Virtua averts nurses' strike with new contract, increased staffing

About 1,500 registered nurses have voted to accept a new contract with Virtua, calling off a threatened strike that would have affected the health system's locations in Voorhees, Marlton, Berlin and Camden, as well as its visiting home care nurses.

The new three-year agreement addresses many of the nurses' concerns about staffing, time off, wage increases and pension contributions, according to the union representing the nurses at the negotiating table.

A state mediator assisted during negotiations after the nurses' contract expired Feb. 28, but union members authorized a strike vote on March 6.

Both parties reached a tentative agreement at 4 a.m. Wednesday, and the nurses' bargaining unit voted to approve the contract late Thursday. 

The nurses' primary concern centered on staffing needs. Virtua recently hired 65 additional nurses and is actively recruiting to hire 100 more nurses, said Virginia Treacy, a registered nurse and lead negotiator for the union, JNESO District Council 1, IUOE-AFL-CIO.

Acadia to start work on $110M Philadelphia psych hospital this week

Acadia Healthcare is breaking ground Thursday for its new $110 million psychiatric care hospital, which is being built next to the existing Belmont Behavioral Hospital in the Wynnfield section of Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Business Journal first reported in 2105 on Acadia's long-term plans to build a replacement hospital at the site, as part of a campus revitalization project.

Nurses move to kick out SEIU from UPMC McKeesport

This year, union nurses at UPMC McKeesport will begin negotiating a new three-year labor contract with the hospital.

But the Service Employees International Union that represents the nearly 200 nurses there faces a more immediate, existential challenge — one brought by some among its own ranks.

A group of union nurses is seeking to kick out the SEIU, which has represented employees at the hospital for decades. The nurses filed a petition in December with the National Labor Relations Board, asking for an election that would determine whether members still want to be part of the union. 

Wills Eye moves to raze buildings at site of hoped-for expansion

Wills Eye Hospital has moved to raze two vacant townhouses at the corner of Ninth and Locust Streets just south of its main Walnut Street building, where it has said it wants to build a new research and medical-care facility.

The eye-care hospital has filed a request with the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections to demolish the properties at 229 and 231 S. Ninth St., spokeswoman Cathy Moss said in an e-mail Wednesday.

The houses are the only standing structures on a hospital-owned strip of nine properties that are not listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.

Nurses union fires director over financial irregularities

When Patricia Eakin, a retired Temple University emergency room nurse and the president of a fast-growing nurses union, got the news, her stomach twisted into a knot.

“Of course I feel betrayed,” said Eakin, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP).

The news was a Sept. 27 report from the union’s outside auditor: Something was wrong. There had been three years of overpayments for salary advances and vacation advance pay — $131,282 in all, with the biggest amount, $120,687 going to the union’s executive director, William P. Cruice, a lawyer. Smaller amounts were issued to a field organizer and an office administrator. The organizer has been placed on leave and the administrator is being carefully supervised, Eakin said.

Nurses union demands executive director's resignation over alleged 'financial irregularities'

The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals said Tuesday it "demanded and received" the resignation of the union's executive director after a routine audit conducted by an outside accounting firm discovered some "financial irregularities."

Bill Cruice had led PASNAP during a period of rapid growth that saw its membership grow by nearly 70 percent last year to more than 8,000 members after it signed nurses at five area hospitals.

The financial irregularities concerned allegedly unauthorized advancements and expenditures.

Inspira breaks ground on new hospital

Inspira Health Network broke ground Wednesday on a $349 million hospital in Harrison Township to replace Inspira Medical Center-Woodbury, Inspira’s construction company, Skanska USA, said.

The new five-story facility, expected to open in December 2019, will have 204 beds, 101 fewer than the Woodbury facility it is replacing.

Inspira had 2016 operating income of $69.4 million on $743.8 of total revenue, up from $40.2 million in operating income and $700.7 million in total revenue in 2015. The tax-exempt health system plans to borrow about $260 million in the municipal bond market to help pay for the new hospital, as well as other projects, according to Fitch Ratings. At the end of last year, Inspira already had $210 million in long-term debt.

The builder, Skanska, is also constructing the Women and Children’s Health Building for Christiana Care Health System in Newark, Dela.

Source: Philly.com

Penn Medicine introduces $1.5 billion patient tower

The University of Pennsylvania Health System gets 56 percent of its nearly $6 billion in annual revenue from outpatient services.

So why is the West Philadelphia behemoth planning to spend $1.5 billion, the largest capital project in Penn's history, on a 17-story, 500-bed patient pavilion for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania?

Nurses at Delaware County Memorial in tentative labor deal

Sixteen months after voting to form a labor union, about 370 nurses and technical employees at Delaware County Memorial Hospital have reached a tentative agreement on their first contract with Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., which bought Crozer-Keystone Health System last year in a deal valued at $300 million.

The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses & Allied Professionals, which represents the Delaware County Memorial staff, said Wednesday that the deal would be put up for a vote Thursday. PASNAP said the tentative agreement "gives nurses and techs a voice in patient-care issues, allows for transparency in staffing, and protects worker standards."

The nurses went on strike for two days in March and were locked out for an additional three days by Prospect, which is majority-owned by private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners.

 

Source: Philly.com

Virtua to present plans for $1B Burlco campus

VIrtua is taking another step forward with its plans to build a $1 billion medical complex in Burlington County by presenting plans for the Westampton project at a public hearing before the state Department of Health Monday night.

S. Jersey hospital makes way for 60,000-square-foot medical building

Deborah Heart and Lung Center has started work clearing land for a new medical building on its Burlington County campus.

The three-story, 60,000-square-foot health center is expected to be completed in the spring of 2018, The building will be owned by Landmark Healthcare Facilities of Milwaukee and leased to the Browns Mills, N.J., hospital.

The health center will feature an urgent care center, outpatient physical therapy, an imaging center, and cardiac rehabilitation.

Hospital officials could not immediately provide a cost estimate for the new building, which is being built by TN Ward in space previously occupied by Deborah's Elichman Pavilion.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal

Striking Delco hospital workers clash with officials ahead of Friday return

The 370 nurses and technicians who staged a two-day strike at Delaware County Memorial Hospital say they are set to return to work Friday, but will continue to push for better staffing levels and a new contract.

The two side are set to return to the bargaining table on March 14.

The two-day strike at the Drexel Hill, Pa., hospital was held March 5 and 6.

Prospect Medical Holdings, which acquired Delaware Couty Memorial when it purchased the Crozer-Keystone Health System last summer, said because of the strike they had to bring in replacement workers from staffing agencies under five-day contracts at a cost of $1.5 million. That meant the striking workers could not return until March 10.

Striking Delco hospital nurses to return to work Friday

More than 370 nurses and technicians at Delaware County Memorial Hospital plan to go back to work Friday morning after they went on strike for two days and were prevented from returning to their jobs for three more by the hiring of temporary workers.  Contract negotiations are continuing.

They began their strike Sunday, asking for more staffing. The hospital's owner, Prospect Medical Holdings, said staffing levels align with the national average.

The workers said they offered to end the strike after two days. However, the hospital's owner said agencies that provided temporary staffing to keep the hospital running required a five-day commitment. Prospect bought Crozer-Keystone Health System, of which Delaware County Memorial is a part, in 2016.

The workers plan to enter the building starting at 6:30 a.m. Friday. Prospect and hospital management say they will return to negotiations with the workers, represented by the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, on Tuesday.

Source: Philly.com