8/10/2019 BMC Nurses Need Your Support
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The registered nurses of Berkshire Medical Center will be
conducting
informational picketing outside the hospital today from 2 5 p.m.
to
protest what we believe are inadequate staffing levels,
excessivepatient assignments for nurses and a punitive work
environment that
is compromising the quality and safety of care for patients we
serve
throughout Berkshire County.
The Public Needs to Know
There has been a marked deterioration in patient care conditions
in
recent months driven by the hospitals refusal to increase
staffing to
account for a significant increase in patient census following
the sudden
and illegal closure of North Adams Regional Hospital.
Nurses in the hospitals emergency department report being
overwhelmed with patients who are waiting longer for needed
care and attention, and the inability to move patients through
the
system due to the lack of adequate staff on other units.
To compensate for the lack of appropriate RN staffing to meet
the
increased demand, nurses are taking on extra patients at a time
when the
medical research clearly shows that when nurses take on too many
patients
at one time, the risk of negative patient outcomes increases
dramatically.
As nurses we provide 90 percent of the clinical care you receive
at BMC when you are the
most vulnerable. We take great pride in that responsibility and
we are taking this action
today out of a sense of duty to protect our patients and the
communities we serve.
The hospital is making up for the shortage of staff by the use
of widespread
floating of nurses, a process that involves moving nurses from
unit to
unit. At BMC, when nurses are shuffled from unit to unit, there
is no
continuity of care, and no guarantee that the nurse caring for a
particular
patient is fully competent to provide the level of care the
patient requires.
Finally, in addition to the lack of staffing and unsafe working
conditions,
nurses are protesting an increasingly punitive management
culture at the
hospital where nurses report increased pressure on staff to work
extra shifts or
longer hours, unwarranted discipline of nurses, and intense
pressure to speed up
care regardless of its impact on the nurses well-being and the
safety of the patients.
The degradation of patient care at BMC is coming at a time when
Berkshire Medical
Center continues to make a healthy profit, posting profits of
more than $90 million over
the last three years.
Contact BMC CEO David E. Phelps at 413-447-2750 or
[email protected]
and tell him to listen to his nurses and put patients before
profits; toprovide the staffing and services our patients need to
be safe.
Help Us Help You
of Berkshire Medical Center Need
Your Support to Ensure Safe
Patient Care in Berkshire County
The Nurses
