A union is accusing UP Health System-Marquette (Mich.) of a lack of transparency, including not providing a complete inventory of personal protective equipment for nurses, despite repeated requests.
The Michigan Nurses Association filed the allegations with the National Labor Relations Board.
In a news release, the union said UPHS-Marquette provided the number of days the organization has left of PPE without sharing how much PPE the health system expects to use each day, "making the number essentially meaningless." It also accuses the health system of redacting Occupational Safety and Health Administration logs as well as lack of financial transparency.
"Transparency is important so that we can plan and we know what's going to be going on, so that we can understand the level of risk that we put ourselves forward in," Gregory Kerwin, a registered nurse who is also a Michigan Nurses Association member, told TV station WBUP. "We're going to be putting ourselves in risks, we're nurses, we're going to do that. But we have the right to know what that risk is."
The union said it will drop the allegations if the health system complies.
UP Health System-Marquette did not provide a comment when Becker's Hospital Review reached out about the allegations.