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.
Workers picketed the facility last month over the same issue.
Additional Southern California rallies to be held this week:
- Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center – 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 12
- Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center – 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, April 13
- Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank – 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, April 13
Employees will also rally at medical facilities in Modesto, Walnut Creek, Antioch, Roseville and San Jose.
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….
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