Primary care physicians at Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's hospitals, both part of Mass General Brigham, are taking steps toward a unionization election.
On Nov. 15, physicians filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board, seeking an election to decide whether to join Doctors Council, SEIU Local 10MD.
At Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's, both based in Boston, physicians cite "burnout" and the "corporatization of medicine" as their reasoning behind the unionization efforts, according to The Boston Globe.
"MGB has relentlessly become more and more corporate in the way they manage their physicians," Michael Barnett, MD, a primary care physician and associate professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said, according to the publication.
"It's become increasingly clear, with policy decisions that have been made and challenges that have been unaddressed, that we don't have the autonomy and the ability to provide the kind of care that we signed up for."
If the physicians vote in favor of unionization, the bargaining unit would number 400 members, the largest union of attending physicians in Massachusetts, according to Doctors Council.
A Mass General Brigham spokesperson shared the following statement with Becker's:
"Primary care physicians are critical to the health of our patients and community. We know that PCPs across the commonwealth are facing unprecedented volume and stress as a result of a confluence of factors that are not unique to our organization. We share the common goal of offering world-class, comprehensive care for our patients and believe we can achieve this best by working together in direct partnership, rather than through representatives in a process that can lead to conflict and potentially risk the continuity of patient care. We are committed to continuing our dialogue with our PCPs, supporting them and their practices through this challenging time and investing in ways to reduce burden."