Do heroes work there, (Petaluma Valley Hospital)?
Wayne Morgenthaler
PVH Nurses are sharing this letter with the Petaluma Community and it is being sent to
Financial Donors of Petaluma Valley Hospital...
To Providence/St Joseph Health (PSJH-Operators), Petaluma Health Care District (PVH owners), Petaluma community, Ptalua Valley Hospital Donors, Press and Social Media:
This is a letter from your PVH bedside caregivers. We are by your side every moment of every day during your stay at PVH. We are your advocates. When we believe our patients are endangered by bad management decisions, unsafe staffing, or lack of resources, we have a duty to speak up. Our contract keeps you safe by allowing us to advocate for you. Your PVH Nurses have been trying to negotiate a safe contract for over two years. For far too long the Providence/St Joseph Health (PSJH) negotiator/lawyer has adopted an attitude of “my way or the highway”. Ask any Nurse attending negotiations. They will tell you just how little PSJH is listening to its experienced bedside nurses. That is dangerous.
Let us tell you about the obstacles PSJH has thrown up, how those affect you and how they hinder caregivers’ ability to provide safe, quality patient care at PVH.
Unsafe Staffing
For years Nurses have begged PVH management to staff safely. To do that management must staff to an accurate acuity system. Some years ago, Nurses put in their contract that PVH must use an accurate, verifiable patient acuity system. The RNs use that system to give each patient a “score”. The score reflects the amount of care a patient needs each shift. The higher the acuity, the more time and resources needed. For awhile management used the acuity system. Then they stopped. Lately it has been a constant battle between bedside RNs and PSJH to keep PVH in compliance with State regulations regarding staffing. Recently the California Department of Public Safety came in to inspect PVH and found that management was not staffing to the acuity system. That agency, CDPH, reminds acute care hospitals that “It is imperative that hospitals staff according to patient acuity…it is far more important that hospitals pay attention to the patient classification system (acuity system) and the needs of the patient rather than the minimum staffing requirements. Section 70217(b).” Only when the State cited PVH did management begin staffing to acuity and yet to this day, it is an unending struggle to maintain safe staffing. This is because management doesn’t listen to bedside RNs, even when they speak up, advocating for patient safety. Nurses know what is safe, they advocate for it and should not have to be in this constant battle. Currently PSJH is attempting to undermine those same safe staffing language protections in our future Nurse’s contract currently being negotiated over.
There is another PSJH process that can lead to unsafe staffing. It is called Department Productivity. Department managers are apparently encouraged to meet or exceed their ‘productivity benchmark’. Reducing staff by ignoring acuity is a way for managers to meet department benchmarks We encourage you to ask St. Joe management about these practices. PVH bedside Nurses advocate for your safety. Proper staffing is a must to ensure that safety. Enough is enough! We have asked PSJH to stop inflicting moral injury on front-line caregivers. Allow us to do what is right for patients. Stop shredding the long time and tested safety language built into our RN contract.
Lack of Resources
PVH is currently having great difficulty attracting or retaining high quality, experienced Staff RNs. Too often a newly hired RN stays just long enough to observe the mistrust and acrimony between the Nurses and administration and as they also come to realize that we are paid 23%-39% less than all other Sonoma County hospitals, they choose to leave. Then they are gone, off to hospitals that value their professional staff. Even some of our experienced Nurses have recently quit after having worked at PVH for 20-30 years. The amount of money spent on the hiring and training of new grads and orienting experienced Nurses is astronomical. Approximately $25-$40K. Not a waste of money IF you can retain them, but this is not the case at PVH. The high volume of Travel Nurses, contract RNs just passing through PVH, is a sign that something is really wrong inside PVH. It is not surprising that the morale among caregivers is at an all-time low. We want PSJH to listen to front-line caregivers at PVH. We want PSJH to make it right. Give PVH caregivers the resources we need and empower us to do our jobs well.
Contract Takeaways that Endanger our Patients
PVH RNs have not asked for any significant contract enhancements. But PSJH is insisting on big takeaways in the current negotiations. PVH RNs will lose hundreds of thousands in lost compensation and lost benefits if PSJH gets what it wants. We can’t keep RNs now, what happens if all our good Nurses exit when these shameful proposals become a reality. In addition, PSJH wants to favor Temporary Travel Nurses over their own core staff. Travel Nurses are “passing through”. Travelers should be only used on a short-term basis to fill staffing holes until core staff can be recruited and placed in permanent positions. PSJH is insisting on new contract language that will drive current PVH RNs out of this hospital. PSJH would deny core RNs a dependable schedule and a dependable paycheck. PSJH wants travelers in leadership positions when they are not familiar with PVH, are not staying long and are neither vested in our hospital or our community. While we appreciate the travelers that come through PVH, they are only temporary and should not take priority over dedicated core staff. PVH Nurses cannot understand why management would want this for PVH. It seems that in the end it would not support their bottom line, costing more money picking up the pieces of a fragmented, badly managed, unsafe hospital. Just seems so short sighted. We ask you to help us stop PSJH efforts to do this. It is eroding our community hospital. Help frontline care givers press any PVH operator to grow our hospital, not endanger it.
Providence/St Joseph Health wants you to believe they care about their frontline caregivers. You’ve probably seen or heard the latest campaign slogan “Heroes Work Here.” PVH Nurses need you to know what is really going on inside the Hospital walls. You have a right to know. As a community member, a patient or family member, you are directly affected by what goes on in your community hospital. PVH Nurses want Petaluma Valley Hospital to thrive. We need Providence/St Joseph Health to treat PVH caregivers like the heroes they tell you we are. Empty slogans will not keep caregivers and patients safe. Nurses need real change in PVH. We need a contract that honors the work we do and helps us recruit and retain top notch RNs.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Every word comes with our commitment to you. PVH Nurses ALWAYS have your best interest in mind. We have your back and we will advocate for you, always. We need your support to make Providence/St. Joseph Health do what is morally and ethically right for you, the patient, and for us, your caregivers.
RNs and all PVH front line workers will never stop fighting for your safety, EVER!
Please fight with us. Please email the executives at Providence/St Joseph Health and tell them to listen to front-line caregivers! Tell them to do the right thing!
Tyler Hedden David Southerland
CEO St. Joseph Health, Sonoma County VP of Operations for PVH
tyler....@stjoe.org david.so...@stjoe.org
Thank you and with our deepest respect,
PVH Nurses