First, Saint Vincent Hospital adjusted to the hypervigilance and fortitude needed to make it through the coronavirus pandemic. Then it picked up management and staffing of a vaccination site at Worcester State University — just before facing a strike involving hundreds of nurses.
The Worcester hospital has been operating through one of the state's longest nurses strikes in years — hitting its 17th day on Wednesday — relying on travel nurses who were brought in days beforehand, quickly brought through orientation and then put in the middle of a tense impasse between Saint Vincent and the Massachusetts Nurses Association.
The two sides last met for negotiations on March 3. Three days later, the hospital began two consecutive days of orientations for hundreds of nurses. Two days later, the strike began.
[Related: Saint Vincent reaches agreement with technician union]
Saint Vincent hired a company specializing in temporary staffing during strikes, utilizing travel nurses who choose to work here and there at hospitals across the country, sometimes to fill in for striking nurses. They've been put up in local hotels and are shuttled back and forth to the hospital for 12-hour shifts, undergoing the ridicule of striking nurses picketing outside the hospital's periphery.
Carolyn Jackson, Saint Vincent's CEO, said in an interview Wednesday hospital operations have been smooth despite all the challenges.
"Things have gone surprisingly well," she said, describing advanced planning for the strike and aid from Saint Vincent's parent, company, Tenet Healthcare. "It's really been an all-hands-on-deck approach."
Photo | Grant Welker
Saint Vincent Hospital nurses picketing outside the Worcester hospital
Jackson, the CEO since 2019 of Tenet's Massachusetts operations, has faced the ire of the local 800-member union, her name on some of the signs carried by picketers outside. The union blames Jackson and Tenet for not agreeing to more generous staffing levels despite the for-profit company's financial ability to do so. The hospital counters its staffing levels are safe and in line with others.
Amid that, hospital operations continue.
The hundreds of travel nurses who've been brought in average 17 years of experience, Jackson said, and they've integrated into each of Saint Vincent's care units. In many cases, they work alongside the nearly 130 union nurses who've crossed the picket line to continue working, a number slowly rising over the past two weeks. How well they've integrated is another source of contention: the union says they've received reports of poor care from the replacement workers. Saint Vincent says they've done a great job, citing patient compliments.
[Related: Saint Vincent goes on PR push, works to avoid 2nd strike]
Either way, the travel nurses were ready to go before the strike hit and are ready to stay longer term, with some turnover. Saint Vincent said the costs of bringing on that extra staffing cost $5.4 million in the first week of the strike, a number that's varied since and is offset in part by cost savings of most union nurses not working. Orientations had to be spaced out for pandemic protocols, and the hospital has worked to make sure travel nurses are fully vaccinated as it's working to do with its regular staff.
"It's a big undertaking — one we wish we didn't have to take," Jackson said of bringing in traveling nurses.
In the meantime, Saint Vincent has also increased security, including along the perimeter of the hospital, in the parking garage, at each entrance and inside the building. Employees are required to scan their employee badge to get in the building to ensure no striking nurses enter.
Meanwhile, Saint Vincent continues to staff and help manage a COVID-19 vaccination site at Worcester State, which surpassed 25,000 vaccinations last Saturday and is expected to hit 32,000 by the end of this week. The hospital and its partners have hoped to vaccinate 10,000 people a week, but supplies have limited that number to around 6,000.
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