Staff at 30 HCA Healthcare hospitals in multiple states demonstrated on Friday, advocating progress in contract negotiations and higher quality patient care.
The day of action, taken by SEIU Healthcare members, marks the expiration of a contract with the union of 3,000 HCA employees in California. Contracts for another 19,000 workers at HCA-owned hospitals in Florida, Nevada, Texas and Kansas are set to expire in September.
At HCA’s Riverside Community Hospital in southern California, clinicians chose to request that the system address staffing and patient safety issues, and argued that HCA had failed significant progress in negotiating a new agreement that benefits staff and patients.
“Today’s action day is about safety staff and patient care,” said Raymond Valdivia, laboratory assistant and phlebotomist at the Riverside, California hospital and SEIU union leader. “We are here for HCA and Riverside Community Hospital to listen to our request for a better ratio of staff, supplies, and equipment that we need so we can care for our patients.”
He said increasing staffing levels to meet hospital needs was also a key focus of contract negotiations.
Even in the face of a national nursing shortage, the health system strives to reach agreements that are best for caregivers and patients, while offering salaries and benefits, the HCA said in an emailed statement. staffing in accordance with regulations and practices at other community hospitals.
The HCA said: “SEIU has a history of attacking and bullying community hospitals with misinformation and staged events. “We expect more labor union fraud tactics like this as we continue our regular bargaining cycle with labor unions.”
The push for improvement from union members comes amid allegations of patient safety issues and the potential for Medicare fraud in the health system.
The Department of Health and Human Services is reviewing a letter from U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell (DN.J.) and SEIU claiming that HCA forces its physicians to meet informal quotas on numbers. hospitalized patient.
In March, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Representative Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) wrote a letter to the CEO of HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital in Hudson, Florida, asking Ask establishment management to address reports of unsanitary conditions and unsafe practices.
