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WILKES-BARRE — Nurses in Lisa Derenick’s unit at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital can find themselves caring for up to six patients at a time.
Derenick, a registered nurse, worries that understaffing at the hospital could lead to tragedy, whether in her busy medical surgical unit or other areas throughout the facility.
“You would hope that the nurse has plenty of time to take care of and notice any issue or irregularity of a patient. But with small staff sizes it can be hard,” Derenick said Monday night during a nurses union forum at the Luzerne County Courthouse.
“Without extra staff on the floor, mistakes will happen,” she warned.
Unions representing nurses at WBGH and Geisinger Community Medical Center (GCMC) in Scranton organized Monday’s gathering under the rotunda to express their concerns about staffing and the effect on patient care.
Their joint presentation, “The State of NEPA Hospitals,” took aim at management practices they say put more emphasis on saving money than properly staffing medical facilities.
“I think we can all agree that we need new language in our contracts to recruit and retain nurses,” said Elaine Weale, a registered nurse at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and president of the Wyoming Valley Nurses Association. “We are losing too many nurses from getting burnt out due to short-staffing.”
The Wyoming Valley Nurses Association (WVNA) represents more than 450 registered nurses at WBGH, while the Northeast Pennsylvania Nurses Association (NEPANA) represents nearly 400 RNs at GCMC. Those unions are affiliated with the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP).
WBGH issues
WBGH owner Commonwealth Health Systems, a for-profit Tennessee-based firm, is one of the largest for-profit hospital companies in the U.S. Amid financial struggles, CHS has been selling off hospitals to reduce its debt load.
In Wilkes-Barre, a long-simmering contract dispute has led to tensions between labor and management. Talks have been underway since Dec. 8, 2017 and the contract expired on Jan. 31, 2018.
The last scheduled bargaining session between the union and CHS was Dec. 13, and another is set for Jan. 16.
Against that background, the nurses voted Dec. 11 to authorize their bargaining unit to send a 10-day strike notice at its discretion to Community Health Systems. The union held a one-day strike last May.
The nurses said Monday that CHS has downsized staff through attrition, failure to post positions and lack of recruitment.
Weale claims the healthcare facility has 91 vacant registered nurse positions and relies on ‘an excessive use of overtime for all positions.’
According to the CHS website, Wilkes-Barre General is hiring nurses in several departments including: Emergency Department, Critical Care, Telemetry, Step Down, Open Heart ICU, OR and Med Surg.
The nurses also noted state investigation and inspections last year that found 19 violations of state and federal health codes.
“It seems like it’s more about the profits then the patients,” Weale said.
WBGH statement
Prior to the rally, hospital spokeswoman Renita Fennick released the following statement:
“At Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, continual work is being done to strengthen the quality of care we provide through the expertise and commitment of our highly skilled medical staff and dedicated employees. Examples of these efforts include ongoing training for nurses and other clinicians based on scientific evidence and best practices and a committee comprised of physicians, nurses and other clinicians that meets regularly to review outcomes and refine our clinical procedures.
“We have a strong nursing staff and we continue to recruit qualified and highly skilled nurses by working closely with area nursing programs, attending and hosting nursing job fairs, providing an RN Internship Program and highly competitive wages and benefits for all staff members.”
GCMC issues
In Scranton, NEPANA struck a deal with GCMC in April 2017, but negotiations have reopened since the hospital failed to meet its commitment to hire and retain 100 full-time nurses by August 2018, according to a PASNAP statement.
GCMC registered nurse Shannon Reichard said hospitals operating under the Geisinger umbrella have combined to earn $95 million in total “profit” from Luzerne and Lackawanna counties in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
Danville-based parent Geisinger Health System is a not-for-profit care provider, but does record income or losses from its operations.
“Saying we don’t have enough money is not a valid excuse,” Reichard said. “Nurses are leaving because they are burnt out from the small staff sizes. It costs a hospital more to replace a nurse that left than … a nurse’s annual salary.”
GCMC statement
Angelo Venditti, chief nursing officer, Geisinger Northeast, released the following statement:
“We recognize the important role nurses play in providing professional, compassionate high-quality care, and in enhancing patient safety and preventing harm. Despite a nursing shortage affecting hospitals throughout the United States, we’ve hired over 90 registered nurses at GCMC since our contract was approved in 2017.
“We are actively working with the union to address their concerns, and we’ll continue to recruit nurses to join our team throughout our region. We are offering attractive wages and benefits, tuition assistance, professional certification at no cost, and advancement opportunities, as well as hiring incentives up to $20,000.”
