National Nurses United

M A R C H | A P R I L 2 0 1 7 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 7 WRAP-UP REPORT California registered nurses at Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH) hospitals throughout California held a day of action on March 31 to highlight safe patient care and workers' rights issues emerging as the system, nurses say, has failed to follow through on promises of enhanced community services and benefits made during the 2016 merger of Providence Health & Services and St. Joseph Health. "When Providence and St. Joseph Health merged, they promised to enhance health- care for underserved members of our communities," said Lois Sanders, RN of St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley. "Yet, throughout the PSJH system we're seeing serious ongoing issues, including unsafe staffing, which puts our patients' lives at risk. So far, we only see them having benefit- ted from an enhanced bottom line." Nurses aim to inform their communities about critical issues at PSJH facilities, includ- ing deteriorating patient care and working conditions in PSJH hospitals, broken prom- ises made during the merger, and egregious violations of nurses' labor rights. Nurses have raised a litany of concerns about the commitment of PSJH to patient care, including unsafe staffing levels, insuffi- cient supplies and resources, and lack of meal and rest breaks for nurses. These concerns were documented pre-merger in a report the California Nurses Association released in August 2015 available at SJHFallFromGrace.org. Conditions have not improved after the merger, nurses say. "We're seeing hospitals throughout the PSJH system fail to meet California's manda- tory safe staffing ratios that set a limit on how many patients nurses can care for at one time," said Liz Wade, a labor and delivery RN from Providence Saint John's Health Center. She said that, to save on labor costs, PSJH overloads nurses with "more patients than we can possibly handle" and gave as an example how patient acuity is not considered in peri- natal assignments and post-partum RNs care for four couplets instead of three as recom- mended by the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses. Though St. Joseph Health System (SJHS) and Providence Health & Services (PH&S) contended that their merger was mission based, nurses say it was obvious from their filings that the primary purpose of the merg- er was to allow SJHS and PH&S to obtain substantial financial benefits through access to capital, by means of a "single obligated group"—an arrangement that benefits them financially through increased size and market power, and leveraging combined net assets. Nurses say no sign has yet emerged of any benefit for communities served by PSJH hospitals, such as in expanded charity care or mental health services. This lack of increased access to quality, affordable care, say nurses, undermines the hospital system's claim that a merger was mission based, rather than profit based. Additionally, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has found merit to dozens of unfair labor practice charges filed by CNA against SJHS California hospitals, and in early 2017, the NLRB issued a consolidated complaint against St. Jude Medical Center, St. Joseph of Orange, and Mission Hospital. On May 8, 2017, the NLRB has scheduled a hearing before an administrative law judge on a series of unfair labor practices dating back over two years. —Kari Jones Texas registered nurses at Hospitals of Provi- dence Sierra and Memorial Campuses in El Paso ratified in April a new three-year contract that extends safe patient care standards, improves pay equity to retain the most experi- enced nurses, and supports a strong union to best advocate for safe patient care. The new agreement covers around 700 nurses at the two hospitals, which are owned by Tenet Health- care, and will run through Nov. 30, 2019. "This agreement is a big victory because it supports our ability to advocate for quality, safe care for our patients—and upholds supportive working conditions for nurses," said Patricia Crooks, RN. "We stood together to clearly fight for what was necessary, and we know that patients in our community will benefit from the protections in this agreement. I'm so proud of our RNs for standing up." Contract highlights include: Health and safety protections for RNs, to ensure safe patient care; economic gains for improved recruitment and retention of nurses, includ- ing guaranteed pay increases averaging 9 percent over the life of the contract for full- time and part-time RNs, as well as pay equi- ty for nurses; expansion of a Professional Practice Committee (PPC) featuring nurse representatives from every unit in the hospi- tal, who meet to track patient care issues; and protection of health benefits against increased copays or deductibles. "Our nurses stood up for patient care and for fairness, and we won," said Isabella "Cookie" Brockman, RN. "With our new agreement, nurses will be guaranteed salaries that are on par with their colleagues with similar experience. This will attract nurses to our hospital, and keep our experi- enced nurses as the bedside." —Staff report Providence St. Joseph Health RNs staged a statewide day of action on March 31 to protest what they say is the system's prioritization of profits over patients. Shown from left are nurses from Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center San Pedro and Providence Saint John's Health Center.

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