With a attainable nurses strike on the horizon, one New York Metropolis hospital is nearing an settlement with its nursing employees to maintain them working amid the continued “tridemic,” sources informed NBC New York.
New York-Presbyterian Hospital and its nurses reached a tentative deal over the weekend, sources mentioned, per week earlier than nurses at that hospital and 7 others had been set to strike. Beneath the deal that was provided, nurses would get 18 p.c raises over the following three years, with added incentives to retain skilled nurses.
The hospital additionally pledges to tackle persistent understaffing whereas enhancing employees ratios within the emergency room, and there could be no cuts to well being advantages, in accordance to sources.
New York-Presbyterian has a tentative settlement with nurses to keep away from a strike, however there are 7 different hospitals who usually are not in the identical state of affairs. NBC New York’s Melissa Russo stories.
Nevertheless, there are nonetheless seven different NYC hospitals (Montefiore, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and West, Maimonides, BronxCare, Richmond College Medical Middle and Flushing Hospital Medical Middle) which can be nonetheless set to strike after giving discover to administration Friday if a contract is just not reached, a transfer that adopted a poll field vote to authorize a strike forward of their contracts expiring on Dec. 31. That attainable Jan. 9 strike would ship already busy hospitals into full-on disaster mode, and have a devastating influence on care.
“It could be an enormous public health calamity,” mentioned Ken Raske of the Better New York Hospital Affiliation, who described the temper as amongst hospital managers as “extremely apprehensive.”
With the clock nonetheless ticking, nurses at 4 hospitals had been again on the bargaining desk on Monday. Matt Allen, a labor and supply nurse on the negotiating committee at Mount Sinai, informed NBC New York on Monday that there are greater than 700 vacancies for nursing positions at Mount Sinai hospitals.
“Staffing is the biggest issue that we’re fighting for right now,” mentioned Allen. “We’re hopeful that we’re going to get something this week, before our strike is still on the table.”
NBC New York has realized that the opposite hospitals that haven’t reached agreements with their nursing staffs are beginning to shell out tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in nonrefundable down funds to have touring momentary nurses on reserve — an enormous expense they need to shoulder, even when no strike takes place.
The GNYHA mentioned doing so works in opposition to the curiosity of the nurses within the union as a result of it forces hospitals to spend cash that might go to the nurses — however it additionally will increase the leverage of nurses as soon as the strike discover is issued. One nurse concerned in negotiations estimated the price of commerce nurses is round $10,000 per week per journey nurse. The New York State Nurses Affiliation estimated that the mere risk of a strike has already price as a lot as $32 million to temp businesses, a price they mentioned might surge to greater than $90 million if the journey nurses have to fill in for 5 – 6 days.
“Our ERs are backed up, the tripledemic is raging,” mentioned Raske. “Even if one hospital would have a strike, it could ripple through the entire system.”
The New York State Nurses Affiliation has as many as 12,000 members threatening to conduct strikes at seven respective hospitals the place contracts expired on Dec. 31. The personal hospitals interact in separate negotiations, so it’s attainable that some hospitals might face a strike, however others might not.
The union says members are upset about staffing ratios on the native hospitals, contract proposals that they really feel dramatically worsen their healthcare advantages (whereas paying large bonuses to executives), and Mayor Eric Adams’ current transfer to forcibly hospitalize psychiatric sufferers. All of these components have left staff overworked and burnt out.
“We’re not able to clean the patient on time, not able to give medicine on time, no breaks,” mentioned Allen. “Burnout was real, so we leave the profession and go to work at a travel agency that’s going to pay us more.”
The tentative settlement at NY-Presbyterian is giving nurses at a number of the different hospitals hope, whereas additionally presumably placing some strain on the opposite hospitals to match those self same phrases.
However there’s a massive caveat to that: NY-Presbyterian is extensively thought of to be the richest hospital within the metropolis, and never all hospitals are in the identical monetary state of affairs. Smaller so-called “safety net” hospitals are extra reliant on decrease reimbursement charges for the care they supply, like by Medicare or Medicaid. A few of the others on the listing say they’re hemorrhaging cash, however nurses at these hospitals aren’t shopping for the argument.
In accordance to a supply conversant in Mount Sinai’s previous talks, the hospital had beforehand provided nurses a deal that included 14 p.c raises over 4 years — a deal that nurses rejected, and it noticeably decrease than the provide prolonged by NY-Presbyterian.
In a press release Monday, a spokesperson for Mount Sinai mentioned that their bargaining groups “continue to make good-faith efforts to pursue a contract with NYSNA that is fair to our community and responsible with respect to the long-term financial health of our organization. Mount Sinai nurses deserve the best possible working environment, wages, and benefits, and we’re tirelessly pursing these to all our employees’ advantage.”
The assertion added that the hospital system is “prepared for staffing changes, and we will do our best to ensure our patients’ care is not disrupted and will do everything possible to minimize inconvenience to patients.”
The common wage for nurses in New York is $93,000, and $98,000 in NYC, nurses union and the GNYHA confirmed. Nevertheless, there’s a large disparity between nurse pay in personal vs public hospitals, the place salaries are virtually $20,000 much less.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s workplace has mentioned they’re “monitoring the situation.” Sources mentioned that each Hochul and Adams are getting common every day updates on the talks.
All of this comes as the town offers with what’s being referred to as a tridemic – simultaneous and critical spikes in infections with COVID, the flu and the respiratory situation RSV.
Town has already issued an advisory (however not a mandate) suggesting that folks return to carrying masks indoors.