Healthcare workers at Prime Centinela Hospital Medical Center held a noon protest Tuesday, Aug. 8, claiming short-staffing has left them overworked and undermined patient care.
The Inglewood hospital’s 531 nurses, radiology technicians, respiratory therapists, lab technicians and others are represented by SEIU-UHW. Their contract expired June 12.
After years of chronic understaffing and battling the COVID-19 pandemic, employees are calling on management to provide safe staffing levels and additional support to retain and attract more caregivers to the hospital.
Long waits
Michelle Parker, a financial counselor in the ER department, said staffing is dangerously low.
“Normally, we’d have four to five people in our admitting department to check patients in,” she said. “But now it’s down to just one person, so someone could be waiting at the window for a half hour just to get checked in.”
And then they still have to wait for a nurse to call them back to an exam room.
“I makes for long patient wait times,” Parker said.
In a statement issued Tuesday, Centinela Hospital said it has, and will continue to bargain in good faith with union leadership to reach an agreement that’s in the best interests of the hospital, employees and patients.
“Our goal is to move forward together as a united team, continuing to ensure Centinela Hospital Medical Center remains an award-winning hospital, most recently recognized as one of our nation’s ‘best hospitals’ according to U.S. News & World Report.”
Centinela said it offers a variety of programs to support workers, including continuing education, tuition reimbursement, career development and an employee assistance program to promote health and wellness.
Earlier this year, investigators from the California Department of Public Health cited Centinela Hospital for several violations that could threaten patient care, including “a nurse having to juggle four patients along with duties as a charge…
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