With thousands of nurses across a handful of privately run New York City hospitals slated to strike in four days barring a breakthrough in contract negotiations, one major hospital network has released contingency plans should the deal fall through.
According to an internal memo obtained by NY1 that was sent Wednesday to hospital staff leadership in the Mount Sinai Health System, they will begin diverting a majority of ambulances from their facilities, cancel some elective surgeries and transfer babies from their neonatal intensive care units to other hospital systems to ensure their patients continue receiving proper care.
The Mount Sinai Health System includes Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West.
“To do what is best for our patients, we have no choice but to proceed with our strike planning,” the memo reads.
The memo says the hospital plans to divert a “majority” of ambulances away from MSH, MSW, MSM, and Mount Sinai Beth Israel; cancel some elective surgeries, with Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai West performing emergency surgeries only; transfer patients, including NICU babies, outside the Mount Sinai Health System; and work to discharge as many patients as possible.
There is still some hope that contract negotiations are moving forward successfully at some hospitals.
Maimonides Health and Richmond University Medical Center both announced they have reached tentative deals with the New York State Nurses Association.
Maimonides Health CEO Ken Gibbs and NYSNA President Nancy Hagans on Wednesday morning released a joint statement saying they reached a tentative agreement on a three-year contract.
“We are pleased to reach a tentative agreement that recognizes the essential contributions of our indispensable nursing staff,” the statement reads. “We believe this agreement is fair and respects the needs of all parties while also helping us better serve our patients. We look forward to continuing our productive relationship so we can meet the needs of our patients, community, and staff here at Maimonides.”
That tentative agreement would improve staffing ratios in several units, add additional nursed, improve the staffing enforcement and dispute resolution process, and increase nurse wages by 19.10% compounded over 3 years, according to the nurses union. It would also preserve NYSNA health benefits with no increased cost to employees.
The contract deal between NYSNA and Maimonides Medical Center would keep more than 1,300 nurses from striking come Monday, according to the union.
A tentative contract agreement was also reached Wednesday night between the nurses union and hospital leadership at Richmond University Medical Center.
“This agreement is a solid investment for our hospital and recognizes our exceptional team of nursing professionals who are the cornerstone of our institution as evidenced by their great work caring for our community day in and day out,” a statement from Richmond University Medical Center reads. “It also insures that our patients continue to have uninterrupted access to Richmond University Medical Center’s high quality healthcare services and state-of-the-art facilities.”
No deal has been reached at five other private health care networks, where thousands of nurses could be walking off the job Monday.
Nurses have been calling for increased wages, safe staffing levels and improved health benefits.