Striking Delco hospital nurses, techs say they've been 'locked out'

The 370 nurses and technical employees at Delaware County Memorial Hospital who held a planned two-day strike earlier this week to protest alleged unfair labor practices now say they are being locked out for three days by hospital owner Prospect Medical Holdings.

“Prospect continues to put profits before patients and we will be on the picket line throughout the lockout to demonstrate our resolve to advocate for quality patient care,” said Angela eopolitano, a 36-year veteran nurse at Delaware County Memorial Hospital .

Prospect Medical, which acquired Delaware County Memorial Hospital (DCMH) as part of its purchase of the Crozer-Keystone Healthcare System, warned striking workers they might not immediately be welcomed back because to keep the hospital open it had to bring in outside nurses and technicians and pay them for five days of work at a cost of $1.5 million.

"The union is giving the impression that DCHM has chosen to lock out strikers," the medical center said in a statement. "The union knows that this is untrue and is saying this in order to put DCMH in a negative light. Under federal labor law, even after strikers have offered to return to work, there may be a delay in their return if a staffing agency has imposed a minimum as is the case here. The National Labor Relations Board does not consider such a delay in return to work to be a lockout."

The hospital reiterated the reason that some strikers will continue to be out of work until Friday is that a staffing agency has imposed a five-day minimum as a condition of providing replacements. "Strikers who have made an unconditional offer to return to work will be permitted to return as soon as there is a need for their services," the statement concluded.

The nurses and technicians, who are represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), plan to continue to picket in front of the Drexel Hill, Pa., medical center until they are permitted to return to work.

Bill Cruice, PASNAP’s Executive Director and chief negotiators, said he believes the money spent on agency nurses could have been better spent elsewhere.

 “Instead of locking out the experienced nurses and technicians, and wasting $1.5 million on out-of-state replacements, Prospect should invest those resources into improving staffing conditions in the hospital,” Cruice said.

PASNAP contends that after Prospect Medical became the owner of the hospital last July 2016, it has increased the patients per individual nurse ratio in some units creating unsafe conditions for patients. In addition, PASNAP said nurses and technical employees are facing shortages of basic equipment necessary to provide quality patient care.

Crozer-Keystone officials said it staffs at the national average, and its nursing leaders checks staffing levels four times a day, every day, to ensure appropriate staffing. The health system said there have been no changes in how staffing is done at Delaware County Memorial since Prospect purchased Crozer-Keystone.

As to the alleged equipment shortages, a hospital spokesman said this claim is incorrect and that the union has not raised the concern at the bargaining table.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal