NYSNA Nurses to Hold Speak-out and Community Forum on Staffing Crisis at Albany Medical Center

**MEDIA ADVISORY FOR TODAY, TUESDAY, JULY 23 AT 6 PM**

Contact: Eliza Bates | press@nysna.org | 646-285-8491
Kristi Barnes | press@nysna.org | 646-853-4489 

NYSNA NURSES TO HOST SPEAK-OUT AND COMMUNITY FORUM ON STAFFING CRISIS AT ALBANY MEDICAL CENTER

Hear directly from frontline nurses, community members, and elected leaders on patient care problems at Albany Med – and how to solve them

Nurses have been sounding the alarm on unsafe staffing at Albany Med and the NYS Dept. of Health opened an investigation, but hospital administrators still aren’t listening

Albany, N.Y.– TODAY at 6 PM, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) nurses will hold a speak-out and community forum at the union’s Albany office on the ongoing staffing crisis at Albany Medical Center. Frontline nurses will be joined by community members and elected leaders to shed light on patient care issues at the hospital.  

Nurses at Albany Med have been sounding the alarm about unsafe staffing levels and the New York State Department of Health (DOH) opened an investigation into staffing at the hospital on June 4, which should have been a wake-up call for hospital administrators. But nurses report that staffing levels have not improved, and Albany Med has refused to share any findings from the investigation with nurses despite repeated requests.  

In fact, NICU nurses filed 20 new complaints with the DOH in the first 21 days after the investigation. On at least five occasions, management canceled nurses scheduled to work in the NICU, leaving the remaining nurses with a 3–to-1 nurse-to-patient ratio, in violation of state law. Continued understaffing is creating a negative ripple effect throughout the hospital.  

Today’s speak-out and community forum is a chance to hear directly from nurses about what’s happening on the hospital floors, and from community and elected leaders on solutions to improve patient care.

WHO: NYSNA nurses at Albany Medical Center, elected leaders, including Assembly Members Patricia Fahy and John McDonald, and community organizations, including Citizen Action and the New York State Council on Churches

WHAT: Speak-out and community forum on staffing crisis at Albany Medical Center

WHEN: Today, Tuesday, July 23, 2024 from 6-7 p.m

WHERE: NYSNA Albany Office, First Floor Conference Room 
155 Washington Ave, Albany, NY 12210 

**Photos and video available on request**

“It’s not fair that our patients have to wait so long for care,” said Jaimie Alaxanian, RN. “Albany Med is the largest healthcare provider in the capital region, and they should be a leader in quality care and maintaining an excellent nursing staff. If Albany Med hired and retained more nurses, our patient outcomes would be better, and nurses would be more satisfied with our work and stay and build our careers here. That’s what so many of us want to do. We need a fair contract to do it.”

Jennifer Kiele, RN, said, “As a NICU nurse, it makes me angry that Albany Med doesn’t seem to care enough about our smallest, most vulnerable patient population to make sure our NICU is safely staffed.  We’re asking community and elected leaders to join us in putting pressure on Albany Med to listen to frontline nurses, to fix the staffing crisis, and to take better care of our community.”

Reverend Peter Cook, Executive Director of the NYS Council of Churches, said, “Safe nurse staffing levels is an issue of healthcare justice. All capital region patients, regardless of income or ethnicity, deserve safe quality care. That’s only possible with enough qualified nurses at the bedside.”

Alycia Bacon, Citizen Action board member, said, “When there aren’t enough nurses at the bedside, patients can’t access the safe quality care they need and health inequities worsen. That’s why we are joining frontline nurses to fight for safe staffing at Albany Medical Center.”

Today’s speak-out and community forum is the latest in an ongoing campaign of NYSNA nurses at Albany Medical Center to solve the staffing crisis that is putting patient care at risk.  

On July 10, NYSNA nurses at Albany Medical Center marched to Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) Kevin Zeng’s office to deliver a petition calling on the hospital to settle a fair union contract with safe staffing and a real plan to recruit and retain nurses for safe patient care. Zeng refused to accept the petition and called security instead of talking to the delegation of nurses.

Just a day later, NYSNA released new data about Albany Med’s high nurse turnover that NYSNA nurses received directly from the hospital in union negotiations. Approximately 50 percent of Albany Med nurses have less than 5 years of bedside experience at Albany Med. There are currently nearly 600 vacant nursing positions. Albany Med’s nurse vacancy rate is nearly 25%, while a study found that the average national vacancy rate is 10%.    

Albany Med’s retention rate is poor, with nurses getting burned out and leaving at alarming rates. For the last two years, more nurses have left the hospital than have been hired. In 2023, Albany Med hired 277 RNs, but 315 left. As of July 2024, the hospital hired 98 RNs, but there have been 156 departures – more than in the same time frame last year. The hospital is on track to hire 100 new grads, which will help fill vacancies, but will not add experienced nurses or address retention problems.  (source: hospital-supplied data)

Albany Med also has the highest ER visit times in New York state and nurses say that’s largely because hospital management isn’t doing what it takes to hire and retain enough qualified nurses at the bedside.  

In June, NYSNA nurses held a speak-out across the street from the hospital. Nurses were joined by allies and elected leaders, including Assembly Member Phil Steck, Assembly Member Pat Fahy, Albany County Legislator Dustin Reidy, Albany City Council Member Gabriel Romero, Albany City Council Member Council Member Owusu Amani, the Capital District Area Labor Federation, Albany County Central Federation of Labor, the NYS Labor-Religion Coalition, Citizen Action, and New York State Council of Churches.  

The speak-out came on the heels of the DOH launching an investigation into nurse staffing levels at Albany Medical Center after receiving dozens of complaints from nurses tasked with more patients than they could safely care for. Nurses say management at Albany Medical Center has failed to follow the state’s staffing laws and failed to listen to frontline caregivers who have been telling them that staffing levels at the hospital are unsafe and lead to nurse burnout and high turnover.  

NYSNA nurses are bargaining for a fair contract before their current contract expires on July 31 and have made safe staffing a top priority. They are asking hospital administrators to follow the staffing law and invest in improving care by recruiting and retaining more nurses for safe, quality care. 

The New York State Nurses Association represents more than 42,000 members in New York State. We are New York’s largest union and professional association for registered nurses. NYSNA is an affiliate of National Nurses United, AFL-CIO, the country's largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses, with more than 225,000 members nationwide.