Albany Med Plans Sham Election To Silence Nurses Speaking Out About Staffing Crisis

For immediate release: Tuesday, October 29, 2024

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

ALBANY MED PLANS SHAM ELECTION TO SILENCE NURSES SPEAKING OUT ABOUT STAFFING CRISIS

After refusing to share Department of Health deficiency report with frontline nurses on hospital staffing committee, Albany Med now seeks to replace staffing committee members through boss-run election

Albany Med continues to violate New York’s staffing law with attempt to hand-pick frontline staffing committee members

Albany, N.Y. - Albany Med nurses are wondering how far management is willing to go to hide the staffing crisis and silence frontline caregivers who are speaking out about patient care issues. After refusing to share the New York State Department of Health (DOH) report with the frontline nurses on the hospital’s staffing committee and refusing to collaborate on remedies to the staffing crisis, Albany Med is now seeking to replace nurses on the staffing committee through a boss-run election. Albany Med wants to replace the same fierce patient care advocates on the staffing committee who initially reached out to the DOH, spurring the agency’s investigation into the crisis of understaffing at the hospital.

Jessica DeStefano, RN, NYSNA member and Albany Med Clinical Staffing Committee member, said: “My patients mean the world to me and they deserve the very best care. Nurses shouldn’t have to fight against our own hospital to make sure that our patients get quality healthcare. But time and again, Albany Med management has chosen to fight against frontline nurses instead of working with us.”  

On Friday, Albany Med sent an email to staff announcing that hospital management plans to run an election to replace the current clinical staffing committee members with an election that will take place between November 4 to November 15. The election process, from what little management has shared, will be unilaterally controlled by the boss with zero transparency. Further, this sham election violates New York State’s safe staffing law because the law stipulates that frontline members of the staffing committee must be selected by their peers and according to their respective collective bargaining agreements. Yet Albany Med is planning an election run solely by management.  

Tonia Bazel, RN, NYSNA member and Albany Med Clinical Staffing Committee member, said: “I joined the clinical staffing committee to collaborate with management and make sure we have enough staff to take good care of our patients. But I soon realized that management had zero interest in complying with the safe staffing law. Instead of collaborating with nurses, CEO Dennis McKenna has operated on secrets and lies. Now management is trying to replace us with people who will rubber stamp whatever hospital administrators—who got us into this staffing crisis — want.”

On Oct. 29, NYSNA filed a complaint to the DOH over Albany Med administration’s attempt to control the selection of the frontline portion of the staffing committee. Jaimie Alexanian, RN, NYSNA member and Albany Med Clinical Staffing Committee member, said: “As frontline nurses we believe in transparency. This sham election is the opposite of transparency. I feel like we’re being silenced, lied to, tricked and dismissed, and we still haven’t seen the Department of Health report.”

Earlier this month, at the exact same time that nurses were in a staffing committee meeting, CEO Dennis McKenna held a press conference where he falsely 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.  

480 staffing violations would be the largest publicly known number of violations ever found by a DOH 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 DOH 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.

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.  

Pam Hollon, who is a member of the hospital’s staffing committee, explained how safe staffing violations put patients and nurses at risk in a recent op-ed. 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.