Nurses say there's a "nursing crisis" at Einstein Medical Center
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The union representing nurses at Jefferson's Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia on Thursday held an informal picket near the hospital. Einstein Nurses United, an affiliate of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, says it wants improvement in wages, staffing levels and their safety concerns to be addressed.
Nurses at Einstein demonstrated outside the hospital Thursday on Old York Road but will remain on the job during the picketing.
The union claims contract negotiations are not going as planned. They say they've been in negotiations since October but those talks ended April 30.
Union leaders say high turnover has created nearly 300 vacant nursing positions, which they say has impacted patient care.
They also detailed violent incidents, like an attack against a nurse in the crisis center.
According to union leaders, the hospital system has refused all of its demands to improve conditions.
"We're out here today because Jefferson has not moved in negotiations," Patrick Kelly, co-president of Einstein Nurses United, said. "We've had five sessions and they've basically rejected most of our proposals to improve staffing, improve a benefit package that would retain and attract nurses to work with us."
Kelly said the hospital has lost a lot of its nurses to traveling nurses through the pandemic.
"Einstein, just like any other hospital, has brought in the travelers. Hospitals around the area have turned around and then saw what that cost and decreased that cost by investing in their own nurses, giving them better packages, safer staffing," he said. "Jefferson has not done that here, so we continue to have a nursing crisis inside and the patients are the ones who suffer because of that."
Carla Lecoin has been a nurse at Einstein for 35 years and told us she wants to stay there.
"It's important because I want the community to know that I choose to work here," she said. "I want the community to see nurses and health care workers who look like them and have the same cultural experiences."
It was the first-ever informational picket at the hospital.
CBS News Philadelphia reached out to Jefferson-Einstein Hospital for a statement.
A spokesperson tells us, "Jefferson-Einstein is committed to negotiating in good faith for a new contract that provides nurses with fair, competitive wages and benefits while allowing the hospital to continue delivering safe, high-quality care."