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Albany Med nurses want clarity on staffing levels

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In late August, the state Department of Health delivered a staffing deficiency report to hospital administrators at Albany Medical Center, giving them 45 days to collaborate with nurses to come up with a plan to address staffing issues.

But the nurses still haven’t seen the report, according to the New York State Nurses Association.

Nurses rallied in front of the hospital Thursday to demand transparency about staffing violations, as well as to demand that administrators settle a contract that will help attract and retain nurses.

“Albany Med continues to keep these violations a secret. That meeting that we were supposed to hold yesterday that they canceled, was supposed to inform the clinical committee of the deficiencies and work on a plan to create solutions for this,” Tonia Bazel, a member of the hospital’s clinical staffing committee and an infectious disease nurse who has worked at the hospital for 28 years, said during the rally. 

“We know nothing of what the deficiency report says, and we have not been able to communicate our concerns and our input on how to solve this situation,” she added. 

According to NYSNA, the hospital has been cited for at least 50 violations of the state’s safe-staffing law.

Between July 2022 to June 2023, patients spent an average of six hours and eight minutes in the emergency room, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it among the longest emergency room wait times in the state. 

But Albany Medical Center’s CEO, Dennis McKenna, said the DOH found that the hospital was out of compliance with staffing standards for 480 out of 20,640 shifts, or just 2.3 percent of the time, during a six-month period.

High patient volume

Nurses spoke of frustrating working conditions they say have contributed to the exodus of staff. Matt Looker, who has worked at Albany Med for eight years, noted that there are frequently eight to 10 patients in the facility’s hallways because there are no available rooms.

“As a level one trauma center, we receive high-acuity patients from across the region who look to us for the highest level of care. But when they come here, we have no place to put them. And even worse, we don’t have staff to care for them even if we had the space,” he said. “People are waiting in dire conditions in the hallways and honestly it’s embarrassing to the families and patients alike.”

Because of the “mental taxation” and “disrespect” nurses often feel, many have left to work at other hospitals, where they can often make more money, Looker explained. “In my incoming orientation class of 10, there are currently two that are left. We’re only about 10 percent steady in the emergency department,” he said.

Jennifer Kiehle, a neonatal ICU nurse and a member of NYSNA’s bargaining committee, said the nurses “begged” the administration to address their staffing woes before they turned to the state DOH, which launched its investigation in June.

“Like my colleagues, I’ve been stretched to the limit due to unsafe staffing levels,” she said. “We tracked how ICU nurses, who should be assigned one or two patients, would be assigned four or five, and how NICU nurses were being given three or four babies, or even five, to care for when the safe limit is two.”

The deadline to submit the staffing plan is Monday, according to NYSNA. “The DOH clearly states they have 45 days to develop a plan with the nurses to fix the problems, not hide them,” Kiehle said. “We want a voice in patient care. It’s time for Albany Med to get serious about fixing the staffing crisis and delivering a fair contract.”

McKenna, Albany Med’s CEO, denied that hospital administrators have been hiding the report. 

“At this moment, our clinical staffing committee is meeting to discuss the contents of a report from the Department of Health. Despite what you have heard, this meeting was not canceled, it was simply moved one day,” he said during a press conference Thursday. “And let me say with absolute conviction, Albany Med is not hiding anything. We never have. As we have stated, we have a set period of time to review the report, as we always do. We want to do it thoughtfully and with full preparation to have a meaningful discussion.”

A spokesperson for the nurses union said Friday that the staffing committee did not receive the full report at Thursday's meeting, nor were they informed about the number of shifts Albany Med didn't meet required staffing ratios.

The nurses are also negotiating a new contract after their previous pact expired July 31. The union has held several rallies over the staffing violations and stalled contract negotiations.

“NYSNA nurses are demanding Albany Med administrators to settle a fair contract with a comprehensive plan to recruit, retain and respect the nurses,” said Bazel. “We want to enforce safe-staffing ratios, fair pay, good benefits and strong union frontline workers. Above all, we want transparency to our staff, to our community, so that we can ensure safe care here at AMC.”





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