On Thursday, June 4, registered nurses at EMMC voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, if no progress is made in addressing the many patient safety concerns throughout the medical center, including unsafe staffing.

The RNS—represented by the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (MSNA/NNOC)—have been working under a contract extended until June 18, after their original contract expired on May 30. The next bargaining session is June 10, and nurses maintain that a potential contract settlement reached through this bargaining must address critical issues impacting patient safety, such as improved staffing, to reduce injuries such as falls, infections and bedsores that patients acquire while being treated at EMMC. If management continues to turn a blind eye to patient safety, nurses say, they are now prepared to strike.

“As nurses, our first priority is our patients. While we would always prefer to be providing care, at the bedside, the reason nurses voted to authorize a potential strike is because management is putting our patients’ lives and health in jeopardy. We cannot stand by and let that happen. We need more nurses at EMMC so we can provide the kind of care patients in this community deserve,” said EMCC RN Steve Akerley.

EMMC was recently cited by Medicare due to “high rates of potentially avoidable mistakes that can harm patients, known as 'hospital-acquired conditions' (HACs)." Penalized hospitals will have their Medicare payments reduced by 1 percent over the fiscal year that runs from October 2014 through September 2015. Nurses say these avoidable mistakes highlighted by the Medicare citation are unacceptable—and point to improved staffing as the solution for ensuring patient safety.

Studies have shown time and again that safe nurse-to-patient staffing improves outcomes and saves lives. A recent study by the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing showed that for each additional patient per nurse on medical–surgical units beyond the baseline number, there was a 4 percent decrease in the odds of survival. Nurses at EMMC, backed by studies such as these, maintain that if staffing were improved, patient injuries could be avoided—and along with them, the suffering of patients and their families subject to longer hospital stays and increased costs.

As of late May, there were 39 positions that remain open for Registered Nurses at EMMC. The MSNA is concerned over the Medical Center’s ability to find nurses to fill these already-posted positions and any additional positions without secure contract language ensuring that new hires won’t sign on, only to be subject to EMMC’s history of poor working conditions. As things stand, nurses say, without a secure contract, the Medical Center has been having trouble recruiting and retaining the nurses patients deserve.

“It is unfortunate that the Medical Center is not willing to have a serious discussion about staffing. They continue to state that EMMC’s ‘staffing plans are adequate,’ but we all know that they are not. It is our hope that EMMC will be able to address our safety concerns at our next bargaining session,” said Akerely

MSNA/NNOC represents over 2000 nurses who work in facilities and agencies throughout the state of Maine. MSNA/NNOC is an affiliate of National Nurses United, the largest organization of nurses, representing 190,000 RNs nationwide.