Saint Vincent Hospital, nurses union reach impasse on COVID-19 response plan

Photo | Grant Welker Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester

Write a Comment

Tenet Healthcare, the Dallas-based company that owns Saint Vincent Hospital, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association union have not been able to come to an agreement over the response plan to the coronavirus pandemic at the hospital, particularly over training of nurses who may be assigned to other units.

The union said the hospital is threatening nurse furloughs and daily staff reductions if the union doesn't reach an agreement with the response plan, MNA said in a press release on Thursday. While both groups agreed on some points, negotiations halted over a proposed staff redistribution policy, per MNA.

According to MNA, the union asked Tenet to ensure nurses redeployed to other hospital units would do so in conjunction with a nurse in that unit, where they might act as an assistant. Instead, nurses redeployed from one hospital unit to another will be expected to do so independently, regardless of their familiarity with their new station, the MNA said.

Tenet disputed these claims on Thursday, denying that any nurse would be required to fill a role he or she was not prepared for.

"In no situation, would a nurse ever be ‘forced’ to work in a role for which he or she was not appropriately trained – that would serve no purpose and goes entirely against our mission, said Tenet-Massachusetts Communications Manager Rhiana Sherwood, in an email. "Instead, Saint Vincent’s proposal sought to give nurses the choice between being trained for a safe alternative assignment or taking time off with or without the use of paid time off, at the nurses’ discretion."

With no agreement in place between the MNA and Tenet, Sherwood said Tenet will begin granting "requests of nurses who have asked to be furloughed and will seek additional volunteers, while ensuring we remain appropriately staffed to care for COVID-19 patients and those in need of urgent medical care."

"We will continue reassigning nurses to units where there is a greater need for staffing, offering for our nurses to move to different areas with proper training," she said.