Albany Med CEO Dennis McKenna Misled Press While Continuing to Hide the Truth and Put Patient Care at Risk
For immediate release: Monday, October 7, 2024
Contact:
Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169
Eliza Bates | press@nysna.org| 646-285-8491
ALBANY MED CEO DENNIS MCKENNA MISLED PRESS WHILE CONTINUING TO HIDE THE TRUTH AND PUT PATIENT CARE AT RISK
Today is the deadline for Albany Medical Center to submit a plan to the Department of Health about how they will fix the safe staffing violations that could be putting patient care at risk, but hospital management is still refusing to show nurses the DOH staffing deficiency report
Last week, CEO McKenna held a press conference where he told reporters that the staffing committee was given access to the Department of Health report – they have not seen it yet
McKenna also spouted misleading numbers trying to minimize the shocking and unprecedented 480 staffing violations found by the Department of Health
Albany, N.Y. - Today is the deadline for Albany Medical Center to submit a corrective plan in response to a Department of Health report that found the hospital repeatedly violated New York State’s safe staffing laws. But nurses and other frontline caregivers on the hospital’s staffing committee have still not seen the full report despite Albany Medical Center CEO Dennis McKenna claiming otherwise.
On Thursday, at the exact same time that nurses were in a staffing committee meeting, CEO Dennis McKenna held a press conference where he told the press that the staffing committee was given access to the full Department of Health report. McKenna also shared misleading numbers trying to minimize the shocking and unprecedented 480 staffing violations he admitted that the report contained.
Albany Medical Center only reluctantly agreed to meet with the staffing committee — as they are required to by law — after NYSNA nurses took legal action demanding access to the Department of Health report. But, as of today, nurses have still not been given access to the full report. Instead, Albany Medical Center management gave nurses a limited list of types of violations contained in the report, mostly focused on the process of running the staffing committee. Hospital management refused to discuss the shocking number of violations that McKenna admitted to in his Friday press conference.
Albany Medical Center nurse and staffing committee member Jaimie Alaxanian, RN, said: “We asked repeatedly to see the full Department of Health report but management refused. 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. Today, the hospital is submitting a corrective plan that we were supposed to collaborate on but how can we collaborate when we haven’t seen the full report? 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.”
480 staffing violations would be the largest publicly known number of violations ever found by a Department of Health investigation since the safe staffing law went into effect. Though CEO McKenna claimed that the shocking 480 staffing violations were only a tiny percentage of all shifts, those statistics are likely misleading considering that the Department of Health rarely reviews every shift in every hospital department over any long period of time. Rather, the Department of Health generally focuses on reviewing shifts and departments that have generated large numbers of complaints. Without access to the full report, it is impossible to confirm McKenna’s claims.
Pam Hollon, member of the staffing committee, said: “After a 30-minute staffing committee meeting today, frontline nurses made it clear that we reject the corrective action plan the Albany Med administration plans to send to the Department of Health. We have not seen the full report with details of the staffing violations, and management is proposing a non-solution — to keep doing what they have already been doing without any real plan to recruit and retain nurses. We know these efforts are not nearly enough to solve the staffing crisis."
Albany Medical Center nurse and staffing committee member Tonia Bazel, RN, said: “I’ve been a patient at our hospital. My own sister passed away at this hospital. Nurses are part of this community, and we want patient care to come first, but Albany Medical Center is keeping secrets and playing games with patient lives. We’re calling on Albany Medical Center to be transparent and to work side-by-side with frontline nurses to solve the staffing crisis. We need to see the Department of Health report now.”
In a recent opinion editorial, Pam Hollon, who is a member of the hospital’s staffing committee, explained how safe staffing violations put patients and nurses at risk. Nurses filed complaints that show the unsafe staffing levels at the hospital and continued even after the hospital was investigated.
Albany Med was recently found to have some of the longest ER visits in the country. Understaffing is exacerbating the long wait times in the emergency department. Nurses have recently witnessed patients waiting in hallways and in the ambulance bay for care. The crisis at Albany Med affects communities well beyond the Capital Region. As the only Level 1 Trauma Center in the region, the hospital receives patients from across upstate New York and into Vermont and Massachusetts. Very sick patients travel far distances and arrive at an emergency room that nurses and EMTs say often does not have sufficient beds or staff to care for them.
NYSNA nurses are urging Albany Med administrators to settle a fair contract with a comprehensive plan to recruit, retain, and respect nurses in order to solve the nurse staffing crisis at the hospital and ensure quality care for the community. NYSNA nurses want enforceable safe staffing ratios, fair pay, good benefits, and a strong union voice on the job.
Albany Med has continually tried to undermine union nurses’ voice by retaliating against nurses who speak out about these issues. They have made union membership a sticking point in negotiations. While Albany Med continues to hide the truth, union nurses have been bringing attention to the crisis and exposing the hospital’s disregard for the law and the Department of Health.
Nurses at Albany Medical Center have been in negotiations since April and have seen little movement from management on these key issues. Over the last year, NYSNA nurses at Albany Medical Center have held an informational picket and hosted community forums, delivered petitions to hospital leadership, and held speak-outs for safe staffing. Nurses recently launched an ad campaign across the capital region to draw attention to the staffing crisis at Albany Med. Visit albanymedqualitycare.org to find out more.
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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. For more information, visit nysna.org.