Rachel Matteson is used to being short on supplies.
As a nurse in Garfield Medical Center’s intensive care unit, she sometimes has to improvise on the fly. That happened recently as she was preparing a patient for a procedure.
“I had a critical patient who needed multiple blood transfusions, but it required a special kind of tubing that we didn’t have on hand,” the 36-year-old North Hollywood resident said. “So I had to invent something. I tried a number of different solutions, and that took about half an hour.”
Her fix worked and the patient pulled through. But it left her sweating.
That kind of scenario, coupled with complaints of chronic understaffing and inadequate security, prompted the the Monterey Park hospital’s 350 nurses to launch a 10-day strike Friday, Aug. 18.
The nurses, represented by SEIU Local 121RN, say they’ve repeatedly raised their concerns throughout contract negotiations, which began in January. The medical center is owned by AHMC Healthcare, Inc., which owns nine California healthcare facilities, including five in the Los Angeles area.
Nurses have also complained of being shifted to other areas of the hospital where they may not have the familiarity and training needed to provide adequate patient care.
In a statement issued Friday, Garfield management said it has hired qualified replacement nurses to pick up the slack during the walkout.
“We have been bargaining with the union since January and have reached agreement on most of the outstanding contract issues,” the hospital said. “Contrary to what the union is alleging, no nurse at our hospital is ever assigned to care for a patient whom they are not qualified to treat.”
Nurses are also calling for increased security at Garfield, and no one wants that more than Christina Smith. In May, she recalled an incident in which she was assaulted.
“I was hit in the face with a patient’s cell phone,” said Smith, who has been a registered nurse at the facility…
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