PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — More than 2,500 unionized nurses could be striking at four hospitals in the Philadelphia region in the coming weeks. The action comes as the health systems are bracing for a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Because of severe staffing shortages and pay issues, 500 nurses at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, 1,000 nurses at Einstein Medical Center, 800 nurses at St. Mary Medical Center and 260 nurses at Mercy Fitzgerald are considering a strike.
“Nurses feel like we have solutions to the problems and we should be at the table to discuss them and have a say in how the units are staffed, because we really do run the hospital,” said Maria Plano, vice president of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professional, or PASNAP, at St. Christopher’s, where she is an ICU nurse.
She said staffing has always been a problem at hospitals, and now, nurses are being required to handle more patients.
“In our NICU, they’re getting a triple assignment, where they’ll have three babies instead of two babies, and that shouldn’t happen. And on our med-surg (medical surgical) floors, they’re not getting more than five patients but they are split between the hallways, so it’s creating that kind of dangerous situation,” she explained.
All nurses at the four hospitals are represented by PASNAP.
The two sides are still negotiating at St. Mary, and there is a tentative agreement at Mercy Fitzgerald with a ratification vote slated Thursday.
But nurses at both of those hospitals, which are owned by Trinity Health Systems, have also issued notices for a simultaneous two-day strike on Nov. 17 and 18.
Einstein says it is in active negotiations. St. Christopher says it is bargaining in good faith and hopes a strike can be averted.
Union members at Einstein and St. Chris have voted overwhelmingly to authorize bargaining committees to call a strike, but notice has not been issued to the hospitals yet.
Plano said that could happen before the end of the week.
Plano believes Tower Health, which bought St. Christopher's last year along with Drexel University, is going to abandon the hospital, which is a Level 1 pediatric trauma center.
“Shame on Drexel! Drexel wants to say it's a silent owner, and let Tower run roughshod over us. They are Philly and they shouldn’t be treating us like this,” Plano said.