As the nurses’ strike at Saint Vincent Hospital approaches eight months, the Massachusetts Nurses Association on Tuesday announced it filed a complaint against the hospital for what it calls “patient dumping.”
The MNA filed the complaint against Saint Vincent Hospital on Monday claiming in several circumstances last week patients were found outside unattended until the striking nurses offered assistance.
“It breaks our hearts to see what little value Tenet [Healthcare] places on the lives of the patients under their care and the damage they are doing to our community by their willful negligence... ” Marlena Pellegrino, a registered nurse and co-chair of the nurses local bargaining unit with MNA, said in a statement. “Even while on strike, it is the real nurses of St. Vincent Hospital who were there for these vulnerable patients.
Saint Vincent Hospital denounced the allegations in a statement.
“We have no record of any incidents like this. As we do with all complaints, we will review these claims to determine if there is any merit,” the hospital said in a statement. “These allegations are contrary to our standard practices, so we believe they are just the latest entry in the MNA’s irresponsible smear campaign against Saint Vincent Hospital.”
The MNA claims that striking nurses found unattended patients outside the hospital during the weekend of Oct. 16.
The complaint said a female patient was found wandering outside without shoes wearing a hospital gown and a hospital ID.
The patient was disoriented and said she had been discharged recently, the complaint said, and she was waiting for a cab but had no money. The complaint said the patient was taken back to the emergency department by police after hospital security didn’t provide assistance.
The complaint also described striking nurses finding another patient who was on the ground outside the emergency department and unable to stand.
The nurses helped the patient, who appeared to be disoriented, the complaint said. The hospital told the nurses the a cab had been called for the patient, according to the complaint.
“This response is concerning given the apparent altered state of the patient. To put that patient in a cab without first reassessing their status in light of their apparent inability to stand and disoriented status potentially put the patient at risk for harm,” the complaint said.
The complaint is the latest development in a strike that began on March 8. The strike reached 200 days a month ago and has no end in sight.
“We have regular calls with the Department of Public Health and they continue to survey the hospital twice a week during the strike. We work closely with them, and welcome the opportunity to disprove these claims,” the hospital said in a statement. ”In the meantime, we encourage the MNA to spend less time spreading rumors and disinformation, and more time finding a way to get their nurses back to work.”
Last week, Saint Vincent Hospital CEO Carolyn Jackson issued an open letter asking the nurses to accept its final offer and return to work since the hospital invoked its right under federal labor law to unilaterally implement its last, best and final offer.
The terms of that final offer were implemented Oct. 17.
In August, the union and the hospital agreed on all issues except one. Nurses want to return to the same positions they held before the strike. The hospital has promised the returning nurses jobs but said a small percentage would not be able to return to their same pre-strike positions.
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