As they seek a new contract, nurses at Ellis Medicine in Schenectady picketed Tuesday to draw attention to staffing shortages.
Dozens of nurses from Ellis and nearby health care facilities are calling on management to prioritize safe staffing and patient care. Hospital nurse Jenny Lippmann says Ellis must invest in its community to ensure adequate care.
“One person is one person,” Lippmann said. “And when we're doubled and tripled up, beyond what you can gracefully handle, everybody suffers.”
Lippmann says the hospital continues to invest in traveling nurses, an often-costly choice. She adds that fostering a local staff, people who have a stake in the community and can stay long-term, would result in more thoughtful care.
The 438-bed, four-campus healthcare system employs more than 4,000 people. According to its website, Ellis is in the final phase of a restructuring effort that began in 2006. Ellis says the “rightsizing” effort set forth by the state’s Berger Commission included the relocation of its nursing home, expansion of Bellevue Woman’s Center and the creation of a medical center in Clifton Park.
A registered nurse at Bellevue, Dawn Zipp says current staffing levels are “very scary,” saying nurses are working without support staff while doubled up.
“That is what we're asking for, invest in the nurses that you have so we can retain who we have and bring in more,” Zipp said.
Nurses are also advocating for more affordable and flexible health care. A spokesperson for the New York State Nurses Association says Ellis is attempting to “lower safe patient standards” and provide nominal wage increases. The union says the latest contract stipulations would make it more difficult to train and retain staff.
Fred Durocher, an RN on Ellis’ Emergency Room Crisis Unit, says more than 25 negotiation sessions have been fruitless.
“We’re a number on a Trinity stat sheet,” Durocher said. “And they're trying to save money, cost cutting, just squeezing every cent out of this community hospital. It’s on the backs of the workers and the nurses and the other workers that are inside the hospital. And we don't think it's fair and we just want a fair contract. We want to protect this community.”
In March, U.S Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand secured more than $3.8 million in federal funding for the Capital Region. The Democrats said local healthcare facilities would use the funding for infrastructure upgrades. Ellis Hospital and Albany Med Health systems each received $500,000. Durocher says while more funding is great, its distribution needs to be restructured.
“It should have been specific that no, it has to go to the workers. Not to any pet project or not to some piece of equipment that we didn't need,” Durocher said. “It should go into the workers that are working at the bedside.”
A study conducted by NYSNA in 2023 found that across six units at the hospital, both day and night shifts were understaffed 90 percent of the time.
In a statement, Ellis says it remains committed to bargaining in good faith on a “fair, competitive and financially feasible contract.”
The hospital adds it has seen a 40 percent drop in nursing turnover since 2021 and has hired more than 200 nurses in two years. The next negotiation session is set for April 30th.
