Northeast Hospital Corporation, owned by Cambridge, Mass.-based Beth Israel Lahey Health, has lost 40 percent of its nursing staff since July 2019, including more than 100 nurses in the last five months, the Massachusetts Nurses Association said Feb. 3.
Since July 2019, NHC has lost 322 nurses based on data as of Jan. 15, according to the nurses association. NHC comprises Beverly Hospital, Addison Gilbert Hospital, and Lahey Outpatient Center, which are all in Massachusetts.
Nurses credit the staffing loss to prolonged understaffing, heavy work loads and low wages.
"Rather than taking aggressive steps to recruit nurses into the hospital, the administration for years resorted to the dangerous practice of using mandatory overtime, forcing a nurse to work extra hours for an entire shift, to compensate for their failure to have appropriate staff on hand to provide patient care," the nursing association said.
NHC nurses are currently negotiating a new contract they hope will result in the addition of more nurses and wage increases.
In a statement sent to Becker's Feb. 3, Kim Perryman, RN, chief nursing officer at Beverly and Addison Gilbert Hospitals, said the leadership teams are "extraordinarily grateful for the efforts of our clinical staff, administrative and support teams, and recognize that this pace is unsustainable." In the hospitals' most recent wage proposal, "We provided an offer in which, over the course of three years, nurses would receive wage increases of at least 18 percent and as high as 30 percent based on seniority; our proposal also offers an immediate and significant reduction in nurses' health insurance contributions," she added.
Ms. Perryman said leadership has "a number of initiatives in place to support retention and recruitment and are working aggressively to add nurses to our team. We have taken steps to ensure that all units are appropriately staffed so that we can continue to provide safe care to patients in our community."