Leominster Hospital Nurses to Picket Opposing Dangerous Staff Cuts
Monday, November 03, 2014
Realizing that picketing might not be enough, nurses represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association are also reaching out to the hospital’s board of trustees in an effort to stop the nurse staffing cuts.
“This is just another step toward educating the community about how dangerous the administrations plans are,” said David Schildmeier, Director of Public Communications with the Massachusetts Nurses Association. “Deborah Weymouth and her administration clearly don’t care about patient care so additionally, we are going to the board of trustees to let them know that they have an ultimate responsibility to this hospital.”
Weymouth took over as CEO and President of Leominster Hospital in May 2014 and nurses from the hospital have been fighting her administration ever since. The hospital recently began to lay off ER nurses and has announced plans to assign more patients to each nurse in the night shift as well as merge the pediatric, labor and delivery, and maternity units. This is all part of a cost-cutting plan that was announced five months ago.
The Dangers of Staffing Cuts
At a recent community meeting, nurses, residents, and community leaders came together to talk about the dangers of staffing cuts at Leominster Hospital, talking about a variety of facts that reflect how dangerous this cost-cutting plan could be.
According to research, each additional patient above four that an RN is assigned to care for produces a seven-percent increase in injury or death form those patients (Leominster Hospital nurses will now have to care for six patients).
Reduction in Force But Not in Care
While many are concerned that the hospital’s cost-cutting plan will create problems for nurses and additional danger for patients, but Weymouth and her administration have reiterated that these cuts will not reduce patient care.
Weymouth says that the hospital’s priority will continue to be patients and that the administration has been trying to work with the MNA to come to some sort of resolution.
“We have bargained in good faith with the MNA with the hope of our reaching a mutually agreeable plan for the hospital and for our nurses,” said Weymouth in a statement on September 24th. “Unfortunately, we were unable to come to an agreement – and as a result, the hospital will proceed with its initial plan for the reduction in force.”
Related Slideshow: Central MA Emergency Rooms: How Long You Have to Wait
The slides below show the wait times for Central MA hospitals that have emergency rooms. The wait time is how long a patient has to wait before being seen by a doctor, physician’s assistant, or nurse practitioner. Wait time before admission is how long emergency room visitors who later became inpatients had to wait before being admitted. Wait time before transfer is how long admitted patients had to wait before being transferred to their hospital bed. Time in ER is the total time a visitor who was not admitted as an inpatient spent in the emergency room. Percent who leave before being seen refers to those visitors who decided to leave before being seen by a doctor. For all measures, lower numbers are better. The below hospitals are ranked from shortest to longest wait times. Data was taken from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service. It corresponds to information collected from fall 2012 to fall 2013.
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