Members of Communications Workers of America District 1 have filed more than 2,500 complaints against Buffalo, N.Y.-based Catholic Health regarding staffing levels and patient safety.
The union, which represents 145,000 workers in 200 CWA local unions in New York, New Jersey, New England, and eastern Canada, outlined the grievances in a March 5 news release — raised under hospitals' clinical staffing plans filed with the New York Department of Health.
The complaints are the latest in a series of staffing plan complaints the union has filed against New York health systems.
Union members contend in complaints gathered across Catholic Health's Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, Kenmore Mercy Hospital, and Sisters of Charity Hospital, St. Joseph's Campus, that nine registered nurses were tasked with caring for 26 patients, a level below the staffing legally required. They also contend that the number of aides in the intensive care unit were deficient by 50%.
In another complaint, the union said that when 39 patients required care on a telemetry unit, no charge nurse was designated to oversee operations..
"The available six RNs did not meet the required ratio of 1:4. Instead each nurse was tasked to care for between six and seven patients," the union said. "The aides were each assigned thirteen patients, again far exceeding the required maximum."
These complaints come one year after implementation of the state's 2021 Clinical Staffing Committee Law.
Under the law, hospitals are required to establish clinical staffing committees to create and submit minimum staffing plans to the state's health department. Those found in violation must submit a corrective action plan, which must be implemented upon state approval. Hospitals that don't comply could face a fine of up to $2,000 per citation and/or any other related civil penalties.
Catholic Health shared a statement with Becker's emphasizing the health system's continued commitment to staff recruitment and retention.
"Since the beginning of the pandemic, we committed even more resources to strengthen this important work," the statement reads. "As a result, we made significant improvements in staffing across our system, hiring more than 1,200 nurses in the past two years and achieving retention rates 10% better than the national healthcare average."
The health system also said the union's staffing complaints "go beyond Catholic Health and represent a more pressing concern — there are simply not enough nurses and clinical professionals in our community to fill all the job vacancies that exist across the region.
"Catholic Health continues to work with area colleges and universities to provide educational opportunities for those who wish to pursue careers in the health professions. We call on our state leaders to do the same by committing more funding for clinical education programs, and by recognizing that increased Medicaid funding to support our workforce is long overdue. New York State is currently paying hospitals just 70% of what we spend caring for patients, creating an unsustainable model that will only perpetuate continued workforce shortages."
The complaints against Catholic Health follow thousands submitted by CWA District 1 in November across hospitals in the state. As of Feb. 16, the New York State Department of Health had cited 15 hospitals for violations of the state's clinical staffing law.
Erin Clary, a spokesperson for the department, confirmed the number to Becker's at the time but declined to comment further, "as these cases may be the subject of an ongoing investigation." She also declined to provide the names of the hospitals cited.
Ms. Clary did not have any updates to provide on March 4.