Less than half of the 66 certified registered nurse anesthetists whose contracts were terminated by Warren, Mich.-based St. John Providence Health System amid an outsourcing contract dispute are set to return to work, after a deal was reached with management, according to a Crain's Detroit Business report.
Here are six things to know about the issue.
1. The CNRAs, who previously worked at Providence Park Hospital in Novi, Mich., and Providence Park Hospital in Southfield, Mich., were terminated in December after they rejected the nonprofit health system's plan to outsource them to PSJ Anesthesia.
2. Then earlier this month, they met with PSJ management and attorneys and began reviewing a new contract offer Jan. 19, according to the report. A deal was finalized last weekend.
3. Under the deal, four of the 66 employees who were terminated in December are returning to work full time as PSJ contract employees, and another 24 will be contingent employees paid an hourly wage without benefits, with an option to sign on full time at a later date, according to Crain's Detroit Business. Another 29 of the affected CRNAs won't return, most of whom have found new job offers at other places. Nine others were undecided or could not be reached by Crain's Detroit Business as of Tuesday.
4. Both sides have also agreed to forgo potential litigation against the other, the CRNAs have agreed to participate in profit-sharing instead of having an equity stake in PSJ, and a performance enhancement committee of CRNAs and PSJ owners have agreed to gather to set policies and procedures, David Shea, managing partner of Shea Aiello, who represented the CRNAs, said, according to the report.
4. The employees could start returning to work later this week.
5. The employees' decision to return to work follows an outsourcing contract dispute that arose last fall when a number of nurse anesthetists were informed their jobs with Providence were being outsourced to PSJ Anesthesia, a newly founded company affiliated with Dominick Lago, MD, an anesthesiologist at both hospitals. Fourteen nurses agreed to join the company while 66 CRNAs lost their jobs after repeatedly rejecting the terms for new contracts.
6. According to the report, the Providence hospitals have since continued to host surgeries, largely through a combination of anesthesiologist physicians performing CRNA duties and a small contingent of the CRNAs who did sign PSJ agreements.
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