SPRINGFIELD, Mass.,
Oct. 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --
Registered nurses from across the Commonwealth who are gathering
for the annual convention of the Massachusetts Nurses Association
will march from MGM Springfield to Monarch Place on Thursday, Oct. 17 to protest the widespread and
devastating reductions to patient care services that Baystate
Health has made or is planning to make throughout the region –
including newly planned RN cuts at Noble Hospital.
March to Protest Baystate Health Patient Care Cuts
Date: Thursday, Oct. 17,
2019
Time: 5 p.m.
Location: From the site of the 2019 MNA Convention at MGM
Springfield to Monarch Place at 1414 Main St. Springfield, MA.
In the latest blow to patient care in Western Massachusetts, Baystate recently told
staff at Noble Hospital that it plans to lay off two-thirds of the
nurses who care for patients on 2N, the hospital's only
medical-surgical unit. Hospital management told nurses the decision
was based on budget targets set by the administration, despite the
year's highest patient census month approaching in January and the
recent implementation of tele tracking, which is predicted to
increase census.
"Baystate's decision to make it harder for patients to receive
the care they deserve in our community, at the beginning of flu
season, is very troubling," said Paul
Dubin, a nurse at Noble Hospital and Co-Chair of the MNA
Bargaining Committee. "Given the recent ICU closure at Noble
and the proposed elimination of our mental health unit, our nurses
are increasingly concerned that Baystate is abandoning its promise
to keep care local."
Baystate Health made $68.1
million in profits in fiscal year 2018, according to the
Center for Health Information and Analysis. Noble Hospital made
$1.2 million that year in profits.
Through the first three quarters of 2019, Baystate made
$59.7 million.
"Despite its tremendous financial resources, Baystate Health is
choosing to cut back on vital patient resources in different
categories of care and in communities across our region," said
Donna Stern, a psychiatric nurse at
Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, senior co-chair of the BFMC
Bargaining Committee and a board member of the MNA. "Baystate
is attacking the foundation of what keeps our communities safe and
healthy. They are eliminating intensive care units, mental health
beds and now nurse positions in Westfield that people rely on for care when
they are infected with influenza or have surgery."
"Baystate's actions are unacceptable," Stern said. "We will
march in Springfield to share our
concerns with the public because Baystate refuses to take
responsibility or even tell our community members what is happening
at our hospitals."
A coalition of MNA nurses and other advocates have been fighting
efforts by Baystate to eliminate patient services throughout the
region. This year, Baystate has closed ICUs at Noble and Wing
Hospital in Palmer and has
proposed closing all of the mental health beds at Baystate Franklin
Medical Center, Noble and Wing.
Baystate also still has plans to partner with the national
for-profit US HealthVest and build a new facility in Holyoke, despite a Seattle Times investigation detailing patient
neglect, fraudulent documentation of care, dangerous staffing
levels and even an assault linked to cost savings efforts at US
HealthVest facilities. MNA nurses and advocates have called on
Baystate to dissolve the partnership and instead invest in local
care.
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Founded in 1903, the Massachusetts Nurses Association is the
largest union of registered nurses in the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts. Its 23,000 members
advance the nursing profession by fostering high standards of
nursing practice, promoting the economic and general welfare of
nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view
of nursing, and by lobbying the Legislature and regulatory agencies
on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.
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SOURCE Massachusetts Nurses Association