Union Nurses Picket Outside Lower Bucks Hospital

Several dozen of the 160 union nurses at Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol Township picketed Thursday afternoon.

The nurses held an informational picket to let area residents know about their grievances with hospital owner Prime Healthcare. The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) members said they were concerned about the hospital keeping experienced bedside nurses, increasing pay, sustaining their benefits and improving patient care.

“This is our home, our hospital and our community,” said ICU nurse Shirley Crowell, who is also vice president of the Nurses Association of Lower Bucks Hospital.

Crowell said the union hopes to keep their current benefits and receive a pay bump. She noted that benefits, including pensions, were scaled back several years ago when the hospital, under previous ownership, was dealing with a bankruptcy and a wounded national economy.

Sustaining the current benefits would hopefully keep skilled nurses from leaving the Bath Road hospital for higher-paying jobs, which some have done over the past several years, Crowell said.

PASNAP spokesperson Emily Rodriguez said the hospital currently a has 2 percent turnover rate. Across the industry, the turnover rate is listed as 17 percent.

Nurses and their supporters marched with picket signs along Bath Road and up to the hospital entrance off Old Orchard Lane.

Levittown resident Jim Remer said he came out to picket the hospital on behalf of his wife, a nurse.

“This hospital was built with money from the community,” he said. “Now, Prime – they’re out of state – wants to hurt it.”

Crowell said the union and hospital have had several negotiating sessions over the past few months. While a strike is not off the table, the longtime ICU nurse says she hopes a fair deal can be reached.

“We have always put our patients and our hospital first, and we deserve a contract that recognizes the work we do every day on behalf of our community,” she said.

Union members, patients, hospital staff and hospital security appeared respectful to each other during the two-hour-long picket that drew honks from vehicles along Bath Road.

Remer said he was disappointed when a member of Prime’s corporate staff called him an expletive. However, he did note hospital staff members were very respectful of the picketers.

Representatives from the hospital did not wish to comment, according to officials outside the front doors.