Hundreds sign letter demanding better working conditions at University of Iowa Hospitals

IOWA CITY — At 10 a.m. Thursday, Ann Byrne was tired. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics staff nurse had been up since 4 p.m. the previous day and had worked a night shift in the medical Intensive Care Unit.

But instead of heading home for sleep, Byrne joined several of her peers around a table in the hospital's main cafeteria. They had about 400 letters — identical except for the signatures of UI health care professionals or community members — demanding better working conditions.

'We believe that our working conditions are our patients' care conditions,' according to letters the group delivered Thursday morning to the office of UIHC Chief Executive Officer Ken Kates. 'When we face turnover, stress and understaffing, our patients suffer as much as we do.'

A representative of Kates' office accepted the letters from the Service Employees International Union Local 199, which represents hospital workers such as nurses and lab assistants. The union is negotiating with the Board of Regents for a new two-year contract that would start July 1.

'We love what we do here, and we want to continue what we do here,' union member and emergency room nurse Lynette Halstead said as she handed over the documents. But union members stressed the growing challenge of maintaining that high level of care in the 732-bed hospital that annually admits more than 33,000 patients. In 2015, the hospital received more than 57,000 emergency room visits and accommodated more than 935,000 clinic visits to the main campus and community and outreach sites.

Of the about 3,000 professional and scientific UIHC employees represented by the union, 68 percent have reported understaffing in their units either 'every day' or 'frequently,' the letter states. From 2014 to 2016, according to the letter, an internal survey found an average of 12 clinical units, 43 percent of total units, failed to reach their staff-to-patient ratio targets each year.

'In the last year, UIHC reported to the regents that it had not achieved its own goals in terms of patient satisfaction, infection rates, readmission rates and length of stay for patients,' the letter states. 'We know we can do better, but only with the proper staffing and support.'

In a statement provided to The Gazette, UIHC spokesman Tom Moore said UI Health Care's commitment to patient safety and to providing competitive pay and benefits is 'unsurpassed.'

'We continue to work closely with all concerned parties to address the nationwide nursing shortage that is impacting hospitals across the country,' he said.

Although contract negotiations are kept private, the union's first proposal asked for an across-the-board 6 percent pay raise for the 2018 and 2019 budget years. The union proposal also included pay incentives for seniority and productivity aimed at improving retention and staffing.

The union wants a review-and-evaluation process that would consider staffing levels and use data to drive change and recommendations.

The Board of Regents' initial contract proposal offered a 0.5 percent bump to all minimum salaries and a 1 percent raise for all returning employees in 2018 and 2019. That proposal did not suggest changes to address staffing.

Andrea Binger, a 29-year-old medical lab scientist in the Department of Pathology who walked with her colleagues to deliver the letters Thursday, said she has seen poor staffing levels slow lab turnaround times.

'And, personally, I'm more stressed out,' she said. 'I mean, there's safety issues.'

Pauline Taylor, an Iowa City council member who spent 40 years as a UIHC staff nurse before retiring in 2011, said staff-to-patient ratios haveworsened since she left, and turnover has risen.

'They're going elsewhere for various reasons,' she said. 'The burnout and stress — you can only take so much.'