Editor’s note: This op-ed was written on Friday, December 18
Riverside Community Hospital is proud of our long history of serving the Inland Empire’s healthcare needs. We are beyond disappointed for our entire community that Local SEIU 121RN is threatening to strike beginning Christmas Eve lasting through the new year. The timing could not be worse as the Southern California region is experiencing the worst surge we have seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals in our community and neighboring communities are at capacity and our doctors and nurses are being stretched to the limit.
It is important that our community understands the steps we are taking to prevent a strike from happening. We are urging the union to abandon their decision to encourage nurses to walk away from their patients during a public health emergency.
In anticipation of a strike during this COVID-19 surge we are limiting our full scope of services in order to ensure nurses are available to care for patients with the highest needs. A strike at this time further adds to the demands on the overburdened healthcare system in Southern California, which is already at bed and ICU capacity, and puts our colleagues, community, families and patients at risk.
Since July, we have bargained in good faith with SEIU 121RN and we are doing everything we can to come to an agreement. The same cannot be said of them. During this recent session, we offered to extend our most recent contract and implement an immediate wage increase. Despite our proposal to engage a federal mediator, plus our willingness to offer concessions, union leadership has failed to make realistic proposals regarding significant patient safety issues. Last week, when we met the initial list of requests posed by the union, they presented a new list of issues and unrealistic demands that would not allow us to provide appropriate and safe patient care. They simply keep moving the goal post.
No one takes the health and safety of our workers more seriously than we do, and since day one, our top priority has been to protect them — to keep them safe and keep them employed – so they can best care for our patients. Any suggestion otherwise ignores the extensive work, planning and training we have done to ensure the delivery of high-quality care during this pandemic. Our frontline caregivers have shown unwavering commitment and tremendous sacrifice, and our safety efforts have included testing of colleagues, universal masking, screening procedures for all who enter, tighter visitor policies and other safeguards, in line with guidance from the CDC.
We have worked tirelessly to ensure they have the PPE they need. Specifically, in regards to safety measures and personal protective equipment (PPE), the hospital meets and exceeds all state, CDC regulations and guidelines. Riverside Community Hospital was the first in our community to require universal masking as well as masking throughout the hospital, in addition we reduced entry points and enforce screening protocols. Since the beginning of the pandemic we enacted a PPE steward to ensure sufficient supplies are on hand.Meanwhile, we want to reassure our community that we remain focused on protecting our friends, families and neighbors and will continue bargaining in good faith, including up until the day of the strike.
We encourage the union to stop this unconscionable strike because now is not the time.
The decision lies in the union’s hands.
Jackie DeSouza-Van Blaricum is CEO of Riverside Community Hospital.
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December 20, 2020 at 05:25AM
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This is not the time for a hospital strike: Jackie DeSouza-Van Blaricum - Press-Enterprise
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