Healthcare workers holding rallies statewide to protest low staffing

Dec 07, 2023

Healthcare workers at CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center plan to stage a rally Tuesday, April 11 to protest short staffing and the impact it has on patients and employees.

The 11 a.m.-to-1 p.m. event is part of a series of statewide gatherings to be held this week highlighting the dangers of not having enough workers on hand to provide adequate medical care and prevent employee burnout.

The Hollywood Presbyterian employees — including 747 licensed vocational nurses, medical assistants, respiratory therapists, emergency room workers, lab assistants and housekeepers — are represented by SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.

Their labor contract expired Dec. 31 and the workers picketed the facility last month over short staffing.

Additional Southern California rallies to be held this week:

Employees will also rally at medical facilities in Modesto, Walnut Creek, Antioch, Roseville and San Jose.

Kaiser stressed that this week's rallies on its campuses are not a strike or picket and won't impact patient care.

"Later this month, we will begin contract bargaining with SEIU-UHW and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions," the healthcare giant said. "We look forward to bargaining in good faith with our labor partners and discussing staffing ideas and solutions as well as other important topics with the union at the bargaining table."

Datosha Williams, a service representative with Kaiser, said employees are "stretched thin and burnt out."

"Healthcare workers are leaving the field, and those of us who have stayed are doing the work of two or three people," Williams said in a statement. "We can't give our patients the care they deserve without enough staff."

Caregivers say short-staffed hospitals often result in long patient wait times, mistaken diagnoses and neglect.

"When you don't have proper staffing, we feel like we end up cutting corners on patient care," said Gaby Hernandez, a lab assistant at Hollywood Presbyterian. "We are so understaffed and overworked."

Patients who need blood drawn before receiving chemotherapy treatments often have to wait 45 minutes to an hour, she said.

"These people are anxious enough at it is," Hernandez said. "That just builds up their anxiety even more."

In a statement issued Wednesday, April 12, Kaiser said healthcare providers across the nation are facing staffing shortages and employee burnout.

"Beyond the aggressive work we are doing to hire and fill our open positions, we look forward to working collaboratively with our union partners at our upcoming bargaining table to explore new and innovative ways to address these challenges," the company said.

In a statement issued last month, Hollywood Presbyterian said its priority is "to provide our patients safe, high-quality care and value the voice and well-being of our caregivers."

"We look forward to future discussions and fair negotiations with the union, as we value the dedication and hard work of all CHA HPMC employees, including SEIU-UHW members," management said.

Short staffing has become a universal concern among Southern California healthcare workers.

SEIU-UHW-represented workers at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks picketed that facility in February, also claiming they’re chronically short-staffed and unable to adequately meet patient needs.

Management said its hospital staffing is "safe, appropriate and in line with other community hospitals."

Registered nurses at six Southern California hospitals also picketed their facilities in January as part of a nationwide call for increased staffing amid a winter surge of RSV, influenza and COVID-19 patients.

Those workers — represented by the California Nurses Association, an affiliate of National Nurses United — held protests at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, Emanate Health Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina, Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance and Community Hospital of San Bernardino, among others.

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