St. Mary Medical Center Nurses Call On Ownership To Provide More Resources

It has been nearly a year since St. Mary Medical Center nurses voted to unionize.

On Thursday evening, about 100 nurses gathered outside the Middletown Township hospital on Langhorne-Newtown Road with their union Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP) and politicians from both parties.

The picket was more to spread their message more than anything else. Since the union formed to represent about 800 nurses after a tough battle last year, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on hospital staff.

The unionized nurses called for St. Mary Medical Center owner Trinity Health to “guarantee a minimum level of nursing care for each patient and additional measures such as a transparent and competitive wage scale and reduced healthcare costs to help with nurse retention and, as a result, with safe staffing.” They also asked for more access to personal protective equipment.

“We were motivated to unionize after repeatedly advocating, as individual nurses, for evidence-based staffing practices that Trinity used to follow but abandoned because it was bad for their bottom line,” said Bob Bozek, a cardiovascular intensive care unit nurse at the hospital. “The data is clear: That decision negatively impacted patient outcomes. Now, as a union, we’re standing together to say that Trinity needs to follow the science, listen to the nurses, and give us the resources we need to care for Bucks County safely.”

Several nurses said they have seen things negatively change at the hospital, the county’s only trauma center, since Trinity Health took over.

Bill Engle, a short stay unit nurse, said the hospital team still provides excellent care, but St. Mary Medical Center needs to keep its staffing up and work on improving the pay scale to attract and retain the best nursing staff.

“You spend all that time nurturing a new nurse and teaching them and they go somewhere with a better compensation package after a year,” he said.

Engle also pointed to the hospital furloughing nurses and other staff, while permanently laying off some as problematic to patient care. While he understands the COVID-19 financial impacts, he said he believes some cuts were made to better help St. Mary Medical Center’s profitability.

“When COVID first hit, I went outside the hospital and made a video appealing to our community to donate desperately needed PPE,” Engle said. “The community responded with thousands of masks, gloves, gowns and face shields. We were overwhelmed by their generosity. Those donations were critical to protecting nurses and other hospital staff. Today, we return the favor by demanding that Trinity invest in basic safe staffing protections that will protect our patients.”

Area COVID-19 survivor Rico Rodriguez was in attendance to support the nurses.

“If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here,” he told the medical professionals.

Rodriguez praised the care of the hospital staff. He spent 51 days in the hospital with COVID-19 and was on life support for 37 days.

State Rep. Frank Farry, a Republican from Langhorne Borough and volunteer fire chief, told the nurses he supports them and is fighting for legislation that will help them on the job dealing with COVID-19. He noted that as an emergency responder, he is aware of the nurses work first hand.

Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie said all the commissioners support the nurses, adding that their work during the pandemic will not be forgotten.

Among the bipartisan group of politicians were Republican State Rep. K.C. Tomlinson from Bensalem, Republican State Rep. Wendi Thomas from Northampton, Democratic State Rep. Wendy Ullman from Plumstead, and State Sen. Steve Santarsiero from Lower Makefield.

The hospital responded to the picket in a statement from Ann D’Antonio, the vice president of marketing and communications for Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic:

“At St. Mary Medical Center, our Mission is to serve our community as a provider of compassionate, transformative and high-quality care. Despite the many challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and the related financial impact the pandemic has had on St. Mary and other hospitals around the country, we remain fully committed to negotiating in good faith and in the spirit of obtaining a fair, consistent and sustainable contract. We fully recognize and respect our nurses’ rights to gather and demonstrate as these negotiations continue. We are confident our nurses are as committed as we are to ensuring this action is being conducted safely and without impact to patient, visitor and colleague access to care.”

Report a correction via email | Editorial standards and policies