Stanford and Packard Hospitals Serve Patients During Nurses' Strike.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

STANFORD, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--June 7, 2000

Hospital officials at Stanford Hospital and Clinics (SHC) and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (LPCH) expressed their disappointment today that an agreement with the Committee for the Recognition of Nursing Achievement (CRONA), the union representing the medical center's 1,700 registered staff nurses, had not been reached prior to the deadline set by the nurses to strike.

Malinda Mitchell, CEO of SHC, and Christopher Dawes, CEO of LPCH, stated that their respective hospitals implemented contingency plans on Wednesday to ensure that patients continue to receive quality comprehensive medical services.

CRONA announced late Tuesday that they suspended talks and would begin a walkout at 7 A.M. Wednesday, said Felix Barthelemy, vice-president for human resources at Stanford and Packard.

"Our first priority is to provide safe, comprehensive patient care to our community," said Barthelemy. He said there were no immediate plans to cancel procedures, although patients who are scheduled for elective, non-urgent surgical procedures in coming days should check with their medical providers about any last minute schedule changes.

Patients or family members who have questions about scheduling of procedures, appointments or other hospital services should contact their physicians, call the hospitals' information lines at 800/498-4847 (LPCH) or 650/723-7167 (SHC) or access the website at http://medcenter.stanford.edu/nurseupdate.

"When faced with the option of curtailing operations or sending patients to neighboring or even distant hospitals, the hospitals decided that it was in the best interest of our patients and their families to bring in additional nurses to help during this work stoppage rather than to transfer our patients," Barthelmy said.

CRONA had issued an 11-day notice of intent to strike on May 25, while talks moderated by a federal mediator continued over a proposed three-year work contract.

Barthelemy said discussions between the hospitals and CRONA have been ongoing for more than two months. He said the walkout occurred after the nurses rejected an offer that would have brought top pay -- not including benefits and overtime -- to $81,000, effective April of this year and $84,200, effective April, 2001. That rate would make the nurses among the highest paid of 11 Bay Area hospitals, where comparison data is available, he said. "I feel that our last proposal effectively responded to the concerns expressed by CRONA. We have agreed to procedures that would minimize mandatory overtime as requested by CRONA and are committed to including nurses in the process for modifying staff nurse criteria."

Mitchell and Dawes continue to be hopeful that the strike can be resolved quickly. Stanford and Packard value their nurses and would like to see them return to work.