Join the Nurses of St. Vincent Hospital for a
Valentine’s Day Informational Picket
To Ensure Safe Patient Care
and a Secure Future for Nurses
When: Monday, Feb. 14 2 – 4 p.m.
Where: Outside the Foster St. Entrance
to St. Vincent Hospital (at the corner of Foster St. &
Major Taylor Blvd., Worcester, MA (across from DCU Center Box Office)
For over a year, the nurses of St. Vincent Hospital have been attempting to negotiate a new contract with Vanguard Health Care, the for-profit owner of the hospital. These nurses, who voted to go out on strike over poor staffing conditions in 2007, are once again locked in a protracted dispute over deplorable working conditions and a growing crisis in the quality and safety of patient care at this major medical center.
In 2009, the Department of Public Health released a report showing that St. Vincent Hospital had more serious medical errors and patient care mistakes than any hospital in the state. Last year nurses filed more than 800 official reports of unsafe conditions at the facility (an average of more than two a day). To address the crisis, the nurses are seeking contract language to guarantee safer staffing levels in the hospital.
The nurses are also seeking an improved pension benefit, as Vanguard’s retirement benefit is the worst of all employers in central Mass, and are fighting off an attempt by Vanguard to dramatically reduce the nurses’ health insurance benefit.
Vanguard is a multi-billion dollar corporation that has posted nearly $50 million in profits at St. Vincent Hospital in the last two years. Despite this, they are skimping on patient care resources, refusing to provide adequate staffing and applying an assembly line mentality to the delivery of patient care, while providing their caregivers with below market wage and benefits. This combination is endangering patients, safe nursing practice, and the ability to recruit and retain registered nurses.
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