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|  |  Landmark Pact for 4,700 CHW Hospital RNsPress Release July 13, 2005 San Francisco -- Huge Gains for Registered Nurses and Patients , The California Nurses Association has reached a landmark contract agreement with Catholic Healthcare West, the largest Catholic health syste m in the Western United States, which provides major improvements in patient care protections and dramatic gains for registered nurses, CNA announced today. CNA Executive Director Rose Ann DeMoro called it "the most comprehensive agreement in the country for the retention and recruitment of registered nurses." A tentative settlement was signed this morning after all night talks on a pact that immediately affects 4,700 RNs in 12 major hospitals in Northern and Central California and ultimately will cover about 8,500 RNs in 24 hospitals in a statewide master pact. In a most notable provision, CHW affirmed its commitment to safe staffing and to California's staffing law and placed the state's numeric RN-to-patient ratios in the contract for every CHW California hospital. In addition, the contract offers major gains in retiree health, pension, and benefit protections for RNs, innovative language to assure safe introduction of new technology, lift policies to prevent RN back injuries, and pay increases of 26% to 28% over the four years of the agreement. The tentative pact must be ratified by RNs who will vote on the contract over the next three days. "The nurses believe their voice was heard with an agreement that should dramatically assist with retention of experienced RNs and recruit new nurses," said DeMoro. "CHW has demonstrated leadership for their patients and their nurses at a time when some systems, especially the University of California and Sutter Health have opposed efforts to ensure safer patient care in their hospitals." By placing the ratios, including the hotly contested minimum of no more than five patients for one RN in general medical units, in the contract, the RNs will have a greater ability to ensure compliance with the state law, and the agreement provides for arbitration on any disputes involving ratios by a panel chaired by a neutral third person. Weary nurse negotiators emphasized what Elizabeth Pataki, RN, from Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, hailed as the "historic significance of guaranteeing for the first time inclusion of nurse-to-patient ratios in our contract." "Ratios allow us to spent more time at the bedside addressing the needs of the patients, which improves patient outcomes," said Kathy Dennis, RN, of Mercy General. On pensions, the pact establishes a new oversight committee of RNs selected by the nurses and management to evaluate the status of the plan to protect the nurses against the crisis faced by employees across the nation from Enron to United Airlines. Any changes in benefits must be negotiated, which also applies to health, vision, and dental benefits -- a key provision that is a major contrast with the UC hospitals and a center of that dispute. "Like most people, nurses have concerns about the future and health of their pension," said Barbara Williams, RN at Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz. She noted that the committee will enable RNs to "monitor every aspect of this benefit and have direct input and oversight." Similarly, the agreement provides a major improvement in retiree health benefits which will now be available with the hospital funding benefits of $1,000 per year of service to all CHW RNs, from age 62 on, up to a lifetime maximum of $25,000. "Retiree health was a major goal of our negotiations," said Allen Fitzpatrick, RN, St. Mary's Medical Center in San Francisco. "Now nurses who have spent their careers caring for patients will be able to retire knowing they will have health care for themselves." CHW, like most hospitals, is spending tens of millions of dollars on new technology programs. Nurses across the U.S. have increasingly found the technology being used to supplant the clinical judgment of RNs with routinized systems at the expense of patient safety. The precedent-setting CHW language requires that deployment of technology will not limit the RNs in the performance in exercise of their clinical judgment, including the ability to act as patient advocates, and assures that the technology will be used "to enhance, not degrade nursing skills." For the first time, CHW agreed to assure safer lift policies. RNs suffer more debilitating back injuries, primarily from lifting patients, than any other profession. "This will prevent back injuries and provide for safer patient handling," said Susan King, RN, of Methodist Hospital of Sacramento. "Our new lift team will continually teach our staff to use the multiple and unique equipment correctly and safely. I personally feel overjoyed that my patients can be moved without fear of their safety and the safety of my fellow nurses. Thank you CNA for getting this very important achievement." Most of the RNs will earn an additional 26% over four years. For Sacramento area RNs who have been below others in their region, the increases will be 28%, and for the first time, RNs at Woodland Healthcare will achieve parity with their counterparts at the four Mercy hospitals in Sacramento. "Woodland RNs made great improvements in patient care provisions, retirement, and wages and benefits," said Woodland RN Eric Peterson. "Woodland RNs will now have wage scales based on total RN experience and parity. Most important of all is the incorporation of the California safe staffing ratios in our contract to ensure quality patient care and patient safety." Other hospitals covered by the pact include Saint Francis Memorial, San Francisco; Sequoia Hospital, Redwood City; St. Joseph's Medical Center, Stockton; Mercy Hospital of Folsom; Mercy San Juan Medical Center, Carmichael; Mercy Medical Center, Merced; and Mercy Medical Center, Mt. Shasta.
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