Albany Med Files Meritless Lawsuit in Latest Attempt to Silence Nurses Speaking Out About the Staffing Crisis

For immediate release: Friday, November 22, 2024

Contact: Andrea Penman-Lomeli | press@nysna.org | 347-559-3169  
Eliza Bates | press@nysna.org | 646-285-8491 

ALBANY MED FILES MERITLESS LAWSUIT IN LATEST ATTEMPT TO SILENCE NURSES SPEAKING OUT ABOUT THE STAFFING CRISIS

Albany Med management is attempting to shut down AlbanyMedQualityCare.org, a website created by NYSNA nurses to inform the public about the crisis of understaffing at the hospital.

After months of silencing and retaliating against frontline nurses, Albany Med continues its brazen disregard for patient safety, using resources on legal maneuvers instead of investing in safe staffing.

Albany, N.Y. - In the hospital’s latest attempts to avoid accountability and silence nurses who have been sounding the alarm on unsafe staffing at the hospital, Albany Medical Center filed a baseless lawsuit against the New York State Nurses Association on Tuesday, Nov. 19. The hospital claims that nurses’ attempts to educate the public by creating the website AlbanyMedQualityCare.org constituted trademark infringement.  

NYSNA nurses at Albany Med refuse to be silenced and the union’s legal team will vigorously defend this meritless lawsuit.

Earlier this year, Albany Med nurses launched an ad campaign and created a website to inform the public about the crisis of understaffing in the hospital. The campaign website www.AlbanyMedQualityCare.org shares information the hospital would rather keep from public view. For example, it cites the $83 million Albany Med invested in hedge funds, real estate, and other investments while shortchanging nurses and patients with unsafe staffing levels, and details how Albany Med colluded with nearby hospitals to keep nurse wages low. The website also highlights the 480+ violations of New York’s safe staffing law that were substantiated by the Department of Health. Community members submitted hundreds of petition signatures and patient stories, demanding the hospital improve conditions. Instead of remedying the staffing crisis by settling a fair contract with nurses that will help hire and retain enough nurses to provide safe, quality care, enforce safe staffing, and give nurses a strong voice in patient care, Albany Med is choosing to spend likely thousands of dollars on legal fees to continue to hide the truth from the public.

The hospital claims that NYNSA nurses’ campaign constitutes “trademark infringement” which has caused and “will continue to cause serious and irreparable injury” to the hospital. The hospitals explains that it “has spent, and continues to spend, large sums of money in the advertisement, and sale of its good and services under the Albany Medical Center Word Mark and Albany Med Word Mark.” They cite the over $1 million spent to redesign their website and the additional $1 million on average they spend yearly on advertising, showing that again the hospital prioritizes its profits over patient care and safe staffing.  

NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, BSN, RN, CCRN, said, “The fact that the biggest hospital system in upstate New York is throwing away precious resources on a baseless lawsuit to silence frontline nurses instead of investing in safe staffing should alarm our elected leaders and the public. We’re calling on Albany Med to stop wasting money battling caregivers, and to work with us to ensure that every hospital in our state has enough nurses at the bedside to provide the care that all New Yorkers deserve. Our union of more than 42,000 registered nurses stands behind our colleagues at Albany Med who are fighting for a fair contract that puts safe patient care first.”  

Over the past few weeks, the hospital has escalated its attacks on vocal patient advocates by retaliating against a NICU nurse, Jennifer Kiehle, RN, after she expressed concerns that staffing schedules may not ensure enough nurses at the bedside to safely care for the fragile infants in the hospital’s NICU.  

Jennifer Kiehle, RN, said, “We went into this profession to care for our community, and it breaks my heart when my patients are scared to touch their babies in the NICU and we aren’t able to support them because we are so short staffed. We have newly hired nurses so overwhelmed by their incredibly acute assignments they cry every day. And understaffing isn’t just at crisis level on my shift and in my unit — it’s hospital-wide. We’ve tried working directly with management time and again. And time and again they’ve silenced us and retaliated against us for speaking out for our patients. That’s why we went to the public with our ad campaign and website. But still Albany Med is refusing to work with us to solve the staffing crisis. And now they’re suing our union when they could be sitting down with us to come up with a plan to solve this crisis. Nurses have and always will put patients first. But we want Albany Med to put patients first, too.”

In another move to avoid accountability, on Nov. 12, hospital management began an unlawful, sham election to remove vocal patient advocates from the clinical staffing committee. The sham election ends today. If the hospital is successful, nurses who are well-versed in the state’s safe staffing law and the hospital’s own staffing levels could be replaced in this boss-run election. Albany Med’s election violates New York State’s safe staffing law and NYSNA has filed complaints with the Department of Health and with the National Labor Relations Board.  

NYSNA has also filed at least 7 separate unfair labor practice (ULP) charges with the National Labor Relations Board to address, among other things, management’s refusal to provide the Union with critical staffing information, retaliation against nurses who have spoken out about patient care issues and for management’s refusal to allow appropriate union representation in the disciplinary proceedings that followed.  

Albany Med CEO Dennis McKenna has not only hidden a New York State Department of Health deficiency report outlining the crisis of understaffing from nurses and from the community, he also misled the public, falsely claiming that the frontline nurses on the staffing committee had full access to the report which they have still not seen, and called the process collaborative. He admitted to a shocking and unprecedented 480 staffing violations in the report, which would be the largest publicly known number of violations ever found by the DOH since the safe staffing law went into effect. Nurses filed complaints showing that the hospital continued to unsafely staff the hospital despite the investigation.

Nurses at Albany Medical Center have been in negotiations since April and have seen little movement from management on key issues. NYSNA nurses are urging Albany Med administrators to settle a fair union 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.   

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.