Registered Nurses at John Muir Mount Diablo Hospital in Concord voted Tuesday night to ratify a new three-year contract that they say strengthens patient care standards as well as securing nurses’ health coverage.
 
Concurrently, RNs at Sutter hospitals began voting on their tentative agreement at Sutter facilities in Berkeley, Oakland, Castro Valley, Antioch and Vallejo. Membership meetings on the agreement will continue through Thursday. Results will be announced Friday.
 
The Mt. Diablo pact covers 700 RNs who are members of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United.
 
"Nurses overwhelmingly ratified an agreement that solidifies access to healthcare for RNs, and protects our patients,”  said Mt. Diablo RN Raymond Prior.
 

“We are very proud of ratifying an agreement that improves the standards of patient care and working conditions for nurses,” said Candace Francisco-Goto, RN.
 
Key elements of the Mt. Diablo pact include new language that ensures safe nurse-to patient staffing at all times, and strengthens safe ‘floating’ policies, which ensures that nurses aren’t assigned outside their area of clinical expertise.
 
Additionally, the RNs succeeded in securing their healthcare coverage. The hospital had sought to eliminate a provision that waives the employee and dependent contributions to healthcare premiums for RNs who are the major wage earner in their family. They also maintained existing health plan options, including one with full employer-paid coverage, and another with only small premium payments for the RNs.
 
All RNs will earn a 7.5 percent across the board pay increase over the three years of the agreement with an additional one-time $500 to pay for continuing education that is required by law to maintain their licenses.

Additionally RNs were successful in fighting back a large number of takeaways and attacks on current RN standards including:

• A closed prescription drug formulary that in some cases covered less than Medicare and did not even include some of the most common drugs used to treat diabetes.
• Fought off managements attempt to remove a contract provision which ensures collective bargaining rights for all direct care RNs, including those who make clinical assignments.

Mt. Diablo Medical Center is run by John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek which has a joint venture partnership with Tenet Healthcare Corporation that also covers Tenet’s San Ramon Medical Center.