Hundreds of nurses and technicians at Drexel Hill, Pa.-based Delaware County Memorial Hospital began a planned two-day strike Sunday amid contract negotiations, according to a report on delconewsnetwork.com.
The workers are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Health Professionals.
During the strike, the workers issued chants calling for a good contract with the hospital's owner, Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings, which acquired the hospital's parent, Springfield, Pa.-based Crozer-Keystone Health System, last year, according to the article. PASNAP Executive Director Bill Cruice contended staffing changes implemented since Prospect's takeover have resulted in understaffing and overworked employees, and said the union wants the contract to address these issues.
"It's a concrete example of if you use less nurses you're going to make more money, but you're stretching these nurses, and, from our perspective, putting patient care at risk," he said, according to the report.
In a statement, hospital officials responded to the claims, saying Crozer-Keystone staffs at the national average. "Nursing leadership checks staffing levels four times a day, each and every day, to ensure appropriate staffing. There has been no change at all in how staffing is done at DCMH since Prospect purchased the health system in July 2016. While we agree with the union that staffing is important, very few hospitals outside of California — and none in Pennsylvania — have adopted a staffing policy using ratios," they added.
Wages have also been part of contentions regarding a new contract. Hospital officials accused the union of leaving their duties as frontline caregivers in the name of higher wages.
"Nurses and techs at Delaware County Memorial Hospital already receive excellent pay and outstanding benefits. For example, the average salary for a full-time nurse in 2016 was $82,852, with the highest-paid nurse receiving $162,601," hospital officials said.
But Mr. Cruice, in the report, disagreed with the hospital's statements, saying, "The average nurse here, in fact, makes ... $80,000 a year, and that is hard work every single day."
As far as the first day of the strike, hospital officials said patient care did not suffer as replacement workers took over. They also noted surveyors from the Pennsylvania Department of Health "reported that the hospital continues to provide quality care" and "will conduct daily monitoring visits throughout the strike."
Although the strike is set to end Monday, nurses are expected to be away from work through Friday morning, according to the report. Hospital officials said this is because the staffing agency the hospital is using has imposed a five-day minimum as a condition of providing replacements. "Strikers who have made an unconditional offer to return to work will be permitted to return as soon as there is a need for their services," they added.
Meanwhile, the hospital called on the union to "return to the bargaining table and bargain with us in good faith."