the contributions of its nurses.

“We are committed to maintaining appropriate staffing levels to provide the high level of care that our patients need, expect and deserve every day,” the statement read.

But nurses said the understaffing of emergency services has led to increased physical violence by patients against staff, particularly in the emergency department (ED). Lynn Flagg, an ED nurse, said the injuries were so severe that nurses had to take time off from work.

The health care system cut 388 full-time-equivalent positions between October and the end of April, and has announced plans to lay off an additional 20 nurses in Leominster. This has been accompanied by the consolidation of the pediatric and maternity units in Leominster, the nurses said, as well as the closure of a medical floor in Worcester.

The nurses said those actions have resulted in fewer people looking after more patients, which slows the delivery of care and jeopardizes safety.

The nurses’ letter was received by Joseph Fournier, UMMHC’s vice president of human resources, who said he would give it to Dickson by the end of the day.

Updated at 2:10 p.m. with comments from the press conference