Stanislaus County hospitals lose hundreds of nurses due to COVID-19 stress, union says
Nurses plan to hold informational pickets Wednesday in Modesto and Turlock to make sure the public is aware of chronic understaffing and high turnover rates at hospitals because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The California Nurses Association said nurses will voice their concerns at Doctors Medical Center and Emanuel Medical Center, as well as seven other hospitals in the state that are owned by Tenet Healthcare Corp.
The union is urging Tenet to hire more nurses and improve the poor working conditions in hospitals that began with the COVID-19 emergency in 2020.
According to a union news release, problems with understaffing and burnout have driven away veteran nurses and caused newly hired younger nurses to quit.
The CNA said Doctors Medical Center in Modesto has lost 160 registered nurses. The staff has dropped from 1,360 nurses at the beginning of the COVID pandemic to 1,200 in March, said Martha Wallner, a CNA representative.
Wallner said 40% of the nurses hired between 2019 and 2021 are no longer with the hospital. Emanuel Medical Center in Turlock is down about 100 nurses, the union said.
“Many experienced nurses have made the difficult choice to leave rather than jeopardizing their nursing license due to unsafe working conditions,” said Maria Ibarra, a nurse at Doctors of Modesto, who was quoted in the news release. “Due to the chronic understaffing, nurses have been working without meals and rest breaks. We know that this is bad for patients and nurses because it heightens the risk of workplace injuries and medical errors.”
The union said three other Tenet hospitals in the state have lost from 36% to 57% of the nurses they hired between 2019 and 2021.
A Tenet spokesperson did not dispute that the hospitals have lost nursing staff. Krista Deans of Tenet said the Modesto and Turlock hospitals are aware of the union activities set for Wednesday morning and will be fully operational with a focus “on providing exceptional quality patient care.”
Tenet is currently involved in labor negotiations with the nurses, Deans said. “While we value all of our nurses who are represented by the CNA, we are disappointed that the union is taking this action,” she said by email. “We are currently negotiating with the union, bargaining in good faith to reach an agreement.”
Deans said like many hospitals across the country, Doctors and Emanuel have dealt with staffing challenges that were exacerbated by the pandemic. The hospitals are working with a staffing agency to use traveling nurses and have continuous recruitment efforts to hire nurses, she said.
In the Bay Area, nurses at Stanford Medical Center and its Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto are striking over staffing shortages and problems with burnout. Negotiations between nurses and the university hospital continue after a labor contract expired more than three weeks ago.
The labor issues have intensified even though COVID-19 hospital admissions have fallen sharply since the omicron-variant surge in January and February. Hospitals in Stanislaus County were taking care of 22 patients with COVID-19 in the latest count.
Nursing shortage is no secret
The California Hospital Association, an industry group that advocates for hospitals in California, said the shortage of nurses and health care workers is well understood.
“Hospitals are doing everything within their power to hire more nurses and other health care workers,” CHA spokeswoman Jan Emerson said by email Monday. “The challenge is that there is a dire shortage of health care professionals, not just in California but across the country.”
Emerson said the number of health care workers has fallen almost 20% nationwide as the pandemic has strained the health care system including hospitals. Emerson said many nurses have retired early. Some have stopped working in hospitals and taken less stressful jobs in health care, while others have left the profession.
Emerson didn’t comment on specific labor negotiations, but said wages paid to nurses in California are the highest in the nation. The median wage for nurses in the state is $60 per hour, she said. The Bay Area average pay for nurses is $76 per hour or $152,000 annually, not including benefits.
The Nurses Association charged that Tenet Healthcare was not prepared for the COVID pandemic and has placed a priority on profits. Rather than spend more money on hiring, hospitals choose to give extra pay to nurses when they’re too busy to take breaks for rest or food, the union said.
The CNA news release said Tenet made a profit of $991 million in 2021.
Many hospitals are struggling
Last week, the California Hospital Association released a report from the Kaufman Hall consulting firm on major financial losses of hospitals in California since the start of the pandemic. Just over 50% of hospitals in California are in the red, compared to 40% before 2020.
Staff shortages and the rising cost of contract labor are a factor as hospitals lose money on inpatient care, the report said.
Emerson agreed some hospitals are holding their own financially. “It means patients in those communities will continue to have access to needed health care services. However, with more than half of all hospitals losing money, tough decisions lie ahead — and the truth is, some hospitals may not survive,” Emerson said in her email.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 7:00 AM with the headline "Stanislaus County hospitals lose hundreds of nurses due to COVID-19 stress, union says."
