Corvallis Nurses Reject Good Samaritan Contract Which Would Jeopardize Patient Safety
More than 500 ONA nurses at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center resoundingly voted down a contract offer from Samaritan Health Services corporate executives, sending the two teams back into federal mediation.
The central contract issues include excessive forced overtime for operating room teams and hospital profiteering at the cost of employee health and patient safety. Corvallis nurses have been meeting Samaritan Health Services executives for months to reach a fair contract agreement which addresses the hospital’s chronic staffing and safety problems and improves patient care.
"Samaritan’s contract offer fails our patients, our community and our health care providers,” said local nurse leader Christina Terkildsen. “Nurses have shared our safety concerns with Samaritan over and over again but their executives refuse to address the problem. We need a real contract to protect our patients’ safety and ensure safe staffing throughout the hospital.”
In spite of nurses’ calls to improve safety standards, Samaritan continues forcing operating room nurses at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center to work extreme amounts of overtime shifts which threatens patient safety. Operating room nurses are forced to work 12 or more hours of overtime call shifts a week beyond their full-time schedules--leading to exhausted staff and causing many outstanding nurses to leave. This is one of many serious issues nurses have sounded the alarm over in order to protect patient safety and uphold Oregon’s Hospital Nurse Staffing Law.
“Despite nurses' hard work and sacrifices, Samaritan refuses to address critical staffing and safety issues like excessive mandatory overtime. More needs to be done,” said local nurse leader Jesse Hazleton. "Patients need to feel confident that the nurses caring for them aren’t being pushed to the brink.”
Nurses at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center have been working without a contract since June 30. Throughout negotiations, Samaritan Health Services has refused to respond to basic information requests from nurses, cancelled negotiation meetings with little notice, and failed to respond to nurses’ proposals to improve staffing and patient safety and keep health care affordable.
Nurses hope to return to mediation as soon as possible to reach a fair contract agreement which puts patients first, keeps health care affordable for employees and their families, and addresses long-term safety and staffing concerns.
Click here to sign nurses' petition to show your support for ONA nurses at Good Samaritan.
