Staffing levels and the use of artificial intelligence are central to contract negotiations at the CVPH Medical Center in Plattsburgh.
The contract for nurses and other healthcare workers expired Dec. 31, and a team has since been negotiating with hospital management. On Wednesday, a group of New York State Nurses Association members stood in front of the CVPH Medical Center to call for a fair contract.
UVM Health Network Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital registered nurse Vicki Davis-Courson is also NYSNA’s Eastern Regional director. She said the key issue in negotiations is staffing ratios, which determine the number of patients per nurse.
“Understaffing is a problem across the hospital and puts quality patient care at risk. CVPH wants to cut corners on safe staffing, pay and benefits, nurses and patient safety and refuses AI protections.”
Hospitals must submit to the New York State Department of Health a safe staffing ratio that has been calculated with input from staff. Davis-Courson said management is trying to circumvent staff recommendations.
“Last year they decided to change the nurse-patient ratios without listening to front-line staff and overrode the clinical staffing committee. They are trying to dodge real accountability for safe staffing. That was crystal clear today at bargaining. Management’s latest staffing proposal would hand them virtually all the rights and decision-making power, while giving our members and front-line staff little to no meaningful input or real recourse when staffing falls short.”
In a statement, CVPH Medical Center President Michelle LeBeau said hospital leaders are dedicated to supporting those who provide care and share a commitment “to providing our patients with safe, high-quality care...” LeBeau added: “Negotiations are an ongoing process ... and we believe that together, we can reach a fair and sustainable agreement for our patients, people and community.”
But CVPH nurse Chris Swiesz said staffing concerns have not been adequately addressed since the last contract was ratified four years ago.
“We are still facing the same problems. We are still experiencing unsafe staffing, burn out and a system that depends on health care professionals to stretch themselves thin just to keep patients safe.”
The use of Artificial Intelligence in clinical settings is also under discussion. Desktop engineering team member Ransley Garrow said hospitals across the country are rolling out AI systems.
“AI could potentially be used to read radiology images, to help with diagnosis. Ambient AI could be used to listen to patient symptoms in an ER and provide a recommendation. The problem is there isn’t a lot of study on the efficacy of these AIs. And due to loosening federal regulations, many AI systems were approved for clinical use with very little regulatory scrutiny.”
Union members pointed to a Brooklyn hospital that last year rolled out an AI thermometer system that reportedly gave the same reading for every patient. Garrow said nurses must be involved in implementing such systems.
“The problem we’re running into is that we want a plan where we are working with CVPH to really develop our AI strategy. AI has its uses. We want to make sure that we are rolling it out in a way that it’s not going to potentially increase patient harm and reduce our nurses’ abilities to take care of their patients because they’re spending time babysitting artificial intelligence.”
Davis-Courson said there have been about a dozen negotiation sessions so far, with minimal success.
“However having said that, we did get some really good language in our contract on workplace violence. That was a plus for us because we did have a lot of members come in and talk about their experiences with workplace violence.”
The CVPH Medical Center is part of the University of Vermont Health Network. Each hospital in the group individually negotiates contracts. The next negotiating session at CVPH is scheduled for May 6.
