Nurses Call On Albany Med to Stop Hiding Staffing Crisis Report

On Oct. 3, NYSNA nurses at Albany Medical Center held a press conference, urging hospital administrators to stop hiding the staffing crisis and release the Department of Health (DOH) staffing deficiency report. The hospital has 45 days to share the report and include nurses in the planning of a solution to correct deficiencies. 

With the clock ticking on Albany Medical Center’s 45-day deadline to share the report and create a plan to fix the staffing crisis with input from frontline nurses and caregivers, NYSNA nurses spoke out and demanded that Albany Medical Center keep its agreement to meet with the staffing committee and protect quality care for capital region patients.

Emergency department nurse Matthew Looker, RN, described what’s at stake at the press conference: “The situation in the emergency department continues to worsen, putting the well-being of our patients and our nursing license at risk. My coworkers are looking for jobs in other hospitals because we don’t have the staff or space at Albany Med to safely care for patients. It’s not the pay that makes people leave. It’s the number of staff.”  

Instead of responding to the staffing violations, CEO Dennis McKenna held a press conference on the same day claiming the staffing committee received the full DOH report. The press conference was at the same time as a staffing committee meeting. Nurse leader Jaime Alaxanian, RN, said, “It felt disrespectful for our CEO to hold a press conference at the same time we were meeting and tell the public numbers that they wouldn’t even share in the meeting ... The bottom line is that Albany Medical Center is failing to staff our hospital safely and that puts our patients at risk. Instead of being transparent and working with us to fix the staffing crisis, they are hiding the report and continuing to violate the law.”

Although management spoke about the report at their press conference and did meet with the staffing committee that day, it still refused to share the report. Management had limited discussion of more procedural violations and refused to include nurses in the process of creating a corrective action plan. 

Albany Medical Center must do better! Support Albany Medical Center nurses and sign their petition calling on McKenna to stop hiding the truth!