Dive Brief:
- Schenectady, NY-based Ellis Medicine has negotiated a new contract with the New York State Nurses Association, with the main focus on the staffing ratio.
- After failing to get legislation to establish minimum staffing ratios, the nurses union turned to negotiations, requesting fewer patients per nurse. However, Ellis wanted a set ratio for how many patients each nurse would care for in each unit.
- The union was set to strike sometime this month, but members approved the proposed contract this week.
Dive Insight:
Details of the contract were not provided, but it does include a wage increase for Ellis nurses and the hiring of 15 new nurses, according to an article in the Times Union. It also allows nurses to get additional help from a joint labor and management team.
Dennis Whalen, president of the Healthcare Association of New York, said hospitals have been adverse to a strict ratio due to costs and concerns about tailoring to each patient. Rather, care needs to be dictated by the severity of the patient's condition. "To think that a simple formulaic approach is going to result in the right staffing ratio is illogical. Hospitals need to be flexible," Whalen concluded.