Ellis Medicine Nurses Turn Up the Heat with Community Leafleting

Schenectady, N.Y.– NYSNA nurses from Ellis Medicine are turning up the heat in their campaign for a fair union contract that protects patient care. From Wednesday, March 20 to Thursday, March 21, Ellis nurses will be out in the community handing out leaflets naming and shaming Ellis Medicine CEO Paul Milton and St. Peter’s Health Partners CEO Steven Hanks for cuts to healthcare services and proposed cuts to safe staffing that Ellis has made since entering into a merger agreement with St. Peter’s.

Nurses are asking community members to email the Ellis and St. Peter’s CEOs to demand that they prioritize patient care, stop service cuts, and settle a fair contract so nurses can provide the best care for their patients and the community. The email template can be found at bit.ly/ellis-medicine-letter.

Ellis Medicine nurse and NYSNA Central Regional Director Catherine Dawson, RN, CNOR, MSN, said, “I’ve been a nurse for over 30 years, and I worry that the cuts Ellis has made will harm quality healthcare in our community. When there aren’t enough nurses at the bedside to provide the care that our patients need and deserve, nurses get frustrated and burnt out and leave. We need to feel respected for the work we do, and we’re calling on Ellis to come to the table and settle a fair contract that helps recruit and retain experienced nurses to care for our community.”

Ellis Medicine has failed to invest in safe staffing levels that protect quality care for patients. At the bargaining table, Ellis management is asking to make safe staffing ratios less safe, adding to overworked nurses’ already high patient load.

Meanwhile, according to 990 financial filings, Ellis Medicine CEO Paul Milton’s total compensation leaped from $679,072 to $765,742 in 2020 – the worst year of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s a 12.7 percent increase. In 2021, he made a whopping $794,474 in total compensation. Three other Ellis Medicine execs made approximately half a million dollars that year.

Ellis Medicine nurses are concerned that the cuts made since the merger agreement with St. Peter’s will exacerbate the chronic understaffing that is already pervasive at the hospital. NYSNA researchers analyzed staffing data across six units of the hospital from February to November 2023. They found that overall, day and night shifts on these units were understaffed over 90 percent of the time.

Since the merger agreement, Ellis has also reduced essential healthcare services like overnight emergency services in Clifton Park and inpatient adolescent mental health care at Ellis Hospital. Nurses are concerned by St. Peter’s track record on healthcare service closures. Right now, St. Peter’s is trying to permanently close the Burdett Birthing Center of Samaritan Hospital in Troy.